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Research 101

This guide's purpose is to help you understand researching at a college level. Use the navigation on the left-hand side to explore different parts of a typical research process. If you need further help, contact a librarian!

Tips & Tricks for Searching for Resources

Searching for resources and supportive materials in the library catalog or databases shares similarities with searching for information in Google or another search engine. However, there are key differences and knowing these may help with research frustrations.

Keywords, Not Sentences

Your research question(s) might be written out in sentence form, but you won't have much success if you type a full sentence into the database search bar directly.

Rather, you will want to pull out the keywords (main terms) of the research question(s) and use those first. Below is an example search in the nursing database CINAHL. 

What do you notice about how these keywords are entered? 

Phrase Searching, Boolean Operators, and Truncation

Phrase searching is useful when your search terms consist of two or more words that must stay together in the results. In the example above, using quotation marks around "pain management" and "patient education" will ensure those terms are searched as phrases. Otherwise, you might get results using "pain" and "management" separately, which would clog your results page with irrelevant material to go through. This is not necessary practice in every database, but if you are struggling to find relevant results, you might need to use quotation marks.

Boolean operators are capital AND, OR, or NOT used between search terms to denote placement in the results. 

  • AND 
    • "Include both these terms"
    • The example above uses this Boolean operator to make sure the results list include all the search terms. 
    • Implied in some search fields, like Google Scholar.
  • OR
    • "Include either of these terms"
    • More commonly used for synonym searching
    • The example above might use it for synonyms to "pain management", i.e. "pain management" OR "pain relief"
    • Some databases, like CINAHL, will auto-fill synonyms with Boolean operator OR 
  • NOT
    • "Do not include this term"
    • Useful if your search terms consistently return irrelevant results by nature of the term, i.e. "pain management" brings up results on orthopedic pain, but you are focused on other kinds of pain
    • The example above might be: "pain management" NOT orthopedic
    • Use this Boolean operator sparingly, as it might eliminate useful results over a single use of the term

Truncation is when you use an asterisk to search for all possible branches of a root word. The example above does this with the term "nurs*" in order to retrieve results that might use "nurses" or "nursing," without having to type each of those options out. The location of the asterisk matters; if you search for "nurse*" you will not get "nursing," and if you search for "nur*" you might get "nurture" or another non-related term. 

Searching As Exploration

Searching for literature and resources seems as though it would be relatively straightforward. However, going into a search with that mentality can lead to disappointment. Rather, looking at the search itself as an exploratory activity might help ease frustrations. Consider the visual below.

It's rare that any kind of research takes a linear path. Even a "clear" research question might turn up alternative questions or topics that you want or need to explore, first. You might also find that a preconceived notion is coming up as incorrect through your research, and now you need to re-evaluate your topic and question. These events happen to seasoned researchers! Try not to be discouraged, and instead view the research process as exploration for answers. 

Bonus! Organization Tips

Having good organization before, during, and after your search session is important. Whether you're able to search for literature and resources in one long session or are limited to short sessions here and there, see if these organization tips help make the task more manageable. 

Before 

  • Create a blank Google Doc or Microsoft 365 document. Keep your work on the Cloud, accessible from different locations.
  • Separate your document into sections.
    • Research question(s) 
    • Possible keywords and synonyms 
    • Databases/websites used 
    • Results

During

  • As you search, keep track of the information for each of those sections. 
  • Begin a new section whenever you adjust something major (i.e. move onto a different database, change keywords substantially) 
  • This will help you to recreate a search if you need to at another point.
  • Copy potential article URLs (permalink in databases) and APA citation into the document.
    • The APA citation generated by the database or website will likely need to be refined. They are seldom 100% correct. But this is a starting point! 
  • Important: Do not spend your time reading articles during your search phase. Scan titles and abstracts and set aside. Dedicating a search session to only searching will help you stay on task and focused.

After

 

  • In the results section, copy and paste the articles permanent URL (permalink) and the generated APA citation. 
    • You will more than likely need to edit the APA citation because generated citations are not 100% accurate. But this method creates a starting point.
    • Once you've finished a search session and you're ready to review possible articles, create a bulleted list of information from the article that you think is important.