Step 3: Search The Literature
When searching the literature, it is important to come up with a keyword search, or search string. Columbia University defines a keyword search as the following:
A Keyword search looks for words anywhere in the record. Keyword searches are a good substitute for a subject search when you do not know the standard subject heading. Keyword may also be used as a substitute for a title or author search when you have incomplete title or author information. You may also use the Guided Keyword search option to combine search elements, group terms, or select indexes or fields to be searched.
http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/help/clio/keyword.html
Remember to keep track of what keyword searches you have conducted so you can save time and determine how to improve your search and continue with the searching process.
Refine
Once you have completed a search, it is important to refine your search, to get exactly the information you need. You can refine by source type (book or peer reviewed article) and year (only sources published since 2010).
How to Search with Keywords
Your keywords are the main concepts or ideas of your paper.
For example the keywords for a paper on “youth employment in Canada” would be:
- Youth
- Employment
- Canada
Use synonyms: Often there are multiple ways to express the same concept. For example these synonyms mean essentially the same thing – make sure to use them:
employment can also be:
- job
- work
- career
Use “AND” and “OR”: By bridging your truncated keywords and synonyms with the capitalized search words “AND” and “OR” (known as Boolean operators), you can search for multiple concepts effectively.
Books and EBooks
Beyond the Internet by ISBN: 9781598881738Publication Date: 2007-09-27The Internet is an invaluable research tool. But it is frequently the only tool that many students (and others) think to consult. Beyond the Internet presents a very enlightening--and entertaining--read with useful tips and techniques on how to utilize a wide range of available resources to enrich the research experience and expand and enhance your findings.
Keyword Search in Databases by ISBN: 9781608451951Publication Date: 2010-01-14It has become highly desirable to provide users with flexible ways to query/search information over databases as simple as keyword search like Google search. This book surveys the recent developments on keyword search over databases, and focuses on finding structural information among objects in a database using a set of keywords.
Phonetic Search Methods for Large Speech Databases by ISBN: 9781461464891Publication Date: 2013-02-28"Phonetic Search Methods for Large Databases" focuses on Keyword Spotting (KWS) within large speech databases. The brief will begin by outlining the challenges associated with Keyword Spotting within large speech databases using dynamic keyword vocabularies. It will then continue by highlighting the various market segments in need of KWS solutions, as well as, the specific requirements of each market segment.
Research Methodology by ISBN: 9781526449900Publication Date: 2019-02-11Designed with students, for students. Eight steps, two pathways, one book. The Fifth Edition of the bestseller Research Methodology has reimagined, redesigned, and fully renovated how a textbook can help students achieve success in their methods course or research project.
Research Methodology by ISBN: 9781446269978Publication Date: 2014-02-04Written specifically for students with no previous experience of research and research methodology, the Fourth Edition of Research Methodology breaks the process of designing and doing a research project into eight manageable steps.
Internet Resources
- Data Collection by David ByrneNow that you have a research question and you have planned your research and thought about research design and ethics, you need to think about how you'll collect your data.
- Fundamentals of Database Indexing and Searching by Arnab BhattacharyaFundamentals of database indexing and searching presents well-known database searching and indexing techniques. It focuses on similarity search queries, showing how to use distance functions to measure the notion of dissimilarity. After defining database queries and similarity search queries, the book organizes the most common and representative index structures according to their characteristics.
- Internet Research Skills: How to Do Your Literature Search and Find Research Information Online by Niall Ó DochartaighThe open web is becoming central to student research practice, and this text describes search strategies and outlines the critical skills necessary to deal with diverse and disorganized materials. It covers all aspects of Internet research, with each chapter containing illustrations, inset boxes, and short exercises.
- Boolean Searching
Toronto Public Library - Keyword and Advanced Keyword Searching
Carleton University - Keyword Search
Columbia University - Literature Searching Explained
University of Leeds - Searching Online: Overview from Purdue University Online Writing Lab (OWL)
Searching online can be both beneficial and frustrating. You may find vast amounts of information, or you may not find the kinds of information you're looking for. Searching online will provide you with a wealth of information, but not all of it will be useful or of the highest quality.