Think of keywords, or important words describing each aspect of your topic, such as:
domestic abuse children
Put quotation marks around words you want to search as a phrase, such as "domestic abuse"
If you are not getting the results you want, think of synonyms or related terms that might get at your topic. For example:
"domestic violence" adolescents
You might find that you have too many search results. To narrow down your search, add more keywords. For example:
"domestic violence" adolescents gender
Keep track of the keywords you use! You will want to try the same searches in different databases.
Nearly all of the library's databases contain many articles from scholarly journals; also called peer-reviewed, refereed, or academic journals. When you do a search, look for an option (usually a check box) to limit your search to this type of material.
For more on the peer review process, check out the video below: