Steps in Researching Your Topics and Primary vs. Secondary Sources by Jeffey Liszka
Top Ten Search Tips by Kathy Herrlich
General steps in the process of doing library research:
Searching TIP: Many primary sources can be found within the bibliographies and notes in secondary sources.
If you are unsure about a source, check with your professor or a research librarian to determine whether it can be considered primary or secondary.
Top Search Tips
Use AND to combine keywords and phrases when searching the electronic databases for journal articles.
Unlike in Google and in other search engines, you will not get satisfactory results if you type an entire sentence, such as "the effect of advertising in mass media on teenage consumers." You need to pick out the key phrases, words, and concepts.
If you type several words without AND in between, some of the article databases will assume you want only items where those words appear right next to each other, and in that exact order.
Use truncation (an asterisk) and wildcards (usually a question mark or exclamation point).
Child* brings up child, children, childhood, and any other word that starts with the root "child." This works in most of the databases.
Globali?ation brings up items with the words globalization or globalisation.
If you don't use truncation and wildcards, some databases will look for an exact match to the words you type, and you may miss some relevant materials.
Warning: If you shorten the root word too much, you will bring up irrelevant items (soc* will bring up society and social and socioeconomic, but also Socrates).
Find out if the database you're using has a "subject search" option.
For some topics, subject searching works better than keyword searching, which is usually the default.
This may bring up fewer results, but you'll be searching with more precision.
Use the results of a keyword search to discover subject headings (descriptors) used in the database. Usually, they will appear at the bottom of the article or somewhere in the citation. For example, by doing a keyword search for "girls and prostitution" you will discover that Academic Search Premier uses subject terms such as "Child prostitutes" and "Child sexual abuse."
And of course, ask a librarian if you have questions!
Don't spin your wheels and waste a lot of time if you get stuck or encounter something confusing. A librarian can save you time and help you find better information, more efficiently. For example, we can suggest the best databases for your topic. We can show you the most efficient way to search for articles by a particular author (HINT: usually not by keyword searching). We can advise you on search strategies and techniques tailored to your topic.
Also, a librarian can provide referrals to other sources and collections outside of UMass Amherst.
Schedule a Research Consultation.
View a list of Subject Librarians.
For more assistance, use Ask Us.
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