Rose Turner, Coordinator of Liaison Services, rlt@pitt.edu
Background information can provide:
Before you begin searching for background information, it is a good idea to identify the main concepts of your topic and write down all the keywords and phrases that describe your topic.
Using a combination of the concepts and synonyms you have identifed you will now complete searches in four different resources. Do NOT type a complete sentence into the search box; use the identified keywords and leave out words such as outcomes, comparison, etc..
Including synonyms, related terms (including generic and trade names of drugs), and abbreviations in a search will change the results/citations retrieved; sometimes broadening it, sometimes narrowing it.
You can locate synonyms and related terms by looking at known articles and their reference lists, asking your mentor, and/or completing preliminary searches.
Combine keywords and phrases using Boolean Operators.