*Chemistry

These search tips can be used in the Library Catalog or in the Library Databases

• Select your Topic/thesis
  Select a topic/thesis for your research project or assignment. Try to focus your topic as much as possible, concentrating on particular aspects of it, or by adding qualifiers (reaction type, mechanism, age group, species, place, time period).
   
• Generate a set of keywords or terms related to your topic
  Write down your topic as a sentence that makes sense to others. Select the meaningful words from that sentence as your first keywords. Select other related words: synonyms, antonyms, spelling variants, plurals, scientific names, narrower or broader terms in the hierarchy (Ex: emotions - anger - rage) that you can use as alternative keywords. For example:
  
  "electrochem*" AND (Galvanic OR Voltaic)​ 
  Use the AND operator to narrow your search to results that mention both keywords.  Use the OR operator to search for variants or synonyms of the same keyword. The asterisk (*) is a wildcard symbol that is used to catch variant endings of a word. For example * retrieves electrochemistry and electrochemical.
  
  "colligative properties" AND ("boiling point elevation” OR "osmotic pressure")
  Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.
   
• If you already have a citation...
  If you already have a citation for a book or an article that you need to find, the best strategy is to go directly to the E-Journal Search Tool. Click on the Citation Finder tab and enter the citation information to find if the library has it.
   
• Search
  If you need to discover a new item, use your keywords to search the MCPHS Library Catalog for books, articles, and journals. When searching, try all your keywords, and remember that combining your terms correctly is also very important.
   
• Save and organize your work
  Export the citations, for the articles that look promising, to your email or to a citation management tool.

Remember to Ask Yourself:

Trust It or Trash It