Step 1: Select the search tools you will use

(e.g. - Agricola, Academic Search Complete, JSTOR, Google Scholar, etc.)

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Step 2: Identify your primary topic keywords

(e.g. - salmon AND "water quality" and (standards OR parameters OR limits))

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Step 3: Identify any additional limits needed- region, species, data parameters, date, etc.

(e.g. - Pacific Northwest; Chinook, Coho; Nitrogen, Phosphorus, Dissolved Oxygen, etc.)

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Step 4: Include any needed access limitations

(e.g. - Interlibrary loan vs. full-text)

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Step 5: Read the abstracts to select the articles most likely to give you the greatest amount of useful information

2. Use truncation symbols (usually ? or *) in library catalogs and databases to capture all forms of words (ethnic* will retrieve ethnic and ethnicity).

3. Keep searches simple using keywords to capture core ideas. Search on ethics AND medical care AND immigrants rather than: Do immigrant communities receive an adequate standard of health care?

4. Use a variety of search words. (see: Identifying Search Words).  Try different searches to find different results:

•  access to healthcare
•  ethnic groups
• immigrant communities
• racism and medical care
• self image women         

5. Become a power internet searcher!  Use advanced search techniques to get better results from your internet searches

You can skim reports and public news stories about local watersheds for measurable factors too!

example: Green River Watershed from King Co.