Applying Boolean Search Strategies
to
Sociological Abstracts

 


Simple Search Strategy: Tutorial

To do the following tutorial you must be in the Sociological Abstracts database. Click here to learn how to log onto Sociological Abstracts.

Search Step 2: Enter concepts and synonyms for this topic statement:

Example: Teens who smoke are more likely to have low self-esteem.

1a. In the search box below, enter concept 1 (teens) from the search statement (above). Add synonyms or
closely related words.
 


1b. Press 
 


1c.  Your search retreives 15219 records containing the words teens or adolescents. You do not want these.  Press 


1d.  Type in your concept 2 (self esteem)  and its synonyms and press 



 

1e. The Sociological Abstacts lists 2,873 that contain the phrases
self worth, self esteem, and self confidence.
 



1f. Return to search screen by clicking on .  Type in the concept 3 (smoking)  and its synoyms.
 



 

1g. The results indicate that there are 1,856 records containing the words
smoking, cigarettes, or tobacco.

To retrieve only those records that deal with all three concepts, teens, smoking
and self esteemyou must combine the search results of all three concepts.

To do this, press .

In "Search History" click each box that represents concepts 1, 2, and 3 and their synonyms. Once
checked, click 



1h. The next screen shows that when combined there are 32 articles:

Click on "32 Display."  The  computer displays the 32 records retrieved from this search.


Click here to perform a search in Sociological Abstracts using your topic.

Examine the list of records.  Are the majority of the sources relevant to your topic?

If so, mark each one and print or email them to yourself.

If not, you need to modify the search.

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