Overview
Research skills are rarely taught explicitly, yet they shape everything that follows: a weak search leads to a thin literature base, and disorganized references cost hours at the end of a project. Coaching sessions are hands-on and screen-shared, working live in the databases and tools your institution provides.
We start with your assignment or research question and break it into concepts, synonyms and related terms. From there you learn to combine them with Boolean operators, apply database-specific features such as subject headings and filters, and record your searches so you can repeat or report them.
Alongside searching, we cover evaluating sources for quality and relevance, getting full text through your library (including off-campus access and interlibrary loan) and setting up a reference manager so citations and bibliographies are generated consistently.
Who it’s for and the problems it solves
This is for you if you are…
- Undergraduates starting their first research essay or dissertation who have mainly used general search engines
- Master's students who need a more systematic search for a literature review chapter
- Doctoral researchers new to a field or switching disciplines, or returning after time away
- Professionals and distance learners without easy access to in-person library support
- Students whose supervisors have asked them to 'widen the search' or 'use more peer-reviewed sources'
Common problems we help with
- Your searches return thousands of irrelevant results, or almost none
- You rely on the first page of Google Scholar and are unsure what else exists
- You cannot access paywalled articles and do not know what your library provides
- Your references are scattered across downloads, bookmarks and a messy Word document
- You are unsure whether a source is peer reviewed, current or credible enough to cite
- You need to describe your search strategy in a methods section and have not recorded it
What’s included — and what isn’t
Included
- Turning a research question into key concepts, synonyms, spelling variants and related terms
- Boolean logic (AND, OR, NOT), phrase searching, truncation, wildcards and proximity operators where databases support them
- Choosing databases for your discipline, such as Scopus, Web of Science, PubMed, PsycINFO, ERIC, JSTOR, EconLit or IEEE Xplore, depending on your library's subscriptions
- Controlled vocabulary: using subject headings such as MeSH in PubMed or database thesauri alongside keywords
- Using filters, citation chaining (backward and forward) and alerts to build and maintain a literature set
- Library access: discovery search, link resolvers, off-campus sign-in, open-access copies and interlibrary loan or document delivery
- Evaluating sources: peer review, publication type, currency, method quality and predatory-journal warning signs
- Grey literature and data sources such as theses, reports, policy documents and official statistics
- Reference manager set-up and workflow in Zotero, Mendeley Reference Manager or EndNote, including the Word plugin
- A search log template so your strategy is documented and reproducible
Not included
- Conducting a full systematic or scoping review search on your behalf — this is available as a separate research service
- Selecting and summarizing sources for your assessed literature review
- Providing access to paywalled content outside your own institution's legitimate subscriptions and open-access routes
- Writing any part of your assignment or chapter
What you receive
- Concept and keyword grid
- A table of your main concepts with synonyms, related terms and subject headings, built with you from your research question.
- Tested search strings
- Search strings you construct and test during sessions for two or three databases, with notes on each database's syntax.
- Search log template
- A record of databases, dates, strings, filters and result counts, ready to support a methods section or supervisor meeting.
- Configured reference library
- Your own reference manager library set up during a session, with folders or collections, the Word plugin working and your citation style selected.
- Source evaluation checklist
- A short checklist for judging relevance and quality, adapted to your discipline.
How it works
Question and context
You share your topic or research question, assignment brief and which library you can access. We check which databases and tools are available to you.
Plan the search
We map concepts and terms together and choose the databases most likely to hold relevant literature.
Search live
In a screen-shared session you build and run searches while we coach syntax, filters and subject headings, adjusting as results come in.
Organize and evaluate
We set up your reference manager, import results and practice screening and evaluating sources for your project.
Document and continue
You leave with a search log and saved searches or alerts so you can repeat and update the search independently.
Search techniques and tools
- Boolean operators
- OR broadens a concept by combining synonyms; AND narrows by combining concepts; NOT excludes terms but should be used sparingly because it can remove relevant records.
- Phrase searching and truncation
- Quotation marks keep terms together ('mental health'); truncation symbols such as * capture word endings (educat* for education, educator, educational). Symbols vary by database, so we check each one's help pages.
- Subject headings
- Controlled vocabularies such as MeSH in PubMed or the APA Thesaurus in PsycINFO index articles by topic regardless of the authors' wording, improving recall.
- Citation chaining
- Backward chaining checks the references of a key paper; forward chaining finds later work that cites it, using tools such as Scopus, Web of Science or Google Scholar's 'Cited by'.
- Reference managers
- Zotero (free and open source, updated frequently, so we work in whichever current release you have installed), Mendeley Reference Manager (which replaced the retired Mendeley Desktop) and EndNote (licensed by many institutions). We set up whichever suits your institution and workflow.
- Library access tools
- Discovery layers, link resolvers, browser access extensions provided by some libraries, open-access finders and interlibrary loan request forms.
Building a search string, step by step
Suppose your question is how mindfulness programs affect anxiety in university students. The three concepts are the intervention, the outcome and the population. Each concept gets a group of synonyms combined with OR, and the groups are combined with AND. Truncation catches word variants, and phrase marks keep multi-word terms together.
We then test the string: if results are overwhelming, we add a concept or use subject headings; if they are sparse, we add synonyms or remove a restrictive filter. Recording each version in a search log shows your supervisor, and later your examiner, how the literature base was built.
- (mindfulness OR "mindfulness-based" OR meditat*)
- AND (anxiety OR anxious OR stress)
- AND ("university student*" OR undergraduate* OR "college student*")
Evaluating what you find
Relevance and quality are separate questions. A highly cited study may be off-topic; a directly relevant preprint may not yet be peer reviewed. We practice quick screening by title and abstract, then closer evaluation of method, sample and date, and we look at warning signs of questionable journals, such as unclear peer review, aggressive solicitation and missing indexing.
When you need more than coaching
If your project requires a formal systematic or scoping review with a documented, reproducible search across several databases, see our systematic review support. Coaching teaches you the underlying skills; the research service can design and run the search strategy with you for a formal review.
What the work can look like
Illustrative example — fictional data
Illustrative search log entry
A fictional undergraduate nursing student is preparing a dissertation on hand hygiene compliance. The log entry below shows the kind of record we help students keep; all counts are invented.
Database and date
CINAHL via the university library, searched on a single date recorded in the log; limits: English language, 2015 onwards, peer-reviewed.
Search string
("hand hygiene" OR handwashing OR "hand washing") AND (complian* OR adherence) AND (nurs* OR "health care worker*")
Results and next step
412 records, too many to screen for an undergraduate project. Next version adds a setting concept (hospital OR ward OR ICU) and uses the CINAHL heading for hand hygiene; 138 records. Both versions kept in the log.
Illustrative example with invented result counts. Your searches will depend on your question and your library's databases.
What you’ll need to provide
- Your topic, research question or assignment brief
- The name of your institution or library, so we can work with its databases and access tools
- Any sources you already have and any required citation style
- Your preferred reference manager, or permission to recommend one
- A computer on which you can install software and share your screen
You don’t need everything ready to ask for a quote — tell us what you have and we’ll say what’s missing.
What affects price and turnaround
Price depends on
- Number of sessions and how many databases we cover
- Whether reference manager set-up and migration of existing references is included
- Complexity of the topic, such as interdisciplinary questions needing several vocabularies
- Level of study and whether the search needs to be documented for a methods section
Turnaround depends on
- Confirming which databases your library subscribes to before the session
- Your availability for live screen-shared sessions
- Size of any existing reference collection that needs organizing
Every project is quoted individually. How we price our work.
Questions people ask before starting
I only have access to Google Scholar. Is this still useful?
Yes. We cover Google Scholar's advanced features and limits, open-access sources and repositories, and how to request material through public or institutional libraries. We will also check whether you have access you did not know about, such as alumni or professional-body library access.
Which reference manager should I use?
It depends on your institution's support, your operating system and whether you collaborate. Zotero is free and widely used; Mendeley Reference Manager is free with an Elsevier account; EndNote is often provided by universities. We explain the trade-offs and set up the one you choose.
Will you find the sources for my literature review?
We coach you to find them. In sessions you build and run the searches, and you decide what is relevant. Selecting and synthesizing sources is part of your assessed work.
Can you help me report my search in my methods chapter?
Yes. We show you what information to record — databases, dates, strings, limits and results — and how search reporting is usually structured in your field. You write the section.
Do you know my library's systems?
Library platforms differ, so we ask which databases and discovery tools you have before the first session and, if useful, explore your library's own guides together. Your subject librarian is also an excellent resource, and we encourage you to use them.