Skip to Main Content

Research Guides

Honors Thesis resources for CLA students

A curated collection of helpful resources for students writing honors theses.

Advanced Searching Techniques

  • If your search term is a phrase (more than one word), use quotation marks to indicate that the order of the words is important.
  • For example, if you are searching for information about the New England region of the United States, you should search "New England." If you don't use quotation marks, your results will be filled with resources that contain the words "New" and "England" but not necessarily in the correct context.
  • Boolean operators allow you to combine search terms by using the following words: AND, OR, NOT. 
  • When you want your results to include both of your search terms, use the boolean operator AND between them.
    • For example, if you're researching the history of horror fiction, you can search: "horror fiction" AND history. All of the results you receive will include both of those terms.
  • When you want either one of your terms to be included in your results (not both), use the boolean operator OR between them.
    • For example, to get results involving either New England or Maine, search: "New England" OR Maine.
  • When you want to completely exclude a term from appearing in your results, use the boolean operator NOT before the keyword.
    • For example, if you wish to research the Jersey Devil cryptid but are overwhelmed by the amount of results focusing on the New Jersey Devils hockey team, search: "Jersey Devil" NOT hockey. 
  • To construct complex searches with multiple boolean operators, you can nest portions by using parenthesis.
    • For example, you can search ("Jersey Devil" OR "Leeds Devil") NOT hockey to research the cryptid using both of its names and excluding results that revolve around the hockey team by the same name.
  • Truncation allows you to search for a word that can end in a variety of ways. To do this, insert an asterisk (*) in the spot where the spelling of the word can change.
    • For example, searching child* will give you results that include child, children, childhood, childish, childlike, and so on.
  • Be careful that you don't place the truncation symbol too early in the word as you will end up with many irrelevant results.
    • For example, if you're researching animation and search anim*, you will get results involving animation, anime, animals, animatronics, animalistic, animosity, and so on. 
  • The asterisk can be used within words to find multiple characters.
    • For example, a search for hea*one will match words beginning with “hea” and ending with “one,” such as headphone, headstone, and hearthstone.
  • The asterisk wildcard is best used with at least three leading characters. When at least three characters are used before the asterisk, characters after the asterisk are included in the search.
  • The asterisk (*) can also be used between words to match any single word.
    • For example, a search for midsummer * dream will match the phrases midsummer night’s dream and midsummer day’s dream.
  • Wildcards allow you to search for various spellings of a word at once.
  • A question mark (?) is used to replace an unknown character.
    • For example, searching wom?n will give you results containing woman, women, womyn, and womxn.
    • Question marks at the end of words or character strings are not treated as wildcards. They are automatically removed from a query.
      • To use a question mark as a wildcard at the end of a word, you need to put a # before the ? character. The hash before the trailing question mark indicates that the question mark should be treated as a wildcard to find exactly one character at the end a word.
        • For example, a search for Monday#? will match Mondays, but not Monday.
  • To use the hash (#) wildcard, enter your search terms and place # where an alternate spelling might contain an extra character.
    • For example, type colo#r to find all records containing color or colour, or type p#ediatric to find all records with pediatric or paediatric.
  • If you want to get really fancy, you can combine truncation and wildcard symbols! For example:
    • Searching colo#r* will retrieve results containing colorblind, coloring, colorings, colorization, colorize, colorized, colouring, colourings, colourisation, colourization, colourize, colourized, colourizing, and so on...
    • Searching p#ediatric* will retrieve results containing pediatric, pediatrics, pediatrician, pediatricians, paediatric, paediatrics, paediatrician, paediatricians, and so on...

All of the information presented here will work when using ScholarSearch and other EBSCO databases. Wildcards and truncation can also be used in non-EBSCO databases, but the symbols may differ. To find more information about advanced searching techniques for the database you're using, look for a "Help" button or try doing a Google search for "[database name] wildcards" to find a guide. If you get stuck, please reach out to a librarian for help!

Truncation and wildcard guides for some of the most common databases are linked in this section.

Advanced search strategies

We often think of keyword searching when it comes to database research, but there are lots of other search methods that your research will benefit from. Look for the "HELP" button in your preferred database to learn about more advanced search techniques for that database or reach out to the library at email:reference@drew.edu to learn more about search methods specific to your field and databases. 

Field Searching

  • Field searching allows you to choose exactly where you want your keywords to be found and makes your search more precise. For example, in an author search (above), you search in the Author field. You can also limit your search to titles, abstracts, and more.
  • Search for authors using the last name, first name format and the Author field in a database. This is a useful strategy when you want to find all of the publications by a specific scholar.
  • Search for the title of an article or book by locking it in "quotes"

Chemical Structure Searching

  • Use chemical structure searching in chemistry and biology to find all of the publications that refer to a specific chemical structure. This search strategy is available in a limited number of databases, like SciFinder.

Citation Chaining

  • Citation chaining uses a specific source as a starting point to find other sources in conversation, and consists of forwards and backwards searching. View the short video (1:00) below to learn more about this effective process. Video source: The University of New South Wales (UNSW)

How to Get Better Search Results by Using Subject Headings

When you're researching a topic, do you find yourself rephrasing your search over and over again, getting new, relevant sources each time? If so, consider searching with subject headings!

Subject headings are different from keywords. Subject headings are used to group materials (like books and articles) based on their topic so that they can be searched and retrieved together, regardless of the original language of the work or the keywords used in the title. The most widely-used approved list of standardized subject headings is Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH).

Frequently, the library catalog uses terms that are very different from the keywords you may come up with on your own. For example, if you're researching "test tube babies," you won't get many results by using that phrase. You'll get many more matches if you search using the LCSH "Fertilization in vitro, Human".

By using subject headings, you no longer need to think of a near-endless amount of synonyms for your research topic, such as popular vs. technical variations (salt/sodium), different linguistic origins (sweat/perspiration), generic vs. brand names (tissues/Kleenex), dialectical variants (flashlights/torches), lexical variants, abbreviations vs. full forms, acronyms, common misspellings, or near synonyms!

Once you find relevant LCSHs, you can use them to search in both Locate and ScholarSearch.

  • When using Locate, select "Subject" from the dropdown menu and type in/paste your subject heading.
  • When using ScholarSearch, go to "Advanced Search," select "SU Subject Terms" from the dropdown menu, and type in/paste your subject heading.

In our ongoing effort to provide a diverse and inclusive range of resources, we want to inform you that our catalog may contain Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) that are offensive, outdated, or insensitive. These subject headings are reflective of historical cataloging practices and may include biases or language that were deemed acceptable at the time of their creation but are considered harmful today.

We recognize that societal attitudes and language evolve, and certain terms may not align with contemporary standards of inclusivity and sensitivity. It's important to note that we do not endorse or support discriminatory language; rather, we aim to preserve the integrity of historical records while being mindful of changing perspectives.

We encourage users to approach these materials with a critical perspective, recognizing that the presence of certain language or terminology does not reflect the values or viewpoints of the Drew University Library faculty and staff. If you have concerns about specific content or subject headings, we welcome your feedback to help us continually improve and update our cataloging practices. Please email us at reference@drew.edu and we will get back to you as soon as possible!

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we strive to maintain an environment that is inclusive and respectful to all!

Some Other Tips...

Your Honors Thesis will require sustained searching, reviewing and saving resources for your project.. The links below provide tools and resources that are useful for a longer-term research project.

Organizing Your Research

The quantity of information you will deal with during your honors thesis can be intimidating. That's why organizing your research materials can be helpful! The resources below will help you develop a research organization strategy that works for you.

Organize Your Sources with a Citation Manager

A citation manager helps you keep track of your sources while searching, and cites them when writing. Review the linked LibGuide and contact the Library at email: reference@drew.edu to learn more about them.

Get Started with Your Literature Review

Your Honors Thesis will likely require a literature review; the article linked below is a good starting place for understanding the importance and process of doing one.  

Literature review tracker

This Google spreadsheet is a good example of how students might  track sources for a literature review. Make a copy to your Google drive  and then use it for your research (source: Claremont College Library).

 

Copyright and Fair Use

It's important to understand the basics of copyright and fair use, so that you can use copyrighted works correctly in your thesis and understand your rights as an author.

Questions? Need Help? Email reference@drew.edu

Drew University Library, http://www.drew.edu/library