When searching for primary research, remember that these types of articles usually mimic the actual research process. Therefore, various components have to be included. Primary research usually includes elements such as the following:

• Abstract
  • Purpose/objective/hypothesis/the research question
• Introduction
• Literature Review
• Methods/Methods and Materials
  • What we did/how we did it
  • Key element: Is it replicable
• Results
  • Often contains statistics
• Discussion/Conclusion/Limitations/Recommendations
  • Did they answer the research question? If not, why? What can they do differently? Doesn’t mean that the research wasn’t valuable. This is important to point out.
• Bibliography (​Often a good source for other articles)

For the purposes of this assignment, avoid the following types of articles you may find when conducting your searches. These would not be considered primary research. You will know this, because they will not include the elements discussed elsewhere in this guide (ex. Literature Review, Methodology, etc.)

• Case study/Case report
  • Often says the words “case report”
  • Terms to watch out for: Direct Observation; Interviews; Archival Records; Participant observation
• Editorial
• Commentary/Comment
  • Opinion on an original study
• Letter to the Editor
• Review Article
  • A summary of current research. Although they discuss research, they ARE NOT research articles
• Systematic Review/Meta-Analysis
• Consensus Statement/Position Paper/Practice Guideline
  • Authored by professional organizations or institutions

Searching

The asterisk
The asterisk (*) is a wildcard in many databases. It can take the place of other letters. (Ex. child* will find: child, children, childlike, childhood, etc.)

The Question Mark
The question mark (?) is a wildcard in many databases. Use it in the middle of a word to find variations on that word. (Ex. wom?n will find: woman and women)

N and W
These are called "proximity operators" in many databases. They are placed between words that are to be searched. 

"Proximity searching is a way to search for two or more words that occur within a certain number of words from each other. The proximity operators are composed of a letter (N or W) and a number (to specify the number of words). The number cannot exceed 255.

The proximity operator is placed between the words that are to be searched, as follows:

• Near Operator (N): N5 finds the words if they are a maximum of five words apart from one another, regardless of the order in which they appear. For example, type tax N5 reform to find results that have a maximum of five words between the beginning and ending terms, that would match tax reform as well as tax that has been submitted for reform.
• Within Operator (W): W8 finds the words if they are within eight words of one another, in the order in which you entered them. For example, type tax W8 reform to find results that would match tax reform but would not match reform of income tax.

Multiple proximity operators can be used in a search expression and multiple terms can be used on either side of each proximity operator. See the following examples:

• tax N5 reform OR tariff N5 reform
• (tax OR tariff) N5 reform
• oil W3 (disaster OR clean-up OR contamination) N5 (fisheries OR habitats)
• (baseball OR football OR basketball) N5 (teams OR players) N5 (greatest OR best)

Note: Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) are best entered in upper case to ensure they are treated as Boolean operators instead of literal words."
Source: https://connect.ebsco.com/s/article/How-do-I-create-a-proximity-search?language=en_US