Do you want to learn how to research like a pro? Searching for credible information is an important skill, especially in our current era of misinformation, artificial intelligence, and algorithm-driven content. Information literacy equips you with the skills to locate, evaluate, and use information effectively. It also encourages you to use your noggin and engage in critical thinking, so your brain doesn’t short-circuit due to information overload.
As a professional archivist and librarian, it’s my job to teach others information literacy skills. As a historian, it’s my job to locate sources for my own research. Put these together, and you could say I’m pretty damn good at finding information. Now, I’d like to share my search tips and tricks so that you can research like a pro.
Where to Research
The following guidelines can be used when searching in databases, library catalogs, and even search engines. These tools provide access to a wide variety of information sources, including but not limited to articles, books (physical, digital, and audio), video, sound recordings, archival records, and images.
Just be aware that databases and catalogs can be persnickety depending on what company or organization publishes them. Some give you guidance on their minor differences, while others hang you out to dry, with no help in sight.
Don’t freak out, though, because the search strategies I share below work across the board. You may just have to make minor adjustments for each database.
Finally, I recommend always using Advanced Search when conducting research. I know the single Google-esque search bar is enticing, and at this point, we’re hardwired to use it for everything. But you must resist!
Trust me, Advanced Search is the way to go, especially if you’re new to research. There is usually a button or link next to the basic search bar that will get you there.
Search Tips and Tricks
Now that you know where to conduct research, let’s talk about how you find sources. The first step is having a clear topic, and ideally, a fully formed research question. Otherwise, you’ll be overwhelmed with information.
For this post, let’s use a research question I’m interested in. My question is, “What is AI’s impact on artists’ intellectual property rights?“
Find Your Keywords
When searching for sources, use keywords. Don’t type whole sentences into the search bar—databases and library catalogs don’t like that! They aren’t like Google or ChatGPT and will not be happy with you if you copy and paste your research question. Databases are not going to spit out an answer for you if you ask them a question. And by the way, it’s my duty as a librarian to tell you that the answers AI tools give you are most often wrong! That’s why learning how to conduct your own research is so important.
Instead of typing whole sentences into the search bar, use keywords from your research question. It’s also important to use synonyms and related concepts to expand your search. This covers all your bases, because authors may use different words for the same concept. We’re not mind readers, so be on the safe side and throw in some synonyms to your search. Use the Boolean operator OR in your search string to add synonyms. See below for more on Boolean operators.
If we look at my research question, we can suss out the following possible keywords and synonyms:
What is AI’s impact on artists’ intellectual property rights?
- artificial intelligence OR AI
- artists OR visual artists OR art
- intellectual property OR ip OR copyright
If you don’t get relevant hits on your first search, that’s okay! Don’t give up. Play around with your keywords and keep on searching. Even seasoned researchers don’t always get it right the first time and have to conduct multiple searches.
Use Boolean Operators
Boolean Operators are handy little words that help you save time and improve your search results.
Most academic databases and library catalogs automatically give you the option to select Boolean Operators on the Advanced Search screen. All you have to do is choose the correct one from the drop-down menu between the search bars.
You can also type Boolean operators directly into your search strings if you want to get fancy with it. Or, to search like a beast, use Boolean Operators in both the drop-down menu and search strings.
Let’s review each Boolean Operator one by one.
AND
Use AND when your research topic has more than one keyword. In my example question, our three main keywords are artificial intelligence, artists, and intellectual property. AND tells the database to only give us results that have all of these keywords. If a source doesn’t have all of ‘em, I don’t want it!
Therefore, my search string would look like: “artificial intelligence” AND artists AND “intellectual property”
*Use quotes to search for a specific phrase. See the Quotations section below for more information.
If using the drop-down menus, my search would look like this:
OR
Broaden your search results by using OR to include synonyms and related terms. As previously mentioned, authors may use terms interchangeably, so make sure the database retrieves sources using different terms for the same concept. Using OR asks the database to give you any result that has at least one of your search terms.
In our example, my search string would look like: “intellectual property” OR copyright
If using only the drop-down menus, my search form looks like this:
NOT
Use NOT to exclude concepts closely related to your topic that you’re not interested in. In the case of our made-up research question, I’m researching AI’s legal impact on visual artists. I want to exclude other types of artists, like musicians.
My search string would therefore look like: artists NOT musicians
This is what it looks like using the drop-down menu:
Putting it all Together
As you become a professional researcher, you can incorporate all the Booleans together. Use them in both drop-down menus and search strings for the ultimate search. It would look something like this:
Get Crazy with Truncation, Wildcards, and Quotations
These 3 tricks are useful if you want flexibility in your search, or if you want to be super precise.
Truncation
Truncation is used to broaden your search by including variations of a word that share the same stem. The symbols you should use vary by database, but the asterisk (*) is the most common.
Here’s an example: searching for artis* will retrieve the following terms: artist, artists, and artistic.
Wildcards
Wildcards allow you to search for words with variations in their spelling. The symbol for a wildcard varies by database, but is often a question mark (?)
Here’s an example of a wildcard in action: searching for wom?n will retrieve results for woman and women.
Quotations
If you want to search for a specific phrase, put it in quotation marks (“”). This tells the database you want search results containing the exact phrase, with the words in a specific order.
An example is “intellectual property.” This would weed out results that have the word intellectual on one page and property on another page.
Narrow Your Search Results
When conducting research, it’s tempting to look at everything the search results list offers. But that’s a big no-no, because it’s just too much to sift through.
So, if you’ve got a lot of search results, set some limits. These actions will either be called limiters or filters, depending on the database or catalog. They can be found on the Advanced Search form or will appear on your search results page in a sidebar or underneath the search bar.
Full Text
If you’re in an academic database, there’s almost always a way to ensure your search results only include sources that are fully accessible. Sometimes databases are tricky and give you teasers instead of the whole shebang. They might give you a citation, an abstract, or even the first paragraph of the source, but then stop there. It’s the worst when you find a source that looks great, but you can’t access the whole thing.
To make sure that doesn’t happen, limit your results to full text. Some databases have a “Full Text” box you can check. Others have “Access Type” drop-down menus, where you can select “Content I can access.”
Peer-Reviewed
Academic databases have a nifty limiter that retrieves only peer-reviewed articles. Peer-reviewed means that other experts reviewed the work before publication, and were like, “yeah, this is good.” Therefore, if it’s peer-reviewed, you can trust it’s an accepted scholarly source.
There’s usually a “Peer-Reviewed” box or button you can click on to set this limiter.
Publication Date
Most databases and catalogs allow you to set limits on publication dates. This comes in handy when you want the most recent sources on a topic. Our AI question is a good example. Since it’s a topic that is rapidly changing, I’d want to limit my search results to the past 5 years.
Alternatively, if you’re in a historical newspaper database looking for primary sources of an event that happened in 1895, limit the publication date to that year. Easy-peasy.
Source Type
Some databases and catalogs let you filter by source or document type. Examples include journal articles, newspaper articles, magazine articles, research reports, books, book chapters, reviews, videos, images, etc.
Other Filters
A variety of other filters are available to you, depending on the database or catalog.
Subject headings allow you to limit your search results to sources about a particular topic or subject. There is usually a list of existing subject headings you can choose from on the search results page.
You may also be able to filter by location and language. Again, each tool is different, so play around with your filters!
Research on the Internet
Ah, the Internet. It’s truly the wild west out here, and anything goes. When researching on the Internet, the burden is on you to evaluate, analyze, and fact-check information. Seriously.
You must consider the authority of the authors. Ask yourself these questions: Why are they writing on the subject? What is their reputation? What are their biases? Ideally, you should do this for all sources you consult (even scholarly ones), but it’s even more vital to do it for sources you find on the Internet.
It’s also important to research an author or organization to see what their deal is. Are they embroiled in any controversies? Are they reputable? As you can see, there’s a lot more legwork you must do to verify the credibility of a source from the Internet.
Search for Specific Websites
When searching on the Internet, your best bet is to stick with websites that end in .edu (educational websites) and .gov (governmental websites). You may also want to include websites ending in .org (organizational websites), but be sure to research the organization to make sure everything is copacetic.
To limit your Internet search results to these specific websites, try this trick. Type in site:.gov or site:.edu at the end of a search phrase.
Here’s an example. If I want to search for sources about my fake research question (What is AI’s impact on artists’ intellectual property rights?), I’ll probably want to look at government websites. Intellectual property is a legal issue, so I’d want to see what the U.S. government has to say about it.
My search would look like: “artificial intelligence” AND “intellectual property” AND artists site:.gov
Google Advanced Search
Did you know that Google has an advanced search form? Yep! It’s a great place to demo my search tips and tricks, so your Google searches will be more targeted and relevant. Give it a try!
Google Scholar
I have another secret to share with you. There is a way to search for scholarly information on the Internet. It’s called Google Scholar. Unlike regular Google, Google Scholar searches for information from universities, archival repositories, research organizations, professional societies, and academic publishers.
My one major gripe with Google Scholar is that it will often list sources behind a paywall. Now, I’m not against paying for scholarly works. I understand that this may be necessary for some folks, especially independent researchers. But my advice is to see if you can find the source somewhere else.
Avoiding the Paywall
If you’re a student or faculty member at an academic institution, I bet that your wonderful, amazing librarians can find the source for you. Your college or university library may already subscribe to that publisher’s database, so you, the patron, can get it for free! (Technically, if you’re a student, your tuition covers it.) If the library doesn’t have access to the source through a subscription, they can get it through Interlibrary Loan. Trust me, I do this all the time.
If you’re an independent researcher, go to your public library. Depending on the library system, they may have subscriptions to certain databases. They can also try to get materials for you through Interlibrary Loan.
You might also try your local state university or community college library because many of them are open to the public. Each has its own set of rules for general public access, so just ask!
If all else fails, then sure, pay for the source.
I hope these search tips and tricks help you conduct research like a pro. Let me know how it goes in the comments below!
Leave a Reply