Global Health

Your question, or topic statement, forms the basis of your search. It contains the concepts upon which you build your search terms as well as hinting at the disciplines and types of information you will be seeking.

From the previous page, Asking Questions, we will use the question How does being part of a wildfire response team as a first responder impact whole health in Canada as compared to Australia?  with a modification to include geographic regional considerations to guide us through the steps of building a search.

Concepts are the components of your question (or topic statement) which will form the basis of your search. Some will find it helpful to use a question formula (see Asking Questions) to both build a question and to identify concepts. 

Using our example question: How does being part of a wildfire response team as a first responder impact whole health in Canada as compared to Australia?

Concepts: wildfire, response team, first responders, whole health, Australia, Canada

Within the search, concepts are often combined with AND e.g. Wildfire AND First Responders AND Whole Health

Once the concepts have been identified, it is helpful to develop related terms for each. Related terms can be synonyms or terms which are similar in scope or nature for the purposes of the question. Related terms may be identified through looking at articles that discuss the same or similar topics as well as looking at the terms, controlled vocabulary, that databases use to describe article contents. Consider also how terms used to describe or name something have evolved or changed over time, geographic or regional differences in terminology, as well as how different disciplines might describe the same thing.

In the table below are examples of related terms for each concept. 

Within the search, related terms will be combined with OR, helping to expand the breadth of potential articles found.
Eg. Health OR Well being OR Stress