Step 3
What Steps to Take if Your Search Produces No Articles
Sometimes, your search will not produce any results. This could happen for five reasons:
- Nothing has been published on the topic you selected.
If it is unlikely that you are the first person to write anything about your topic, try using different search terms to find an article.
- The magazines and journals indexed by “Academic Search Complete" do not have any articles on the subject.
See note above about using different search terms.
Try searching one of the other databases available through Schoolcraft College's library. One of the college's reference librarians can assist you to identify a more appropriate database for your specific topic.
- You have a typo.
Check to make sure that you do not have a typo or misspelling in one of your search terms. The computer does not know that you mean “medieval" if you wrote “midieval."
- You need to use different search terms.
Think about other words to use to describe your topic. For example, try searching for “children" instead of “youth."
- You were too specific in your search.
Sometimes people will use too many specific search terms. For example, the following search strategy is too specific: “castles and medieval and women and knights and customs and entertainment and kings and queens."
You should also be aware that different databases require different ways to write out search terms. If everything in your search is spelled correctly and you do not think you were being too specific, read the “Search Tips" for the database you are using before continuing. You might also want to visit the library and consult one of the reference librarians.
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