Ways to narrow a topic:
Run a search on your current topic in a database. Skim the abstracts of articles that look interesting. (Look beyond the first page of results!)
You will likely find more focused concepts that could make a good research paper or similar themes that occur in literature that could make a good topic. Try adding keywords for the new topic to your search terms.
You can also assign limiters, such as a population, a time frame, a discipline, a geographical area.
Add limiters to your search terms.
Narrowing Your Search Results in a Database:
You can also use filters in the database (on the left side) to narrow your search results. Many EBSCO databases give you the option to filter by “peer-reviewed articles”. You can also filter by year of publication date, if you’re interested in more recent articles.
If you’re getting too many results, you can also change the “Search This Field” box (to the right of your search boxes). If one of your keywords is a major concept, you can try searching for it in the abstract field. (This is written as “AB Abstract” in the Ebsco databases.) The abstract is a summary of the article, so important terms are generally found there.