Graduate Studies in Leadership (MA & PhD)

Subject terms, or controlled vocabulary, are standardized words assigned by experts to consistently describe the main topics of a resource. Databases like Zondervan library catalog, Academic Search Elite, and SocIndex use them to help users find and narrow searches on specific subjects.

Most databases offer a feature that allows you to search using the specific Subject Terms or controlled vocabulary unique to that database. Familiarizing yourself with and utilizing this controlled vocabulary can greatly improve your research efficiency. When exploring a database for its controlled vocabulary, look for links labeled Subjects, Subject Terms, Thesaurus, Index, or similar. Although the names may differ, they all serve the same purpose—a structured list or dictionary of the database’s standardized terms.

Boolean operators are simple words—AND, OR, and NOT—used in searches to combine or exclude keywords, helping refine and focus search results. Use Boolean operators in databases, search engines, and online catalogs whenever you want to control the relationship between your search terms to get more precise or comprehensive results.

By using these connectors when employing library searches, you will achieve the best results.

• AND
  • This will narrow searches to include all terms that are connected with AND.
  • Example, "spiritual formation" AND "Fowler" requires both terms be present in the title, abstract, or keywords of a citation.
• OR
  • This broadens searches to include more options based on search terms.
  • (college OR university) AND "Scripture Engagement" AND ("small groups" OR "discipleship groups")
  • Either the term college OR the term university must be present along with the phrase either "small groups" OR "discipleship groups" in the title, abstract, or keywords assigned to a citation.
• NOT
  • This excludes a term from a search and thus helps narrow searches results. A search may be found to be too broad or not related to what is being sought. The NOT operator excludes a term from the search results.
  • Example: "Children's ministry" AND (education NOT school)

Stop words are common words like a, an, are, be, if, in, into, of, on, the, which, and similar terms that databases often ignore during searches. These words are usually filtered out because they appear so frequently that they don’t add meaningful value to search results. When you’re searching, you can usually leave these words out without affecting your results.

For instance, if a researcher searches for the phrase climate change in the Arctic without quotation marks, the search system may disregard stop words like “in” and “the,” treating the query as a search for climate change Arctic. However, if the researcher is looking for that exact phrase as it appears in a text, they should enclose it in quotation marks—“climate change in the Arctic”—to instruct the system to include the stop words and return results containing the precise phrase.

• Add an asterisk (*) to the root of a search term. 
  • When applied to a root of a word, it will search for multiple forms of a word at one time.
    • immigra* = immigrant, immigration
    • polic* = policy, policies
• Use quotation marks ("") around common or important phrases.
  • Sometimes, a keyword is really a key phrase. Quotation marks will ensure keywords are search for in the exact order desired.
    • "child development" or "climate change"

• Nesting: ()

  • Nesting allows you to group words and is especially useful when combining Boolean Operators in a search query.  Nesting tells the database to look at those combinations first - must as you do numerical calculations of numbers in parentheses first.  (i.e., (1+2) x 3=9 versus 1 + (2x3)=7)
    • Example: censorship AND (books OR films)
    • Example: elections AND (Democrats OR Republicans)
• Add additional search terms.
  • If too many results (>200) are being found, add additional keywords or search terms.
• Use limit/refine options
  • Results can be narrowed by limiting the date range, or to scholarly/academic journals (when needed), or to Full Text (when immediate access is desired without using Interlibrary Loan), or Source Type (journal article, newspaper, magazine, etc.). Some limits include:
    • Language
    • Publication type
    • Date of publication
    • Peer-reviewed/Scholarly works
    • Source (Such as a journal title)
    • Full text
• Find the permalink
  • To avoid losing access to articles (even leaving a browser open to a particular article can be lost after a few hours!), look at the Detailed Record of an item in a database for the permalink or persistent link. This is often not the link in the adderss bar. 
  • The permalink will give permanent access to the citation or article. Save it! Email it! Copy it into a Word doc!