Identifying key concepts and what other words or phrases describe that concept you will get more meaningful results. Here is an example of how you can break down a question into concepts and their related phrases.
Original Phrase | Related words or ideas |
---|---|
eyewitness testimony | eyewitness identification/misidentification, false testimony, police lineup, eyewitness errors, lineup identification, eyewitness evidence, eyewitness memory |
wrongful conviction | innocence, false imprisonment, exoneration, false arrest, wrongful incarceration, criminal justice errors |
how often | statistics, data, history, frequency, extent |
Choose simple but clear keywords and connect them with Boolean language (AND, OR, NOT)
AND | Searches for places where both keywords appear together |
OR | Searches for either of the keywords. They might be together or they might not. |
NOT | Searches for places where the first keyword appears without the second. |
Examples:
Be careful when using NOT in your keyword search; this can sometimes cause good items to be excluded from your results.