Identifying Search Terms and Creating Search Statements
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 about what factors influence customer satisfaction with hotels, the following search terms would be appropriate:
Next, you need to combine these serach 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:
TIP Remember to pick out the important words for your topic instead of searching for full sentences.
Selecting a Database and Searching for Articles
Individual articles are not found in the online catalog; therefore, you will have to use an index or database to search for articles on your topic. Kennedy Library has many different databases and indexes to choose from. Some are very broad and cover a wide variety of disciplines, while others are very narrow and only cover specific disciplines.
An example of a broad database/index is Academic Search Premier. This database/index covers almost all disciplines (e.g. psychology, business, biology).
An example of a narrower, subject-specific database/index is Hospitality and Tourism Complete. This database/index covers topics in hospitality, tourism and related disciplines.
It is important to select an appropriate database or index when searching for articles, so you can find what you are looking for quickly and easily.
Use one of the databases listed below to search for articles on your topic. You may also view list of databases by subject.
Off campus users: To avoid CAPTCHA errors during peak times, use VPN for access. Google Scholar allows you to simultaneously search scholarly content across many disciplines, databases, and information sources. Results can include books, articles, chapters, conference proceedings, and more.
Tips on using Google Scholar are available here.
Journals for Recreation, Parks, and Tourism
Examples of journals for the recreation, parks and tourism discipline.
Avoiding Plagiarism