Improving Your Search SkillsSue Godsell

Today’s session

1.Literature searching2.Analyse your research question(s)3.Identify your search terms4.Use the right tools5.Search techniques6.Evaluate your search strategy7.Obtain material not held at BBK8.Manage your references

Literature Searching A literature search is a systematic and thorough review of the published literature:To provide context for your research question

To establish that no-one else has already undertaken your piece of research

To find existing relevant research

To identify trends and developments and areas of dispute

To identify where your research fits into the existing body of literature

Step 2

1.Literature searching

2.Analyse your research question(s)3.Identify search terms4.Use the right tools5.Search techniques6.Evaluate your search strategy7.Obtain material not held at BBK8.Manage your references

Analyse your research question

Differs depending on subject area but consider:

Who are the main proponents?

What are the main principles?

Were there any significant events?

What were the precursors and subsequent developments?

Are there opposing or counter theories?

Analyse your research question

Mind mapping software like MindView can help to set out the relationships between conceptshttp://www.bbk.ac.uk/lib/disability-support/software/software/mind-mapping

There are also many free ones out there A nice guide from Georgia Tech http://libguides.gatech.edu/content.php?

pid=144183&sid=1241860

Example of a mind map for a literature searchExample of a mind map for a literature search

Step 3

1.Literature searching2.Analyse your research question(s)

3.Identify your search terms4.Use the right tools5.Search techniques

6.Evaluate your search strategy7.Obtain material not held at BBK8.Manage your references

Identify your search terms

List your key words/phrases and then consider…

Variant spellings• American English e.g. behaviour/behavior,

organisation/organization

• Plurals e.g. child/children

• Prefixes and hyphens e.g. self-esteem

Alternative terms e.g. climate change/global warming/greenhouse effect,

etc Scientific names/common names

Wider / narrower concepts e.g. cancer – blood cancer – lymphoblastic leukaemia You may be able to use a thesaurus e.g. PsycInfo, MeSH

Create a search query Once you’ve identified your terms, put

them together in a search query. A search analysis

grid can help e.g.

A search on“Uptake of metalsby plants”

1st concept   2nd concept   3rd concept 

metal  

 

  

and

uptake 

  

and

Plant/plants/species name 

or   or   or

  metals

   

 accumulati

on 

 vegetation 

or   or   or

  

 metallic  

 

accumulative 

 

vegetative 

Step 4

1.Literature searching2.Analyse your research question(s)3.Identify your search terms

4.Use the right tools5.Search techniques

6.Evaluate your search strategy7.Obtain material not held at BBK8.Manage your references

Use the right tools

The Library subscribes to 50+databases to help you identify what has been published in your field – don’t just use Google Scholar! Here’s a few reasons why:The databases are curated by humans, GS is machine indexedThe databases select journals to index on their reputation in their fieldArticles are mostly peer-reviewed (read and approved by other academics) before publicationThe search interfaces are more advanced and help you get targeted resultsThe pdfs you find on Google Scholar may not be the final published versions.

Use the right tools

Which ones are best for your research? See the subject guide(s) or ask your subject librarian

Check the scope and coverage

Become familiar with the interface(s)

Same search principles and techniques apply to different interfaces

Step 5

1.Literature searching2.Analyse your research question(s)3.Identify your search terms

4.Use the right tools

5.Search techniques6.Evaluate your search strategy7.Obtain material not held at BBK8.Manage your references

Search techniques

Phrase searching: put exact phrases in quotation marks e.g. “quantitative easing”

Truncation or stemming: asterisk after the word stem e.g. geneti*

Wildcards: used for variant spellings e.g. organi?ation, labo$r

Search techniques

Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT

Brackets: e.g. (cold* or flu or influenza) and (“vitamin c” or “ascorbic acid”)

Proximity searching: specify how close keywords are to each other, e.g. business* n2 ethic*, global* same warm*

Boolean LogicAND

Architecture

OR

NOT

Los Angeles

Vitamin C

Ascorbic Acid

Java Indonesia

Search techniques

“Pearl growing” - a way of expanding your search if you have found/been told about one or more important paper(s) in your fieldUse the words and phrases found in the title/abstract/keywords and search on theseSearch for more articles by the same authorUse any “related records” feature that the database hasLook at the “Cited References” - the bibliography of that paperLook at the “Times Cited” – papers that have been published more recently that have cited the paper.

Citation Searching

Use the Citation Indexes (Web of Science)

Useful once you have identified one or more important papers in your field

Allows you to find papers that have cited a paper you know about

Good way of searching forward in time

1.Literature searching2.Analyse your research question(s)3.Identify your search terms4.Use the right tools5.Search techniques6.Evaluate your search strategy7.Obtain material not held at BBK8.Manage your references

Evaluating your search strategy

Too many results/irrelevant results? Try limiting by date Try using NOT e.g. Java NOT Indonesia Look at irrelevant results and try to work out why you are

getting them Look at relevant results and pick out better search terms

Too few results? Check your spelling Try alternative terms/spellings Don’t forget truncation and wildcards Reduce the number of concepts Try the “pearl growing” technique

1.Literature searching2.Analyse your research question(s)3.Identify your search terms4.Use the right tools5.Search techniques

Hands on - Try out the search techniques

6.Evaluate your search strategy

7.Obtain material not held at BBK8.Manage your references

Obtain material not held at BBK

You will inevitably come across material that we don’t hold here at Birkbeck. You can:

1. Use other libraries. Find out which other libraries you can use:University of London librariesSenate House LibraryBritish LibrarySCONUL Access Scheme allows all research students/part-time ug and pg to borrow from 170+ librariesCheck the subject guides/ask at the help desk2. Use the interlibrary loan service£1 per request – some depts pay for PhD students

1.Literature searching2.Analyse your research question(s)3.Identify your search terms4.Use the right tools5.Search techniques6.Evaluate your search strategy7.Obtain material not held at BBK

8.Manage your references

Manage your references

Use a bibliographic management package such as EndNote, Mendeley or ZoteroThese will help you store and search the references you have collectedThey also work with Word and other packages to automatically cite your references when you are writing