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Search Strategies for Advanced Research
Browse the shelves for more books on your topic
Books in McKillop Library are shelved by the Library of Congress classification system. This means that if you find one book on your topic, there will be others shelved next to it! You can browse the shelf online through the catalog which will also show you ebooks on your topic. You may also want to visit the main collection on the third floor so you can flip through the tables of contents and skim the beginning of chapters. This can help you get an idea of what scholars are talking about related to your topic, and help you identify more precise questions and narrow your topic.
Books with call numbers starting with the letters A-H are located on the left side of the library (H splits between the left and right side), while books with call numbers starting with the letters H-Z are located on the right side of the library.
If you've already found one book on your topic, there will likely be more right next to it. To find a book on the shelf, use the call number listed in the catalog. Ask a library staff member for help.
- History - call numbers beginning with D, E, and F.
- Political Science - call numbers beginning with J - location right side 3rd floor
- Law- call numbers beginning with K - location right side 3rd floor.
After you find your book, browse around the place it was shelved. You'll find more books on similar topics nearby.
Use subject headings to find more sources
The library's book catalog and EBSCOHost databases (library's book and article tabs) index books and articles which means they provide subject headings that you can click on to find more books and articles on your topic.
If you find a book on your topic in the book catalog, click on the title to open the book record and scroll down to the Library of Congress Subject Headings. If you see one that describes your topic well, click on it to see more books on your topic.
You can also use the catalog's advanced search option to combine a subject heading with other keywords to see more specific results.
In the library's EBSCO article search, you can use also click on subject headings to find more articles about your topic.
You can also combine subject headings with keywords to get more specific results.
Use articles and books bibliographies/references and Google Scholar's "cited by" to find more sources
If you find one good book or article, you can use the author's citations to find sources related to your topic before the book or article was published, and Google Scholar's "cited by" tool to find articles that were published after the book or article was published. See the below video to learn more about using Google Scholar's "cited by" tool.
Finding Datasets
Datasets are produced by entities such as researchers, institutions, state/provincial, local, and federal governments, and non-governmental organizations. Sometimes these entities will provide raw data online which researchers must either download or interact with an API (application programming interface) to extract. This means that Google searching for your specific data need (ie: homicide rates for indigenous women between 1970-2000) may not bring back the results you need. Instead you'll need to identify where that data might be kept, find the dataset, and use the tools provide to try to find the the data you're looking for.
A great way to identify where the data might be kept is to find news articles, reports, and scholarly articles that reference datasets. For example, if your topic is Economic and Environmental Impact of Wildfires in Canada, you can start with a Google search. This may reveal a source, such as a New York Times article that references data from the Canadian National Fire Database. Another Google Search can lead you to this dataset, which may allow you to extract additional specific data.
Another way to find datasets is to browse data portals such as the US Government's data portal, The European Union data portal, United Nations data portal, World Bank data portal, or others.
Some datasets may not be freely available. In cases like these, a data search strategy would be to identify experts who have done research on your topic (often through your literature review) and contact them to ask if they would be willing to share their data.
Identify the language different disciplines use to refer to your topic
Sometimes a scholars from different disciplines may research the same topic. For example, with a topic such as murders of indigenous women in British Columbia, scholars from fields such as anthropology, sociology, political science, and criminal justice may be conducting research. Each of these fields uses a different disciplinary lens and different words to describe this and related topics. Identifying that language and using the words in different research tools can open up whole new worlds of research. Conversely, students often believe that there is no research on their topic because they are using the wrong words while searching.
To identify the language, search multidisciplinary databases such as EBSCO, JSTOR, and Google Scholar. Without even opening the articles and books, you can scan the result lists to see how scholars are referring to your topic and related issues and keep notes of the words they use. When reading books and articles you should also pay attention to language authors use for key concepts and keep notes. Then you can use these words to iterate your search in the various search tools.
Iterate your search in different search tools
Search tools such as EBSCO, JSTOR, Google Scholar, Sage, Science Direct, the library catalog and others not only have different books and articles in them, but also use different search algorithms. This means that you should try your search words in several different search tools. Here are some hints for working with different common search tools:
EBSCO (library's article search)
Use few words in the search box. Use specific nouns that describe your topic precisely. EBSCO's search algorithm only searches fields in the article's record such as article or chapter title, author, journal or book title, abstract or summary, and subject headings. This means that too many words make it more likely that the search algorithm will return nothing. Use limiters on the left-hand side to limit by date, subject, and other criteria.
Book catalog (library's book search)
Much like the library's EBSCO article search, the library's book catalog searches only fields in the book record such as book title, author, publisher, content note or chapter headings, and subject headings. Use few words in the search box. Use specific nouns that describe your topic precisely. Too many words make it more likely that the search algorithm will return nothing. Use limiters on the left-hand side to limit by date, subject, and other criteria.
JSTOR's search algorithm searches the full text of articles and book chapters. This means that you can add more words to your search. If you use too many, however, you'll find that the results JSTOR returns may be irrelevant to your search. Iterate your search by removing words from your search string or using different words to see how this changes your results. You can also use fewer words and narrow the results by using the limiters on the left hand side of the result page. These will let you limit by date, if the date range is significant to your topic, or look through a disciplinary lens by clicking on disciplinary fields in JSTOR's subject limiter.
Google Scholar's search algorithm is unknown, but it appears to search the full text of articles. It also searches a massive number of scholarly publishers, university repositories, and other sources that are likely to have scholarly sources. Note that it also may have sources such as undergraduate theses and articles that have not been reviewed for quality, so evaluation of sources found on Google Scholar is a good idea.
One great feature of Google Scholar is the ability to enter your entire research question, before you have identified scholarly language to describe it, and still get often useful results. If you research question is too broad, however, you will likely be overwhelmed by the number of results, so it is often a good idea to narrow your topic by using EBSCO and the library catalog or by preliminary reading or skimming of books before searching in Google Scholar.
Recognize that different search strategies and search tools will be necessary for different topics
If your research focuses on very recent issues such as impacts on national security of AI or other topics in technology or science, you may need to use different types of sources and search tools. For a topic like the one above, where timeliness is as important as author credibility, you can use other search tools such as a Google Custom Search of thinktanks. Harvard University's think tank search is one example.
If your research focuses on military issues, you may find that an advanced Google Search in the .mil domain is useful. If your research is focused on a country other than the United States, you may find that a Google Advanced Search in a country level domain is useful. See more about advanced Google searching below.
Seek perspectives on your topic from different groups
Controversies and scholarly and civic discussions on your topic may be unavailable in standard academic or English-language sources. To uncover other perspectives, try using Google Advanced Search to search within the domains of different entities, such as the US military (.mil), European Union (.eu), or other country level domains. Remember that English-language searches in non-English-speaking countries are likely targeted to an English-speaking audience rather than native-language speakers. Ideally, you would have language ability in your area of research, but if not, you can try using Google Translate to translate your search terms into the language of interest, as well as a Google Translate browser add-on to translate the full webpage. See video below for illustration of these suggestions.
Evaluating Scholarly Works
You probably know that scholarly articles are the most credible sources if they've often undergone a process of peer review. While this is often true, credibility in scholarly sources is a more complicated picture. To evaluate the quality of an article or scholarly work, you can evaluate the credibility of:
- the author
- the publisher of the book, journal, news source, or report
- the author's sources
Evaluating Scholarly Journals and Journal Publishers
Academic experts know which are the most significant journals in their field and research area. After doing a significant amount of scholarly research, you may begin to learn this too. When you're just starting out on your research, you may find it useful to evaluate the journals you find.
Impact factor (IF) is a measure of the number of times an average paper in a journal is cited, during a year (Elsevier) This is one way to identify if a journal is highly respected in a particular field. One way to identify impact factor or other similar metrics is to use Google Scholar Metrics. A short video on using Google Scholar Metrics is below.
If the journal you're using is not noted in Google Scholar Metrics or another tool, it doesn't necessarily mean it's not credible. There are thousands of journals in hundreds of scholarly fields, and particularly niche fields may not be represented in these metrics. Because of this, you may decide to use other evaluation methods, such as the CRAAP test, described below.
With the explosion of internet-enabled research sharing, there has also been an explosion of publications that claim to be scholarly. These are often referred to as "predatory publications" because they may demand that researchers pay to have their work published, publish work without permission, fail to perform peer review, or institute a shoddy peer review process.
“Predatory journals and publishers are entities that prioritize self-interest at the expense of scholarship and are characterized by false or misleading information, deviation from best editorial and publication practices, a lack of transparency, and/or the use of aggressive and indiscriminate solicitation practices.” (from the journal Nature)
Think.Check.Submit and the Open Access Scholarly Publishers' Association have developed checklists determine a publisher's quality. Looking at the publisher can be an important step towards identifying whether an article is in a credible publication.
Evaluating Scholarly Books, Scholarly Articles, and Authors
A checklist tool such as the CRAAP test may be useful to evaluate the credibility of scholarly books, articles, and authors.
C: Currency
When was the book or article published? Is the datedness of subject matter significant (for example, with historical research topics, it may be fine to use a source that's 20 years old, while a topic related to science or technology may demand the most research research).
You can also consider currency when evaluating the sources the author uses to make their assertions-- based on the subject matter, are their sources appropriately timely?
R: Relevance
Does the author clearly lay out their assertions or arguments, and then use evidence that clearly is directly relevant to those assertions? Sometimes a less credible author will make an assertion and present official documentation that is from a credible source, but does not directly relate to the assertion the author made.
Consequently, an important way to check an author's credibility is to review their citations. Are the citations themselves credible? When you find and review the author's sources, do they in fact confirm author's conclusions?
A: Authority
Does the author have the authority (for example, academic training or lived experience) to make their assertions? Sometimes an academic author who is trained in one field will claim to be an expert in another.
Authority can also be context-dependent. For example, a blog post, autobiography, or other writing on an author's experiences during an event could be a primary source. In this type of source, research on the author would ideally prove that the author was actually present at the event, but the author's academic credentials would be less relevant. Another example could be reflection or description of the significance of indigenous cultural practices. In this example, an author's identity as a member of the indigenous group is likely to be more significant than an academic credential. Another example of author credibility other than academic credentials could be in the case of an author of a policy report or article, where an author practitioner (ie: long-time police chief of a large urban police force, nurse with many years of experience in a particular field of nursing, high-ranking government official with many years of experience in a particular area of government) provides analysis of a particular policy in their area of expertise. Yet another example of author authority could be in the case of a trained journalist who has conducted extensive research and interviewed many sources, or has many years of experience covering a particular "beat" and is knowledgeable about the issues and people surrounding that beat.
A: Accuracy
This criterion is extremely important in establishing authority and credibility. One way to determine accuracy is by "lateral reading" or finding consensus on a topic across several established credible sources.
Another, very important method for determining accuracy is checking an author's sources for yourself-- do the sources actually back up the author's assertions? It is not unheard of for less credible authors to cite official or scholarly sources as evidence to support their claims, but close reading of the sources reveals that they contradict the author's assertion or are irrelevant to the claim.
P: Purpose
This criterion, related to the purpose for publishing a piece of work, often relates to bias. For example, is a company's purpose for creating a publication or platform primarily to make money, inform, or persuade its audience? Is it to share research? Evidence to make this determination can include such information as source of funding, non-profit or for-profit status, institutional and political affiliation of author and publisher, and other factors. Bias can originate from the author and/or the publisher.
In research papers, was the research funded by an entity that has an interest in the outcome of the research? For example, a pharmaceutical firm funding research on drug effectiveness. Often you will find a section in a research article that notes if the authors received outside funding for their research.
With relation to political policy, you may find reports that present on policy effectiveness, or make policy recommendations. If a think tank issues these reports, does it have an ideological orientation that may influence its findings? While the research methods may be sound, the reader must evaluate whether the political orientation affected the kind of research questions posed or the way results were interpreted.
Purpose has become increasingly important with the explosion in the number of academic sources, including predatory journals. As you become well-versed in your field, you should begin to know the top journals in your research area. One way to do this is to try using the criteria described above to evaluate whether a publisher is credible or predatory.
With relation to news sources, there is a continuum of purpose. News organizations may be primarily intended to inform the public or created and published to promote an ideological agenda. One way to identify purpose of news organizations is to evaluate how closely they conform to the Society of Professional Journalists Code of Ethics. Another factor for evaluation may be how clearly opinions or editorial content is separated from news content. If reporters use sensational or opinionated language in reporting, the news from this source should be very carefully evaluated for accuracy and bias.