1.  Be ready to both broaden and narrow your search.

• Narrow using filters (usually over on the left side):  
  • Full-text Availability
  • Scholarly or Peer Reviewed
  • Last 5 years maximum (narrow further by more recent dates)
• Broaden: remove filters or expand keywords with synonyms.

2.  Search for specific phrases by using quotation marks around words that need to be together in the results.

• "plastic straws"  (in quotes) will search for these two words next to each other in your search, resulting in more specific searching.

3.  Find the right words to use for your search (it's hard to know the vocabulary of subjects that are new to you).

• use the keywords you think will work
• find an article or two that meet your needs
• look at the subject terms in those articles
• then search using those subject terms.

4.  Grab those citations in the format you need. BUT always double check them.  Computer generated citations often have errors.

5.  Download PDFs, or copy and paste full-text into your Word Doc or Google Doc, saving as many docs or links or URLs that you can.