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FSN 310 - Maternal and Child Nutrition

FSN 310 - Maternal and Child Nutrition

Guides and Tutorials

PubMed

Google Scholar

Types of Articles
Reading Scientific Articles
Searching for Articles

There are two keys to successful searching:

1. Using the right words

2. Using the right tool (database).

The Right Words

When searching for articles in a database, you will need to identify a number of keyword search terms to use based on your topic.

If your topic was impact of breastfeeding on maternal and child health, the following keyword search terms would be useful:

  • breastfeeding
  • health
  • maternal
  • mother
  • child
  • impact
  • effect

Using the * at the end of the root word (for example, child*) will tell the database to find the word, the plural form, and any related words with different suffixes (e.g, child, children)

Next, you need to combine these search terms with connectors to create a search statement to use in the database. You will want to create several different search statements to use for searching. 

Here are some search statement examples:

  • breastfeed* AND health AND child*
  • (impact* OR effect*) AND breastfeed* AND health

TIP You won’t want to enter a phrase (such as 'how breastfeeding affects the health of the child') in the search box of the database or index, because the database will not be able to understand it and you won't get any results. Remember to pick out the important words for your topic and use AND/OR to combine them into a search statement.

The Right Tool

It is equally important to use the right database to search for articles. The databases listed below are appropriate for searching for articles for the scientific paper assignment. Make sure you select the database that is most appropriate for your topic, and keep in mind that you may need to use more than one database to find articles. 

Citing Your Sources