Library - Learning + Information skills: How to search online

Too Many results

• Try narrowing your search by adding further search terms
• Use quotation marks to specify that words should be kept together as a phrase eg "global warming"
• if you are searching for journal articles, try limiting your search to keywords in the title or abstract
• check that you have constructed your search statement correctly and used parentheses if you have included OR
• consider if your search is too broad

Too few results

• Use truncation to broaden the search
• Consider adding some synonyms and alternative search terms to expand the results
• you may need to repeat your search in multiple databases
• check for spelling mistakes
• reconsider the emphasis of your topic