Moving from a research question to an effective search strategy involves breaking down the question into its Core Concepts, brainstorming Keywords, and then constructing an effective Search Strategy. You can do this in 4 steps.
1. Articulate your research question
Is union representation good for public employees in California?
2. Break down your research question into its core concepts.
3. Now list alternative ways of describing these concepts.
Your list can include broader, narrower, and related concepts.
Union Representation: | Collective Bargaining | labor union | labor dispute | SEIU |
Public Employees: | workers | state worker | employee | staff |
California: | West | Southwest | United States | San Diego |
4. Create multiple search strategies by combining words from your concept brainstorm list.
Tips
Acknowledgement: The content in this box was based off of Mandy Swygart-Hobaugh's work at Georgia State University Library.
This resource searches the full text of three historical newspapers, the Chicago Defender (1909-1975), the Los Angeles Times (1881-1993), and the New York Times with Index (1851-2014).
HeinOnline contains more than 150 million pages and 160,000 titles of legal history and government documents in a searchable, image-based format. HeinOnline covers more than 2,400 law-related periodicals. In addition, HeinOnline contains the entire Congressional Record, Federal Register, and Code of Federal Regulations, complete coverage of the U.S. Reports back to 1754, and entire databases dedicated to treaties, constitutions, case law, world trials, classic treatises, international trade, foreign relations, U.S. Presidents, and much more.
This is the academic version of Westlaw. Law sources include the full text of U.S. state and federal court opinions, statutes, and regulations; European Union statutes, court decisions, and related material; 800+ law reviews and journals; legal encyclopedia and dictionary. News sources include the full text of newspapers and news magazines; 400+ newswires; newsletters; 900+ broadcast transcripts. Also includes selected business, trade, and professional journals and publications; company information for private and public U.S. corporations; SEC filings.
Instructions for Using Westlaw and Introduction to Legal Research on Westlaw
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Covers the Humanities and Social Science disciplines offered at over 550 universities worldwide.