Search plan part 3: Searching

The next step is formulating the search queries and adapt them to the specific database. In the example Web of Science will be used. Take the search table from your search plan (see table below). When you start your search you first search for each of the concepts separately, then combine the queries into a final search query (more details can be found in TULib – Building your search plan)

Let’s start with the first concept automotive industry from our search table to show how the search query is built.  You will build the search query for the concept “air quality” yourself in the Test-your-knowledge exercise.

For the concept “Automotive industry” we already defined our related terms and synonyms. To determine the syntax, check the “help” function of the database in Web of Science and formulate the following query (more information on Search operators on TULib):

Search query 1

“automobile*”  OR  “automo* industr*”  OR  “automo* sector*”  OR  “transport sector*”  OR  car  OR  cars  OR  vehicle*

This search query will yield all results that have one or more of the mentioned synonyms. So both an article on the automotive industry will show, but also articles just containing the word transport sector.

A good search action will yield many results. Perhaps more than you would like! Don’t panic, because:

• The research question consists of three concepts. Combining the three concepts will bring the number of results down considerably.
• After combining the concepts, you can limit the number of results based on, for example, the year of publication or discipline. However, be very careful with limiting the time period you could miss relevant information.
• Depending on the results of this search query it could be possible that you need to specify more the research question by searching for example only for one type of fuel that you are more interested in, or by adding a concept and looking for a certain technology that you have seen in these first results.

Searching is an iterative process, so use the input from the results to further specify both the search, but also the research question.

The complete search query is constructed step-by-step because it is challenging to construct a complete search query all at once, without any mistakes. When all individual concepts have their search query, you end up with this list:

Search query 1	automobile*  OR  “automo* industr*”  OR  “automo* sector*”  OR  “transport sector*”  OR  car  OR  cars  OR  vehicle*
Search query 2	“air quality” OR “air pollut*” OR “air purificat*” OR “environmental pollut*” OR “gas emmisions” OR “vehicle emissions” OR “exhaust gas”
Search query 3	biofuel*  OR  “bio fuel*”  OR  “biomass fuel*”  OR  “ethanol fuel*”  OR  gasoline  OR  diesel  OR  petrol  OR  electric*  OR  “hydrogen fuel*”
Combined query	(Search query 1) AND (Search query 2) AND (Search query 3)

 

The complete search query would look like this:

 

(automobile* OR “automo* industr*” OR “automo* sector*” OR “transport sector*” OR car OR cars OR vehicle*) AND (“air quality” OR “air pollut*” OR “air purificat*” OR “environmental pollut*” OR “gas emmisions” OR “vehicle emissions” OR “exhaust gas”) AND (biofuel* OR “bio fuel*” OR “biomass fuel*” OR “ethanol fuel*” OR gasoline OR diesel OR petrol OR electric* OR“hydrogen fuel*”)