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Interagency Youth Working Group

© 2003 Sean Hawkey, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2001 Jim Stipe/Lutheran World Relief, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2001 Jennifer Knox/CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2006 Jane Koehler/CCP, Courtesy of Photoshare© 2005 Esther Braud, Courtesy of Photoshare

Resources On Youth Reproductive Health and HIV/AIDS

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Expanding and Narrowing Search Results

Tips for finding more on a subject:

1. Check your spelling.  Did you spell all your search words correctly?  If your search term includes a hyphenated word, like youth-friendly, put double qotation marks around the phrase -  "youth-friendly" or "faith-based" - so that you will find both variations (with and without the hyphen).

2. Use the * (asterisk).  The * substitutes for any number of characters.  It is especially effective for words that are used in both singular and plural form.  For instance, vasectom* finds the words vasectomy, vasectomies, and vasectomized. 
Note:  An asterisk must be preceeded by at least 3 characters.

3. Broaden your geographic search term.  If you find little on "adolescent health" AND cambodia, try: "adolescent health" AND asia.

4. Limit your concepts.  How many subjects are in your search?  There may be no records for the search "faith-based" AND "abstinence" AND cameroon. Omit cameroon from your search and you will find more records.

 

Tips for for finding fewer, but more relevant, search results:

1. Add a geographic word to your search.  For instance, adolescent health finds about 250 records, but if you add AND nepal to it (adolescent health AND nepal), your total number of records drops to about 15.

2. Get more specific.  AIDS AND africa finds about 75 records.  Try a more specific subject like fertility rate.  "HIV infections" AND africa results in about 30 records.

3. Choose "More Search Options" to display the Advanced Search screen.  The Advanced Search mode allows you to refine the set of records you find--to make sure all the records you find are on your search topic.  You enter your search into specific fields and retrieve only those records that match your search.  You can also specify the relationship of the fields to each other.

 

Disclaimer: The information provided on this web site is not official U.S. Government information and does not represent the views or positions of the U.S. Agency for International Development, the U.S. Government or The Johns Hopkins University.