An important step when you start searching for sources is figuring out your search strategy. This usually involves thinking of the best search terms or keywords to use. It's also useful to know where and how to search for information, such as the library website or online. This will depend on your assignment requirements and the types of sources you are allowed to use for your assignment. Once you find sources, it's also important to evaluate them to ensure that you are using credible and reliable sources to support your research topic/question.
Conducting background research is an important step in the earlier stages of your research. Background research allows you to:
Some tools you can use for conducting background research are:
Search terms or keywords are words or phrases that best describe the main ideas of your research topic/question. Before you start searching, it's helpful to brainstorm and make a list of keywords which you can use. You can combine these keywords and perform different searches on the library website, databases, and Google.
Authors and subject experts may use different words, terms, or phrases to describe your topic. You may not have the best keywords for your topic when you begin searching. As you continue to do different searches, you'll discover more keywords within the sources in your search results. These can include words which are related to your topic, synonyms for your topic, and words subject experts use to describe your topic. Take note of these new terms since you can use them to search your topic.
The main search box on the Seneca Libraries website ("Library Search") allows you to search most of the library's collection including databases. Library Search is a great place to start when you're looking for sources related to your research topic. The following video provides a short introduction to using Library Search.
The following video provides quick tips when using Library Search including advanced search and finding related sources using "citation trails."
The following is from The Learning Portal: Citation & Research and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Before you begin your search, identify the types of information you are required to use in your assignment. This can easily help you narrow down search results. The searching stage of your assignment can often take a long time, but putting in the time at this stage will reward you with relevant results that will make writing your assignment much easier. Learn some of the best strategies for searching the web, including powerful Google tips and tricks, and using Google Scholar for locating scholarly journal articles on the web, and in your library's databases.
Google is a powerful search tool, but its additional features are under-utilized. Learn about the various filtering and advanced search features available to you.
Things to consider:
The following is from The Learning Portal: Citation & Research and is licensed under CC BY-NC 4.0.
Google Scholar is a search engine for scholarly articles and case law. Not all articles will be full text, and these search results will be different from the articles you will find by searching through the library; however, if you cannot access an article through Google Scholar, you may be able to find it in Library Search.
Set up your Google Scholar account to easily check if articles you find are available through the library's databases.
It's fairly safe to trust information you find through the library. The types of resources found through Seneca Libraries have been reviewed several times for quality and accuracy of information. However, you may still need to evaluate the library resource to make sure that it's relevant to your topic and matches the assignment requirements.
If you're using websites and other Internet sources in your assignment, it's important to evaluate these online sources for quality and credibility. How do you know what is trustworthy? One way to check for accuracy and reliability of information is to apply the CRAAP test.
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