Introduction to Human Resources Research

Tips for Improving your Search Results

1. Start with a simple search.

Type in the topic, person or place that you need information on. For example:

employee recruitment

2. Add more search terms.

If you can’t find exactly what you’re looking for, add more descriptive terms.

Start with: safety
More precise: workplace safety construction 
Even more precise: workplace safety construction canada

3. Use words from your discipline.

Try searching for information using specific terms that are unique to your discipline (for instance, keywords found in your textbook).

Not ideal: rules about employing people in Ontario

Better: Employment Standards Act

4. Use only important words or concepts rather than an entire sentence.

Not ideal: what are some tips for improving safety of employees?

Better: improving employee safety

5. Phrase searching.

Search for an exact phrase with the use of quotes (“).

“job interviews”

will find results with that phrase.

6. Use separate search boxes for each concept.

This may make it easier to organize your search.

7. To get more results, use the OR operator.

Hiring OR Recruiting

will return items that contain either term. Don’t forget to capitalize OR.

8. Use wildcards.

The asterisk (*) will match zero or more characters at the end of a word. For example:

Canad*

will find mentions of Canada, Canadians, Canadian.