Review and revise your search

Researching is an iterative process - you will often have to spend time reviewing your search results and, as a result, altering your search strategy to find the best and most relevant results for your topic or task.

We will now discuss how to review and revise that search strategy.

Reviewing and revising your search strategy is Step 4 in the Information Searching Lifecycle.

Review your search results

There are 3 key questions to ask about your search results:

1. Did it retrieve too few or too many results?
   • You should not have to spend hours sifting through results, but nor should your search retrieve 0 results. Aim for somewhere in between.
2. Are there information types that are inappropriate or non-scholarly?
   • The type of resource you are looking for will depend on your topic. Newspaper articles and opinion pieces are more relevant or appropriate for some topics than others, so think about this question in relation to your topic.
   • Look for peer reviewed journal articles, resources from authoritative sources, and high-quality publications
3. Are the results relevant to my topic?
   • Examine the subject headings, table of contents, abstract and summary to determine the relevance of your results to your topic.

Revise your search strategy

If you determine that your results are not suitable based on the questions above, you can modify your search strategy. Here are some suggestions for how to do this:

Too many results?

• Use more specific search terms: think of more specific terms and/or additional concepts you can add to your search. Go back and look at the concept map constructed in Mapping your topic to re-define your topic.
• Use field searching or subject searching: this will reduce results by restricting the search to a particular field (e.g. Title & Author search; subject search)
• Use phrase searching: this will make your search more specific by looking for a phrase rather than two or more individual words (e.g. "artificial intelligence" instead of artificial AND intelligence).
• Use filters: this will place boundaries on your search to restrict the number of results. These can vary depending on the search tool you are using, but common filters include date or year, country or geography, Peer review, information type, and format. See Module 2 Find for more examples.

Not enough results?

• Check your spelling: databases and search tools don't correct misspellings, so make sure you are accurate and typo-free! Consider using wildcards or truncation to pick up spelling variations or variations on a word stem.
• Use broader search terms: consider separating a phrase search, thinking of alternative terms, and removing unnecessary concepts.
• Review your search tool: some search tools are more suited to a specific topic, subject area or information type. Consider using a search tool or database more appropriate for your topic.
• Use a variety of search tools: don't restrict your search to a single search tool. Using a variety will ensure you access the broadest range of literature on the topic.

Results contain inappropriate or non-scholarly information types?

• Use limits (include or exclude): good examples include excluding non-scholarly resources (e.g. Newspapers and magazines) from tools such as Library Search, or limiting the search to peer-reviewed articles. The limiting options vary between databases (see Module 2.3 Where do I find information sources? for more information about limiters).
• Use a more specialised search tool/database: some databases only contain very specific information, so it's a good idea to use those databases when looking for a particular type of information. For example, use a legal database such as LawOne when looking for legislation or a health database such as Cochrane Library when looking for evidence-based information.

Results irrelevant to your topic?

• Use a more specific/different search tool: you may not have identified the best search tool for your purposes. Explore the list of databases by subject area or information type to find a more appropriate tool.
• Add or remove search terms: look at your results to identify terms that may be skewing your results into a different direction. Either remove or change those terms, or add more ones more specific.

Remember, you may need to follow these steps multiple times before you find the best search strategy and statements for your topic or task.