PRFS 301

Let's say that I have chosen the Millennium Project's Global Health Challenge 6 as my research challenge of interest, and my career path is headed toward the healthcare sector. As Global Challenge 6 focuses on matters of cyber security, internet access, cloud computing, big data, and telecommunication, I would like to research the implications of telehealth services.

If, however, I simply search for the term telehealth in a database, I will get more sources than I could possibly read in a semester.

So, it's important to think about what sorts of words I could add to this search to narrow my results down.

For starters, is there a specific population I want to reach? Are there any specific words or concepts that stick out on the Global Health Challenge page that resonate with my interests or focus? If so, I can add those to my search.

I've decided to focus my research on the impact of telehealth on low-income, rural communities. That being said, it's important to remember that database searches function differently than Google searches. So, if I were to enter my full research focus, as indicated in bold, I would get the following results:

Thus, your best course of action, when searching in databases, is to isolate the essential elements of your research focus. In my case, I would isolate:

• telehealth
• rural
• low-income

Typically, the most successful keywords are going to be nouns or adjectives.

If we plug our keywords into the search box of a database, the database will look for those exact words in the description or full text of a resource. But, the database isn't necessarily going to know that synonyms or related terms to the ones we search might also be relevant. For example, take a look at the image below. 

Image licensed under CC0 Public Domain by Jean Beaufort

You and the author of a text might refer to different concepts by different words, so it's always a good idea to add some of those words to your search. Here are some example synonyms and related terms for the keywords outlined above:

• telehealth, telemedicine, tele-health
• rural, remote
• low-income, poverty, impoverished

Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) are not words in the traditional sense. They are, instead, how database search engines create relationships between your keywords.

• AND connects key concepts
  Example: telehealth AND rural
  The AND between these words tells the database that it is necessary for both of these terms to appear in an information source for it to be relevant to me.
   
• OR connects synonyms and related terms within a concept
  Example: telehealth OR telemedicine OR tele-health
  The OR between these words tells the database that any or all of these words may appear in a source, so long as at least one of them appears.
   
• NOT excludes sources mentioning a specific word from your results list
  Example: NOT diabetes
  NOT is very rarely used, but this search would eliminate any sources mentioning the word "diabetes" from my results.

Here's how this would look in a database: