HIST 212: History and Geopolitics of Energy in Eurasia

1. Start with your topic.
2. Highlight Key terms.
3. Consider other phrasing.
4. Use boolean to write search phrases.
5. Search.
6. Revised based on results.

Example

1. Nuclear Energy policies in the EU.
2. Nuclear Energy  ; policies; EU
3. Nuclear Energy or Atomic energy ; Policy or Policies; European Union or possibly European Atomic Energy Community
4. ("Nuclear Energy" OR "Atomic Energy") AND (policy OR policies) AND ("European Union" OR "European Atomic Energy community")

Try my search in several places, based on my interest:

Based on results, I may:

• narrow the search specifically to the European Atomic Energy Community,
• Focus on a specific aspect of Atomic Energy policy.
• Focus on a specific time period
• Focus on specific agencies or countries

Be sure to use Caps for AND, OR, NOT when searching.

AND - searches for books and articles containing both terms. Example: "Atomic Energy" AND Europe

OR - searches for one of the words. Example: "atomic Energy" OR "nuclear energy"

NOT - exclude a term. Example:  NOT "Atomic energy community"

Parenthetical notes () - excellent for OR or NOT searches. Like a math equation, the database will do this part first.
Example:   ("Nuclear Energy" OR "Atomic Energy") AND "European Union"

Quotation Marks ""- Links words together in the search. Works best for phrases or proper names.
Example: "Nuclear Energy"
Example: "European Union"
Warning: You might exclude results. A search for "european energy policy" will exclude "Europeans energy policy"

Asterisk * - Allows you to search several word endings at once, without using OR.
Example: Europ* will cover europe, european, europeans, europa
Example: polic* will give you policy or policies or policymakers
Warning: You may get unexpected results. polic* will also bring up police, policing, policemen, policosanol (A chemical for leg pain)