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Composing a Search: Try It

Interactive Guide to demonstrate how to compose a search and test it on a sample of library databases.

Search Composer

First carefully refine your research question and enter it into the box.

For more help on writing a research question see First - The Question.

Click the Next - Add Key Terms button when you've entered your question.

Next add up to three Key terms in the three boxes.  The last box is used for terms you don't want included.  These are NOT terms.

For more information on selecting Key Terms see Key Terms.

Click the Next - Add Synonyms button when you've entered your Key Terms.

Now add up to three Synonyms or Related Terms to for each of the Key Terms and the the Exclusion Terms.

For more information on identifying Synonyms see Synonyms.

Click the Next - Add Punctuation button when you've entered your Synonyms.

Then add punctuation such as *'s and "'s to truncate words and keep phrases together.

For more information on adding punctuation see Punctuation.

Click the Next - View Your Search button to see what your terms look like in a properly composed search.

Click on one of the database buttons under your search to open a database.  Select the appropriate search and copy and paste it into the search box in the database.

If you got too many results consider adding more AND or NOT terms to your search.

You may also look at using the search limits in the left hand column in the database.  For example, you might only be interested in results from recent years.

If you got too few results consider removing some AND or NOT terms or adding some more OR terms.

Searching is an iterative process.  Don't be afraid to try assess and modify your search.

Time to Try It

Enter your research question

Using Punctuation in OneSearch

​​​​​​OneSearch accepts the use of punctuation, such as truncation and phrase quotes, as well as Boolean operators, AND, OR, NOT. 

There are some important tips to keep in mind when adding punctuation to your search.

Exceptions to be aware of in OneSearch: 

  • Using truncation specifically within phrase quotes isn’t supported. The search will work as a phrase search, ignoring the * symbol. 
  • OneSearch has some automatic features to find synonyms and variant spellings for the words you search. Adding punctuation like truncation usually switches off these features for that word, so punctuation may not affect your number of results exactly as expected. You may find simple searches without using truncation more effective, as OneSearch can automatically locate relevant results using words related to your search criteria. 
  • OneSearch does not have a thesaurus of subject headings. OneSearch finds resources from across the many databases UWA Library subscribes to, each of which uses different thesauri and formatting. 

Try OneSearch Advanced Search

The advanced search tool can be used to search with multiple lines, and to specifically search within the Title, Author or Subject information.  

You can use the resource type, language, and date filters to modify the search by type of resource (book, journal article), language, and a year range.  

Note you don’t need to enter a day or month, instead you can use a year range! 

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 Except for logos, Canva designs, AI generated images or where otherwise indicated, content in this guide is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International Licence.