When searching for information about diseases/disorders, try full names and medical names as well as abbreviations and common names.
- For instance, the full name for "PTSD" is "posttraumatic stress disorder" and the medical term for "head lice" is "pediculosis."
If you are using Google to find information from federal or state government sources, add this to your keyword search: site:.gov
- This tells Google that you want to find web sites that have .gov (a domain reserved for government agencies) within the URL.
- Alternatively, you can add site:.edu or site:.org to find web sites from colleges/schools or from nonprofit organizations.
If you are using a library database to find scholarly articles, use the database's thesaurus or subject headings list to identify the best wording for your topic. For example, PubMed uses:
- Autism spectrum disorder (NOT "autistic children")
- Body Mass Index (NOT "BMI")
- Head protective devices (NOT "helmets")