• Avoid using the full thesis statement or topic as a search term, unless it is of one or two words only.

• Factor or analyze your topic and/or thesis statement e.g. Topic: Displaced populations can be factored into disaster victims, homelessness, immigrants, refugees.

• Select keywords from factors, and thesis statement, as well as, known names of persons who may have specialized in the subject or have contributed to the literature of the subject, and/or known relevant events or trends.

• Look for synonyms of keywords.( A dictionary, glossary, or general thesaurus like Roget's will be helpful).

• Look at names of databases and descriptions if given. (see below   for list of selected databases relevant to social work studies.)

• Databases may include one or a combination of Index, Abstracts, Full Text.

• Databases may be indexed by word, term, or concept.

• If database offers a Thesaurus, use thesaurus terms that are assigned to your keyword or subject. A thesaurus is usually based on the "concept" method of indexing, where a term in the thesaurus represents a concept.

• While you will choose the databases with names that sound most relevant to your topic, do not overlook some of the general databases like Ebscohost and Infotrac that include many scholarly, research-oriented (peer-reviewed / refereed) journals that may yield valuable articles.

    11.   Document your research strategy

• Make note of the terms which brought best results and in which database you used them. This will be useful for future searches.

• Bear in mind that each database is indexed singularly and differently and terms which yield relevant results in one database may not work as well for another. It may be prudent to repeat processes 5 through 9 for each database chosen.