2.1 Define your search terms

How do you find items or information on a specific topic?

The most efficient way to begin is to analyse your topic by identifying the key concepts. We did this in 1.3 Map your ideas by developing a concept map.

For the research topic:

The social and economic impacts of gambling.

The following key concepts were identified:

Think of other relevant search terms

Consider using alternative search terms including broader, narrower, related terms.

This process will ensure you get the broadest possible coverage of the literature when you search. Alternative search terms may be found via your background reading, thesauri, and subject fields in search tools.

Generating alternative search terms

So alternative search terms for our topic may be:

Activity

How do you combine these terms together to form an effective search strategy?