Searching for online information is easy. Finding a manageable number of good-quality, relevant results can be more difficult.
Use the ‘tips' and 'tricks’ below to help plan and refine your searches to ensure that you get the best results.
Start by thinking about the topic of your research, identifying search terms (keywords), and similar words (synonyms). In the following example, the topic of the search is “space‟.
For example, you may take one keyword 'Universe' and plan out all the alternatives that you may use in your search. Do not limit your results by just thinking of one option.
| Keyword | Universe |
| Synonyms | Outer space, deep space, cosmos, celestial space |
| Related words | Solar systems, galaxies, telescope, shuttle, star, nebula, observatory, stratosphere |
| Acronyms | NASA, National Aeronautics and Space Administration, ISS, International Space Station |
| Abbreviations | temp, temperature, ly, Light-year |
| Variant spellings (e.g. UK vs. US) | Defence/defense, astronaut/cosmonaut |
| Vernacular expressions | Higgs boson or Higgs particle is colloquially called the "God particle" |
| Hyphens | Extra terrestrial, extra-terrestrial |
| Capitals | Big bang, Big Bang |
You now have a wide selection of words to use in your online searches.
Click through the presentation below to find out how to combine your search terms and help you find stellar results.
There are more techniques for advanced searching which you may want to use to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of your searching.
| Phrase Searching To search for a phrase enclose a phrase within double quotations marks ("") in order to search for that exact phrase. |
"Milky Way" "Big Bang" |
| Truncation Using an asterisk * to retrieve variations of the ending of a word. |
Planet* Will find planet, planets, planetary. |
| Wildcard Using a question mark to retrieve variations of spellings of a word by replacing one letter with a wildcard which finds any letter in that position |
Organi?ation Will find both organisation (UK English) and organization (US English) |
These tips and tricks work for many online search tools, including Library Search. Some databases have even more specialised searching tools. You can find out more about them in the Help section of each database.