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Search Tips
Boolean operators connect your search terms in order to narrow or widen your search results from a database. The three main operators are AND, OR, and NOT.
- AND includes other terms and widens your results.
- Ex: houselessness AND mental health
- OR connects multiple terms and broadens your results.
- Ex: houselessness OR homelessness
- NOT excludes certain words and narrows your results.
- Ex: houselessness NOT youth
Quotes and asterisks are other helpful tools that you can use when using databases.
- Quotes around a certain phrase tells the database to search those two words together and in a specific order.
- Ex: if you wanted to research LGBTQ youth, you might search "LGBTQ youth" in order to avoid results that only mention "LGBTQ" or "youth".
- Asterisks are used in truncation, a technique that broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings. An asterisk is placed at the end of the root of the word you are searching.
- Ex: searching "child*" would give you results that contain the terms child, childs, children, childrens, or childhood.
Grey Literature
Grey Literature is any literature that has not been published through traditional means. It is often excluded from large databases and other mainstream sources. Some examples of grey literature are theses/dissertations, conference proceedings, and clinical trials.
Search grey literature to:
- avoid bias or fill in the gap of missing perspectives on an issue
- monitor changes & updates in a particular field
- find sources for negative results or brand new evidence
- discover more references to published literature that your database search might have missed
Where to find grey literature:
- Smith's School for Social Work Theses & Dissertations
- Google Scholar - link your Smith account to Google Scholar to find full text publications more easily.
- Think Tank Search - A Google Custom Search of more than 1200 think tanks and research centers (Harvard Kennedy School)
- Health Policy and Services Research - from the National Library of Medicine (NLM)
News Sources
- Find NewsThe library's guide for finding national, global, and archival news.
Research Databases
A list of databases that have content related to topics you'll be exploring in this class:
- Discover Advanced Smith's main library database.
- Academic Search Ultimate [EBSCO] This link opens in a new window Limit results by date and source type. The prefix AF can be used on one line of your search, to find authors affiliated with institutions, for example: AF city university of new york AF mississippi AF morehouse
- Gender Studies Database [EBSCO] 1972+ with some earlier coverage This link opens in a new window Combines Women's Studies International and Men's Studies Database, with added coverage on sexual diversity issues; includes a wide array of scholarly and popular sources.
- PAIS International [ProQuest] 1915+ This link opens in a new window Covers current affairs, social and public policy issues in articles, books, hearings, reports, government publications, Internet resources, and more from 120 countries.
- PsycINFO [EBSCO] 1887+ Worldwide coverage of 1300+ journals, books, and dissertations in the behavioral sciences, psychology, mental health, medicine, etc.
- Sociology Source Ultimate [EBSCO] This link opens in a new window Full-text articles relating to social behavior & interaction, covering gender identity, marriage & family, demographics, political sociology, religion, socio-cultural anthropology, etc.
Alternative Databases & Websites
- Ethnic NewsWatch [ProQuest] 1960+ This link opens in a new window Full text newspapers, magazines and journals of the ethnic, minority and native press.
- ProQuest Black Studies This link opens in a new window This database combines primary and secondary sources, including leading historical Black newspapers, archival documents and collections, key government materials, videos, writings by major Black intellectuals and leaders, scholarly journals, and essays by top scholars in Black Studies. Includes former database "Black Studies Center".
- GenderWatch [ProQuest] 1970+ This link opens in a new window Full text publications on the impact of gender across a broad spectrum of subject areas.
- HAPI : Hispanic American Periodicals Index 1970+ This link opens in a new window Citations to articles and other materials from 400+ journals, on Central & South America, Mexico, the Caribbean, U.S.-Mexico border & U.S. Hispanics.
- JOLs: Journals Online Project1998-2020 project to increase the visibility, accessibility and quality of peer-reviewed journals published in developing countries. Find links to databases from several regions and countries.