Agriculture

Search for a Known Article

A title is often enough to find the article you need. However, searching by a unique identifier such as a DOI (digital object identifier) is often faster, especially for complex or common titles.

• Use Journal Article Finder

  • On the library homepage, under the LOOKING FOR? section, click "a specific article" to access the journal article finder. Fill out the form and search for the article.

• Search the article title in Discover@MU. (Tip: Put quotation marks around the title so it is searched as a phrase.)

• Try GoogleScholar. 

Search Tips

All databases (and search engines like Google) use what is called "Boolean logic" to help the platform parse through information to find the most relevant results. Boolean operators are AND, OR, and NOT. 

• AND makes your search more specific, getting results that include both terms 
  • "insecticides AND deer" will find resources that mention both terms
• OR broadens your search, finding articles that have at least one of the terms
  • "insecticides OR deer" will get resources that only mention insecticides and ones that only mention deer -- not necessarily in the same article
• NOT excludes terms from the search results
  • "insecticides NOT deer" will exclude results that mention deer

Create Key Words

Think about the most critical parts of your research question and think about the various terms that could be used. Don't limit yourself to one way of phrasing -- think about other ways to express your Don’t get stuck on one term if there are other ways of expressing it.

• Break down your research question into the most important words, and connect them with AND.
  • "How does the application of compost to a garden affect crop yield?" = compost AND garden AND yield
• Brainstorm synonyms and connect with OR.
  • (compost OR organic matter) AND garden AND (yield OR harvest)

Use our Search Strategy Builder to create a search strategy for your topic.

Additional Search Strategies

• Use the wild card symbol (*) to get plurals and variant endings.
  • method* = method, methods, methodology, methodologies, methodological, etc.
• Put quotation marks around multiple words to keep them together as an exact phrase.
  • "garden crops" | "soil alkalinity" | "executive function"
• Use limiters or Advanced Search to have more control over your results.
  • Limit by language, date range, publication type, etc. 
  • Limiting to peer-reviewed articles often helps you find the most scholarly resources.