Strategies for inclusive searching in common search engines and databases

Publications in languages other than English

The VU Library catalogue and many other search engines and databases will let you search for publications in other languages than English.

• Look for a language filter in the side bar of your search results or under advanced search options.
• Use non-English keywords. For instance, when searching Spanish-language articles, use 'desigualdad de género' instead of 'gender inequality'. Please note that publications in Web of Science and Scopus are indexed in English, so that using non-English keywords doesn't work.

If possible, combine both strategies.

These strategies and example have been taken from the blogpost Finding scholarly literature in languages other than English from the blog series Inclusive searches & sources @FMG Library from the UvA Library.

Publications from authors working in a specific country or region

Some search engines and databases will let you search for publications from authors working in a specific country or region. Look for filters like 'Country/Region' or 'Affiliation'. Here follow two examples:

• Scopus offers two options: 1) select ‘Affiliation’ and type the name(s) of the Country/Countries before running the search, or, 2) refine the search results afterwards by ‘Country/territory’.
• The openly accessible database Lens.org offers several filter options to look for research from a specific country. 1) before you search, select 'Scholarly works'. 2) After you have run the search, you can refine your results by 'Institution' or 'Institution Country/Region'. These two filters are also visualized to the right of the page (institution logo's and world map). 

These strategies and the first example (Scopus) have been taken from the blogpost Finding scholars
working elsewhere than in Europe, North America and Oceania from the blog series Inclusive searches & sources @FMG Library from the UvA Library.

Other (advanced) search options

There are several other ways to manipulate common database in order to find publication beyond the mainstream:

• By excluding mainstream authors, concepts etc. by using the Boolean operator 'NOT' (or '-', enz., depending on the search engine or database you are using). E.g., 'cultural capital NOT Bourdieu'.
• By including non-mainstream authors, concept etc.
  • by using the Boolean operator 'AND' (or '+', enz.), e.g., 'decolonization AND Fanon'.
  • by adding a specific author to your search (e.g. 'F Fanon') in the advanced search (author field).

These strategies and examples have been taken from the blogpost Google Scholar: bias, settings, advanced search, alerts from the blog series Inclusive searches & sources @FMG Library from the UvA Library.