SOWK 5012 - Social Work Research Foundations

Search Strategies

Search Strategies and OMNI Video

Developing a good search strategy is important

Once you've decided which terms are the most useful for your search, combine them in a Boolean search.

Use keywords (or MESH terms) only, DO NOT search using a full sentence.

Video on using MESH terms in PubMed

Video on using CINAHL Subject Headings/MESH Terms

MESH Terms Guide

For example: "social work" AND (child* OR youth OR teenage*)

the brackets keep synonyms together
the * will look for alternate endings
AND/OR will modify a component to narrow or expand your results (the capitalization of AND/OR varies from database to database, it is better to get in the habit of capitalizing them)
if you had a multi-word phrase, putting quotes around it will search specifically for that phrase, in that sequence, side by side such as "Human Rights"

Controlled vocabulary

Some databases have a list of terms used to index articles in a consistent manner. These terms can be used to search for relevant material.

This list may be referred to as:

Thesaurus
Subject Headings
Taxonomy
Synonyms

Filters

Use database filters to narrow down and focus the results you find. For example:

Peer-Reviewed Articles
Category or Topic
Document Type
Date
Search within

STEP BY STEP GUIDE TO BREAKING YOUR SEARCH QUESTION INTO A SEARCH PHRASE

Step 1: Write your topic out in sentence or question form

How do Canadian social workers treat teenage drug abuse?

Step 2: Break your topic sentence up into main ideas or keywords - avoid using verbs. Use nouns instead.

Canada, social work, teenage, drug abuse

Step 3: Think of synonyms or alternate words to describe each concept

teenage - juvenile, youth

Tip: Use dictionaries, encyclopedias, or a thesaurus to find alternate words.

Tip: Discover new search terms : As you read through a list of search results, take note of any new terms that are relevant to your topic. Search using these new terms.

Step 4: Add "Boolean operators" (AND, OR) to make a complete search statement

Use AND to limit or narrow your search to results that mention all of your keywords.
Use OR to broaden your search to include synonyms.
CAPITALIZE your Boolean terms
Canada AND social work AND teenage AND drug abuse
(teenage OR youth OR juvenile) - Note: OR terms must be bracketed.

Step 5: Add wildcards to search for all possible word endings

A wildcard is usually represented by a *. This is also called truncation.

(teenage* OR youth OR juvenile*) AND Canad* AND "drug abuse"

Step 6: Consider Key Phrase searching

Some databases search each word separately. To ensure that your words are evaluated as a key phrase, enclose them in double quotation marks.

"drug abuse"

Step 7: Evaluate your results

If you are finding too many or too few results, try these tricks:

To broaden your search (find more):

Find synonym for each keyword.
Search for a broader concept ('dog' instead of 'poodle').
Use wildcards/truncation.

To narrow your search (find fewer):

Add another concept or idea to your search with AND
Use more specific words ('poodle' instead of 'dog').

Find Journal Articles

Start with the Omni search box to search across most of the library's databases. Use the main keywords from your research topic. As you retrieve results, use the filters on the left of the screen to narrow or broaden your search. Guide on finding articles in OMNI.

Specialized databases you should use:

The main databases for Social Work:

Special topics

Canadian content: CPI-Q and Canadian Business and Current Affairs Database
Children: Child Development & Adolescent Studies and Child Welfare Information Gateway
Criminal Justice: Criminal Justice Abstracts
Education: ERIC
Gender and women's studies: Gender Studies database and Studies on Women and Gender Abstracts
Health (including women's health): Cumulative Index of Nursing and Allied Health (CINAHL) and PubMed and Scopus
History: America History and Life (covers Canada and the US)
Human rights: HuriSearch
Indigenous peoples: Bibliography of Native North Americans or America History and Life
Mental Health: PsycINFO
Multidisciplinary databases: JSTOR and Google Scholar. More multidisciplary databases.
Post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD): PTSDpubs and PscyINFO
Political Economy: EconLit
Policy-related literature: PAIS Index and Business Source Complete
Poverty: Sociological Abstracts and World Agricultural Economics and Rural Sociology Abstracts
Social change, social welfare, social care and social services: Sociological Abstracts and Sociology Database

Tip: Most databases provide a way to restrict the results of a search to peer-reviewed or academic articles. This may be done differently from database to database.

Do not limit yourself to these databases. Check Databases by Subject page to see where there may be more databases that suit your research.

Dissertations and theses databases

Grey Literature

See the Grey Literature Pages

See the Think Tanks Page

Use OMNI to search for Grey Literature

Do your Boolean search
Choose resource type - choose only those resources types that are considered Grey Literature (see Grey Literature Pages above)

Grey Literature for Social Work

See "Special Topics" on the Social Work Subject Guide

Process of an Annotated Bibliography

First, locate and record citations to books, periodicals, and documents that may contain useful information and ideas on your topic. Briefly examine and review the actual items. Then choose those works that provide a variety of perspectives on your topic.

Cite the book, article, or document using the appropriate style. (APA)

Write a concise annotation that summarizes the central theme and scope of the book or article. Include one or more sentences that (a) evaluate the authority or background of the author, (b) comment on the intended audience, (c) compare or contrast this work with another you have cited, or (d) explain how this work illuminates your bibliography topic.

An annotation is a paragraph which may contain the following points:

information about the author (his/her qualifications or place of work)
the main argument and purpose of the work
method used within the work
types of material/data/evidence the author used to make points
the work's main recommendations or conclusions
your critique and/or assessment of the work (a summary of your analysis of the argument)
description of any biases and usefulness of the work for your essay

Summary Annotation Example:

Zinn, H. "A People's History of the United States". New York, NY: New Press, 1999.

In this book the history of the United States is seen from the viewpoint of people who were not necessarily beneficiaries of American democracy. The book concentrates on the experiences of slaves, American Indians, women, and other disenfranchised groups and how they were affected by the major events in American history. Zinn emphasizes in the introduction that his intent is not to demonize figures such as revolutionary leaders, but to portray them in a more realistic light, as people who, while contributing to the development of the United States, were influenced by the prejudices of their time.

Evaluative Annotation Example:

Maak, T. (2007). Responsible leadership, stakeholder engagement, and the emergence of social capital. Journal of Business Ethics, 74, 329-343. doi:10.1007/s10551-007-9510-5

This article focuses on the role of social capital in responsible leadership. It looks at both the social networks that a leader builds within an organisation, and the links that a leader creates with external stakeholders. Maak’s main aim with this article seems to be to persuade people of the importance of continued research into the abilities that a leader requires and how they can be acquired. The focus on the world of multinational business means that for readers outside this world many of the conclusions seem rather obvious (be part of the solution not part of the problem).In spite of this, the article provides useful background information on the topic of responsible leadership and definitions of social capital which are relevant to an analysis of a public servant.

Language

It is sometimes challenging to find the vocabulary in which to summarize and discuss a text. Here is a list of some verbs for referring to texts and ideas that you might find useful:

account for	clarify	describe	exemplify	indicate	question
analyze	compare	depict	exhibit	investigate	recognize
argue	conclude	determine	explain	judge	reflect
assess	criticize	distinguish	frame	justify	refer to
assert	defend	evaluate	identify	narrate	report
assume	define	emphasize	illustrate	persuade	rev iew
claim	demonstrate	examine	imply	propose	suggest

The evidence indicates that . . .The article assesses the effect of . . .

The author identifies three reasons for . . .The article questions the view that . . .

Resources that may help you

Consult the help guide on writing an annotated bibliography

Writing an Annotated Bibliography (University of Toronto)
How to Write An Annotated Bibliography (Simon Fraser University)
How to Write Annotated Bibliographies (Memorial University)
Annotated Bibliography Purdue Online Writing Lab

White Paper

A whitepaper is a persuasive, authoritative, in-depth report on a specific topic that presents a problem and provides a solution.

Governmental organizations write white papers to outline policies before proposing new bills and legislations. A white paper is a good tool for gathering feedback from the public before implementing policy changes.

The goal of the white paper is to persuade or direct the reader towards making a specific decision.

Key characteristics of a white paper

Your white paper should include:

Executive summary
Introduction
Background/problems/previous approaches
New findings/solutions and recommendations
Conclusion
Works cited or bibliography

Tip:

Search OMNI or the library databases for "white paper" to find examples
Also check Government of Canada Publications for samples