Planning a Search

In my first search in Lesson 1, I entered only a few key terms to determine likely technical databases.

Identifying alternative search terms for our topic is very important to achieving comprehensive search results. We need to think about the terms and appropriate synonyms we should use to request information from the Dialog system before going online.

For example, articles might contain words, such as Main Mission Antenna or MMA. Abbreviations are often used in technical articles.

Step 1: Selecting Additional Search Terms

Terms I might use to find information about the Iridium satellite project and its main antenna, could include:

Concept 1	Concept 2	Concept 3
iridium	main mission antenna	cellular
	MMA	cordless telephone
	satellite	mobile communication

Tip 2-1

Notice that I also put all of the synonyms for the concept "satellite" in one column and those for "cellular" in a second column. This helps me keep the terms straight when I create my search strategy.

Go to the next page to see additional modifications to the search strategy.

2-2

Search Tip 2-1

When we are thinking of synonyms for words, we must also think about words that may be two-word phrases, as well as hyphenated words. All variations should be part of our synonym list.

Most databases on Dialog follow spelling conventions for American English; however, some databases produced in Great Britain and Commonwealth countries (e.g., Canada) follow British spelling conventions.

Inspec is produced in Great Britain by the IEE. When searching this file we should think about using alternative spellings (e.g., color vs. colour; organization vs. organisation) and different terminology (truck vs. lorry).