Back in Step 1, you formulated your research question and may have used a search framework to help you do this. The framework (and the question itself) will direct you to the main two or three concepts you need to search. For each concept you will need to consider all the different terms that could be used to describe it. Your knowledge of the topic along with any preliminary searching you have done will help you identify the specific search terms to use.
Think of as many terms and synonyms for each concept as you can, including:
- both scientific and common terminology
- alternative spellings (such as British and American spellings, and possibly common misspellings)
- outdated and culturally-specific terms
- abbreviations or acronyms
- plurals
- database-specific controlled vocabulary or thesauri (eg. SciTech and Science databases in Proquest)
For example, using the scenario we described earlier, “What is the extent, range, and nature of the published peer-reviewed literature on the implementation and outcomes of source water protection programs involving Indigenous populations in Canada and the United States."
Framework element |
Concept |
Possible search terms |
C (Context) |
Indigenous communities in Canada and the United States |
Indigenous OR Native American OR First Nations OR Inuit
Canada OR United States of America OR North America
|
I (Intervention) |
Implementaton of source water protection programs |
source water protection OR watershed planning |
M (Mechanism) |
no Indigenous inclusion |
|
O (Outcome) |
degree of inclusion of indigenous people on implementation |
inclusion OR engagement |
Once you've come up with as many specific terms as you can find, each concept will be linked with the AND operator in the final search strategy.
Usually you would not include every framework element in your search strategy. Here we have left out the Comparison element as there is no clear comparative intervention. Often the Outcome is left out because it comes out of all the found studies in any case, and may restrict the scope of the search.