LibGuides: The Research Process: Select, Explore, Narrow, Refine, and Use: Explore information

Basic principles for starting a search

Keyword choice: when doing a search, identify the main concepts of your topic: what basic ideas, words, or perspectives describe the subject? Make a list of those words and use them as keywords.

Keyword combination: how can you combine your keywords? Do you want them all in the same results? What related subjects could you include and which ones can you eliminate? Use Advanced Search or Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT) to combine your terms.

Do not use questions while searching: for example, instead of searching for "what strategies northern cities can use to develop a good cycling infrastructure?", a better option would be searching for strategies AND cycling infrastructure AND northern cities. This would work even on Google!

Identify relationships and similar keywords: what synonyms or related keywords can you identify that would help you describe your topic?

Your research question and thesis: if you have a research question or thesis, which points are you trying to argue? Each of these points can result in a different search strategy, with its own keywords.

When doing your search, consider your assignment: what kind of sources can be used? Use the guidelines below to distinguish different types of sources.

1. Popular x scholarly sources

2. Primary x secondary sources

3. Examples of sources

Popular x scholarly sources

	Popular	Scholarly or peer-reviewed
Appearance	Colourful images, pictures and embedded Youtube videos. Different font types, colours, and sizes throughout the text. Lots of advertisements. Includes links to unrelated or sponsored content.	Sparse image use. Font usually doesn't vary throughout the source. Few or no ads. When present, links will point to related research or to other sources that were used as part of the study.
Citations and bibliography	Does not include citations or bibliography. May include links to other related sources, but links are used in an unstructured way.	Includes in-text citations and a bibliography. Citations follow a specific format and can be easily identified.
Authorship	Author is usually not an expert in the field. Author is not always identifiable. Author affiliation to a company or institution is usually not described.	Author is an expert in the field. Author names are clearly identified. Includes affiliation, usually to a university or institute.
Structure	Structure is loose and not uniform.	Usually has a clear structure with an introduction, methods, results, discussion, conclusion, and references. This structure may vary depending on the field and type of study.
Language	Language for a general audience; no use of specific terminology or jargon. Conversational style.	Employs jargon of the discipline or technical language.
Purpose	Has the purpose to inform, persuade, or entertain.	Aims to report on original research, or summarize/evaluate existing research in a particular field.
Publisher	Publisher is not always clear or present.	Publisher is usually an academic press, professional association, or an academic institution.
Examples	Blogs, social media posts, news articles, magazine articles, general websites.	Original research articles in academic journals

Primary sources x secondary sources

Primary sources

Secondary sources

Primary sources are the first-hand account about something. They can also be an original object, artifact, or direct evidence.

Examples:

Scholarly articles about original research. These articles describe the results or an original study, or provide discussion about a perspective that hasn't yet been explored.
A research report or dissertation
Corporate or institutional records
Original answers to a survey or interview
Archaeological artifacts
Works of art, literature, or music
Historical documents (e.g. manuscripts, letters, maps)
Case laws and legal cases

Secondary sources describe the characteristics or contents of primary sources. May provide synthesis or analysis about primary sources.

Examples:

Literature review articles in scholarly journals. These articles provide analysis for how a particular topic or perspective was explored by other authors.
Meta-analysis articles
Systematic reviews articles
Annotated bibliographies
Book reviews
Interpretative blog posts
Interpretative news articles

Examples of sources

Popular source	Newspaper article (published in The Independent)
Scholarly source	Research paper (published in Biomedicine & Pharmacotherapy)
Primary source	Original study (published in Physics of Fluids)
Secondary source	Systematic review article (published in Viruses)

The strategies below are useful for several library databases and some search engines.

1. Boolean search

2. Thesaurus & subject headings

3. Truncation & nested search

1. Boolean Search

The boolean search is a specific way to combine your keywords. See below:

AND	What it does: Searches all terms. Example: history AND Yukon What you'll get: Results with all keywords occurring simultaneously.
OR	What it does: Searches either keyword. Good for synonyms or related words. Example: First Nations OR Indians OR Aboriginal What you’ll get: Results that have at least one of the words.
NOT	What it does: Excludes search results. Example: real estate AND Yukon NOT potatoes What you’ll get: Results that have only what you want, excluding items that contain certain keywords.

2. Thesaurus & subject headings

Some databases such as CINAHL, Business Source Complete, Medline, and APA PsychInfo include a Subject Headings or Thesaurus feature.

Subject headings and thesaurus are options that allow you to browse for subject terms better suited to find sources about certain topics. Subject terms are assigned based on article content, allowing you to create a targeted search.

Learn more about Thesaurus Search here.

3. Truncation & nested search

Truncation works in several library databases and the Discovery search (main search on library home page).

*	What it does: Finds words related to the same topic, or words that have multiple spellings. Example: behavi* What you’ll get: Results that include words beginning with the same root. For the example above, the search would include words like behaviour, behavior, behavioural, behaviourist, etc.
?	What it does: Finds words with multiple spelling variations. Use it in the middle of a word. Example: wom?n What you’ll get: Results that include multiple spellings of the required word. For the example above, results would have women or woman.
"..."	What it does: Searches an exact phrase Example: “climate change in the north” What you’ll get: Results that include your keywords in the exact sequence that you typed. For the example above, results would include climate change in the north as one single keyword.
( )	NESTED SEARCH What it does: Specifies the order of the search and groups related keywords or synonyms. Use this with the operator OR. Example: (First Nations OR Indians) AND Yukon What you’ll get: Without brackets, the database will combine search terms incorrectly.