1 Basics in Information Searching By NUS Libraries A. Search in Internet Question: How much research funds is the Singapore government giving to water treatment? STEP 1: Keywords 1. Identify keywords and their synonyms: # Keywords Synonyms 1 Research R&D 2 Funds Investment 3 Singapore 4 Government National Research Foundation, A*STAR 5 Water treatment Water purification, water production STEP 2: Search in Internet (Assuming you are using Google) 1. Search using the keywords above: 4. Not happy with results? Try searching the synonyms. Example of searches: r&d funds singapore government "water treatment" research funds singapore “national research foundation” “water treatment” research funds singapore government “water purification” r&d funds singapore “A*STAR” “water purification” … etc… **Can’t get full-text from the Internet? Search for the news article in Factiva! As an NUS student you have access to many databases. Factiva is a database of full-text newspapers and is updated daily.** Search Tip: Use “…” to do a precise or phrase search. “Water treatment” retrieves water treatment NOT waste treatment or medical treatment
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Basics in Information Searching By NUS Libraries
A. Search in Internet
Question: How much research funds is the Singapore government giving to water treatment?
STEP 1: Keywords
1. Identify keywords and their synonyms:
# Keywords Synonyms
1 Research R&D
2 Funds Investment
3 Singapore
4 Government National Research Foundation, A*STAR
5 Water treatment Water purification, water production
STEP 2: Search in Internet (Assuming you are using Google)
1. Search using the keywords above:
4. Not happy with results? Try searching the synonyms.
Example of searches:
r&d funds singapore government "water treatment"
research funds singapore “national research foundation” “water treatment”
research funds singapore government “water purification”
r&d funds singapore “A*STAR” “water purification”
… etc…
**Can’t get full-text from the Internet? Search for the news article in Factiva!
As an NUS student you have access to many databases. Factiva is a database of full-text newspapers and is
updated daily.**
Search Tip:
Use “…” to do a precise or
phrase search.
“Water treatment” retrieves
water treatment
NOT waste treatment or
medical treatment
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B. Search for full-text in Factiva
This Wall Street Journal article is not available on the Internet. It requires you to pay.
Search for the news article in Factiva, a newspaper database subscribed by NUS Libraries.
1. To access Factiva, go to NUS Libraries portal (http://www.lib.nus.edu.sg)
2. Click on Databases tab. Search for Factiva.
3. Select Factiva.
4. At Factiva, click on SEARCH >> select SEARCH BUILDER.
5. Copy and paste the article title in the search box:
6. To download, select the article >> click on RTF >> select Article Format.
Search Tip:
If you have a title with a punctuation (eg. a semi-colon), like this:
Replace the punctuation with AND, like this:
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C. How to do a search on any topic in Factiva
1. Refer to the keywords table in Section A.
2. Add the keywords in Factiva search box like this:
3. If there too many search results, limit your search to Singapore news sources only.
4. Click on Source.
5. Enter Singapore in search box.
6. Click on Search icon.
AND is used to combine all keywords
Without AND, Factiva searches the string of words as a phrase
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7. Click on sources to select
them.
8. Click on Search to run the search.
9. If you are not happy with the results, try other searches using various synonyms and search operators.
See Appendix 1 for Search Operators.
Retrieves either
Research or r&d
Fund* retrieves
Fund
Funds
Funded
Funding
“water treatment” retrieves only
water treatment
not
waste treatment
medical treatment
treatment of water
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(research or r&d) and fund* and singapore and (government or “national research foundation” or “a*star”)
and water near5 (treatment or purification or production)
Retrieves
Water 5 words apart from treatment or purification or production
Therefore, these are retrieved:
Water treatment or water purification or water production
Water is pumped into a treatment…
Treatment of water is done….
As * is used as a truncation
symbol (see fund*),
“…” is needed to retrieve
the name as stated
between the quotes
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APPENDIX 1: Search Operators and Symbols
What does it mean? (“Food waste” OR “discarded food”) 1 concept
AND +
(conver* OR transform*) 1 concept
AND +
(biofuel* OR biodiesel) 1 concept
(“Food waste” OR “discarded food”)
“Food waste” keyword of food waste (1 concept) OR used to link similar keywords together “discarded food” similar keyword to food waste
(“Food waste” OR “discarded food”) brackets used to
encase similar keywords so that the database will run this search as it is.
“Food waste” Double quotes are used for phrases such
as “food waste” so that the search is more precise. This means the word “food” must come first and then, a space, then, “waste”. The phrase search will exclude any documents that have these 2 words placed apart such as “food storages waste electricity” or “wasted effort in preparing food”. The search is absolutely “food waste”, thus, increasing the relevancy of your search.
AND
AND combines 2 sets of concepts – food waste concept + conversion concept.
(conver* OR transform*)
Conver* Asterisk (*) is added to retrieve documents which have “convert” or “converted” or “converting” or “conversion”. These are words with the root word “conver”. It will also retrieve “conversation”. So use * with discernment. Transform* retrieves “transform”, “transforming”, “transformed”, “transformation”, etc.
Expanded search result, by retrieving documents with EITHER assess OR evaluate anywhere in the documents.
Use Truncation symbol Assess* Expanded search result, by retrieving documents containing all words beginning with the root word assess.
For eg.: Assess Assesses Assessed Assessing Assessment
Use Wildcard symbol Systemi?ed Expanded search result, by retrieving documents containing all words with variations in spelling. For eg.: Systemised, Systemized
Remove keywords Solar photovoltaic systems
More results because there are less keywords to search.
How to get less but still relevant results
Operators/Symbols/Keywords Examples Retrieves…
Add keywords using AND Life AND cycle
Narrow search result, by retrieving only documents with BOTH life AND cycle anywhere in the documents
How to improve search relevancy
Operators/Symbols/Keywords Examples Retrieves…
Proximity operator (varies with different databases)
Solar near5 systems
Documents where the keyword Solar is 0-5 words apart from systems regardless of order. For eg.: Solar photovoltaic systems Solar thermal systems Systems powered by solar This improves relevancy as terms are nearer. Some databases have different proximity operators. Proquest near/5 or n/5 Scopus w/5
Phrase search (varies with different databases)
“Solar photovoltaic systems”
Documents containing all keywords in the order stated, in the same sentence. For eg.:
assess evaluate
life cycle
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Excludes: Solar cell photovoltaic systems Systems with solar photovoltaic cells
You can also improve search relevancy by using the Limiting or Filtering options in databases.
