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UNIVERSITY LIBRARIES

POLI 497: The Discipline of Poltical Science

Keyword Strategies to Consider

Search Strategy: Examples:

Consider abbreviations, alternate spellings, and alternate terms.  Try variations of your search terms to see what works best.

If the term has been translated, are there spelling variations depending on the translation used?

ISIS or Islamic State (are there other names sometimes used?)

EU or European Union (Try searching individual member countries, too.  Or to broaden your search a little, try Europe instead)

US or USA or United States, etc.

 

Truncation: use an * to stand in for word endings in order to broaden your search results searching for recruit* will return results with the words recruit, recruiting, recruitment, etc.

Broad vs. specific keywords -- try both

Communication tools (or just communication) would be a very broad keyword search.

Specific keywords related to communication tools might be: cell phones, smart phones, text messages, texting, computers, internet, social media, social networks, Twitter, Facebook, Skype, Snapchat, etc.