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Database Search Skills: Set Up Your Search

Set up your database search

It's best to start broadly with just one term in a database search. That way you can see if there are any results, and see if you are using the same term used by scholarly works.  From there, add another term in the next search box to refine your search. Be sure to keep one concept per box. 

Example of database search with one term

You could do a search in the Business Source Complete database using one term in the first search box: social responsibility. There would be approximately 31,553 results. 

 

Example of database search with two terms

You can do a search in the Business Source Complete database with two terms. The term social responsibility is in the first box. The term profit is in the second box. There are approximately 2,364 results.