Research Tips: Search Tips

Quotation Marks--Use quotation marks to search for a phrase - quotes, glue words together into a phrase

• "social media"
• "human rights"
• "world heritage site"

Boolean Logic: using AND, OR, NOT

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• AND narrows a search--can join dissimilar terms
• "college students" AND "human rights" requires the two phrases be found within the same article

• OR broadens a search (OR means MORE)--joins similiar terms & synonyms
• "heritage site" OR "heritage tourism" either phrase could be found in an article

• NOT narrows a search--removes unwanted terms
  • "heritage site" NOT tourism removes tourism

Truncation--Use a symbol to return various endings of a word 
(* is the most common)

• symbol* will search for symbol, symbols, symbolism, symbolic
• politic* will search for political, politics, politic, politically
• teen* will search teens, teenager, teenagers

Combine search strategies for more efficient searching

• (culture OR archeology) AND "world heritage site*"
• ("tourist attractions" OR "heritage sites" ) AND UNESCO

Credibility validates the reliability of your research. 

Articles from databases, such as EBSCO, Gale and Infobase, subscribed to by the library include all citation and can easily be found credible.

Sites, such as Wikipedia, blogs and social media sites are open forums for non-experts and while they be great for brainstorming, they are not credible sources for research.

Use the following checklist to determine the credibility and validity sources:

1. What is your topic?

2. What is the URL?

Currency

Relevancy

Authority

Accuracy

Purpose

When was the information published or posted?

Do you need historical or current information?

Has this information been revised or changed since it was first released?

Does this offer appropriately current or historical information?

Does the information help you accomplish the purpose of your work/paper? Does this easily relate to your topic?

Does this source meet all your information needs or assignment requirements?

Is this source at an appropriate level for your intended audience?

Have you looked at a variety of sources? Why is this source better than others?

Is this a source that adds value to your work? Why is it worth including?

Who is the author?  Who is the publisher?

• What expertise do they have with this subject?
• What is their educational background?
• Where are they from? Where are they living now?
• What political party do they belong to?
• What organizations or causes do they support?
• Are there any other biases you can ascertain?

 Can you trust this author and publisher to know what they're talking about?

Is this information correct? Reliable?

Are sources listed? Cited within the text?

• Are these sources scholarly/academic?
• When were these sources published?
• Do these sources come from trustworthy authors/publishers?

If the source conducted its own original research:

• What methods were used to collect the data/information?
• What was the sample size or population?
• Are there any weaknesses in the way that they gather or analyzed their data?
• Do you feel that they provided adequate support for their conclusions?

Can you trust that this information is true?

What is the purpose of this information source?

• To entertain? Inform? Educate? Pursuade? Sell? 
• Are advertisements included? Photographs?

Is the information fact, opinion, or propoganda?

Do the authors/publishers make their intentions clear?

Is there bias - political, cultural, religious, ideological, personal, etc?

Is this source objective and impartial, or is it influenced by bias or hidden agendas?