Welcome to the Searching for Information guideThis guide provides information and support that will help you develop skills for searching for information.
Searching for information includes:
Using e-Resources Guide - general search help
Nursing and Health Sciences
Sciences
Before you begin your search, it's a good idea to consider the following:
In order to plan your search, it's a good idea to consider the following:
Type of assessment
Assessments can vary from a short 5 minute presentation to a technical report, literature review or thesis.
The type of assignment you are asked to produce will have a direct effect on:
How much information do you need?
Consider:
Some assignment instructions are more detailed than others. It you're unsure of what you're supposed to do, check with your lecturer or module lead
Where will you find your information?
Each information source contains different types of information.
Working out which to use before you start looking will save a lot of time.
Have a look at the Information Sources tab within the Information Skills Guide for more information.
Understanding your assignment question is an important first step in getting started with planning keywords to use for your search. It may sound simple, but it is crucial that you understand your assignment questions- misinterpreting what the question is asking you to do will waste time as you may use different search terms based on the question.
Consider the following:
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Working out your main themes helps you to define your topic and work out exactly what your tutor is asking you to do, rather than just generally discussing the subject.
Once you've finished doing your background reading, perhaps from recommended books on your reading list, or your lecture notes, consider what you know.
One way of doing this would be to use a Mind Map. Mapping your ideas sharpens the focus of your assignment and helsp you to choose search terms and keywords when you begin searching for information. It can also reveal gaps in your knowledge and areas where you need to do more background reading.
You are find out more about Mind Mapping here.
Try not to spend too much time organising the material. It is more important to record all your ideas.
When you use and enter certain words into your keyword search known as Boolean operators, you are telling the computer exactly how to perform a search- one that can be tailored to your specific needs.
The most commonly used Boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.
Tip: it is good practice to capitalise search operators as some databases require this.
The wild card is usually represented by a question mark (?) which replaces one character only e.g. ne?t will find all citations containing neat, nest or next (but not net because one character must be replaced).
Truncation is usually represented by an asterisk (*) which replaces any number of characters. Enter the root of a word and replace the ending with a *
Take care not to truncate too soon e.g. Comp* finds not only computers and computing, but also company, companies, component, comparison etc.
Warning Try not to overuse truncation as you may overload the search engine and return an error message! Some databases will only allow limited use of the * symbol.
Proximity searching allows you to locate one word within a certain distance of another. The symbols generally used in this type of search are w and n.
The w represents the word "with(in)" and the n represents the word "near." This type of search is not available in all databases.
Near Operator (Nx) — finds words within x number of words from each other, regardless of the order in which they occur.
Example: television n2 violence would find "television violence" or "violence on television," but not "television may be the culprit in recent high school violence."
Within Operator (Wx) — finds words within x number of words from each other, in the order they are entered in the search.
Example: Winston w2 Churchill would find Winston Churchill or Winston S. Churchill, but would not find Churchill Winston.
If you want to search for a term, phrase, or exact match, you will need to use quotation marks around the words. This will narrow your results down. For example, a search of "social work" rather than social work will exclude results where the terms "social" and "work" appear disconnected from each other.
Too many results? Try focusing the search field to words in title.
Too few results? Try broadening your scope by searching for words within the full-text of the articles. This is particularly useful if you are looking for a more obscure word or phrase.
Search Example: Is there a link between childrens’ diet and behaviour?
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diet* OR nutrition* OR food* OR meal* OR eat* |
Select a search field |
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AND |
child* OR infan* OR “early years” |
Select a search field |
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AND |
behaviour* OR behavior* |
Select a search field |
Or, if there is only one search box available:
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(diet* OR nutrition* OR food* OR meal* OR eat*) AND (child* OR infan* OR “early years”) AND (behaviour* OR behavior*) |
Search Example: Explore the reasons why university students are becoming more stressed
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stress* OR burnout OR “burn out” OR pressur* |
Select a search field |
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AND |
student* OR undergraduate* OR postgraduate* |
Select a search field |
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AND |
universit* OR “higher education” |
Select a search field |
After thinking about the topic area you are planning to search and deciding what keywords may be useful, it is also a good idea to find alternative search words.
Alternative search words can be found by:
Synonyms – “like” words
Firstly try using the most obvious search words. Then try to think of synonyms or “like” words that might also be used e.g.
Children – try also child, infants, toddlers, pre-school or “early years”
Change – try also transitions, development, trends , emerging, shakeup, reform, modification, innovation, progress etc.
Antonyms – “opposite” words
Occasionally you will find useful information by using search words that have opposite meaning s eg:
Summon is a simple to use Google style search engine that will allow you to search University of Suffolk databases and the University of Suffolk Ipswich Library Catalogue from just one search box. You simply enter your keywords and click on search! If you have used Google, you already know how to use Summon
Summon will then display your search results in order of relevancy. For articles that are available full text you will be given a link directly to the online version, for those that aren't you'll be able to order them from another library. Summon will also link directly to e-books and will show you if a print book is available in University of Suffolk Ipswich Library.
Although Summon searches the majority of databases available through University of Suffolk Learning Services, you may consider searching our database collection.
You can browse our A-Z of e-resources list see what databases will be useful for your studies by accessing your Subject Guide page
Nursing & Allied Health is one of several Proquest databases along with British Nursing Database and Psychology Database. They all look and work exactly the same. Search topic: The effect of smoking cessation on dietary habits
Medline is useful for finding articles about medical topics. Search topic: Infection control in the operating theatre
Cinahl is the best journal article database for most nursing and health related subjects. Search topic: Using honey to treat leg ulcers
The Internet is full of information, but nobody has charge of organising or evaluating it, so it can be hard to find good quality resources that are suitable for academic work.
When searching the Internet, most people use a search engine such as Google (others are available). A search engine searches a database of Internet resources.
Unlike academic databases, these resources haven't been evaluated for quality, and search results are ranked by popularity, rather than relevance.
Generally, the Internet is a good source of:
Results will often also be based on what you've recently been searching for - two people doing the same search in Google may retrieve different results based on what the search engine thinks you might be interested in, from your search history.
You can use your keywords to try and ensure that you retrieve useful information. Google provides tutorials with tips and tricks for effective searching which can be used in any search engine.
It is very important when using information from the Internet to evaluate it for quality and reliability. You can find out more about this in the guide to Evaluating and Critiquing Information
What is Google Scholar?
It is a scholarly citation database, which started in 2004 and is an attempt to provide free citations to scholarly publications that are typically "fee-based".
What is included in Google Scholar?
Google Scholar's database indexes items Google considers "scholarly," including articles, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, conference proceedings, and technical reports. Some, but not all, articles found in Google Scholar will be accessible at University of Suffolk.
A nice feature of Google Scholar is that it can link to full text articles in the University of Suffolk electronic collection. To activate this function on your computer, go to Google Scholar and click on Scholar Preferences. Type University of Suffolk into the Library Links box. Click on Save Preferences.
What is NOT included?
It is difficult to determine how much of the scholarly literature is included in the database, but only a portion of the literature of any discipline is indexed in Google Scholar.
When should I use Google Scholar?
Great for getting started in an area, Google Scholar is a useful tool when used in conjunction with the specialized resources available through University of Suffolk Learning Services. You should also use Summon as well as subject-specific databases included in your Subject Guides to be most comprehensive with your research.
Although not typically considered to be an academic source of information, social media provides access to current and upcoming news within a subject or topic area and can allow you to connect with organisations, researchers, and institutions.
Whilst it may be helpful to search a variety of social networking sites, including blogs or wikis, Twitter provides you with short pieces of information that may be helpful as you search for literature on your topic. Some people and organisations to consider following are listed below:
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The Handbook of Online and Social Media Research
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