Define the Research Topic and Determine Information Needs

Narrow or broaden your topic

Often finding too much or too little information may mean that you have to narrow or broaden your topic or search terms.

For example, if you get too many hits from a search (over 100 hits or results is too many!) you must narrow the search down. One way to narrow a search is to add more search terms.

The following search sample was executed in Factiva:

• pda and sales (18,000 hits)
• pda and sales and Nokia (2,000 hits)
• pda and sales and Nokia and forecasts (175 hits)

Many times students can not find information on a topic because their search is too specific. Create a word bank and concept bank and experiment with related search terms. For example:

• pda and psychodemographics and target markets and california and new venture

The above search will probably not yield many hits - it always best to start as broad as possible and narrow down the search results by utilizing advanced search techniques such as Boolean connectors, proximity limiters, and field searching (See Module 6).