Doing Research

Doing Research

A Student's Guide to Finding and Using the Best

Sources

CELIA BRINKERHOFF
KWANTLEN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
SURREY, B.C
Doing Research by Celia Brinkerhoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.

Contents

Introduction 1 How to Use This Tutorial 3

Acknowledgements v

Part I. Part 1. Get Started on Your Research

1. Narrowing a Topic 11 2. But Avoid Getting too Narrow 14 3.

Background Reading 15 4. A Note about Wikipedia 17 5. Use a
Library Encyclopedia or Dictionary 19 6. Developing Your
Research Question 22

Part II. Part 2. Recognize Types of Information

7. Types of Information Sources 29 8. What Kind of Information

 Do You Need? 33 9. Popular and Scholarly Articles 34
10. Trade and Professional Sources 36 11. Producing Information
37 12. Understanding Peer Review 40

Part III. Part 3. Develop your Search Strategy

13. Strategy #1: Start with Just the Keywords 49

14. Check your Bias 52 15. Searching the Library's Collection
using Summon 54 16. Strategy #2: Examine your Results 56 17.
Creating a Search Statement 58 18. Move to a Database 63 19.
Using Academic Search Complete 65 20. Use the Library
Catalogue 67 21. Strategy #3: Add Some Filters 69 22. Strategy
#4: Citation Tracking 71 23. Library Research Tools and When to
Use Them 73 24. Put all your strategies to work 76

Part IV. Part 4. Evaluate your Sources

25. Checklists 83 26. Question Authority 84 27. Who is the

author? 85 28. Consider Currency 87 29. Check for Purpose and
Accuracy 89 30. Beyond Checklists: The SIFT Method 91 31.
Putting it all together 97 32. Summing up Part 4 100 33.
Completion 102

Introduction
Welcome to Doing Research, KPU Library’s guide to helping you get
started on your research assignment. Whether that assignment is a
paper or blog post, multimedia project or poster, you will likely be
expected to do some amount of research as part of completing the
work. This can be daunting at first, especially if you are new to
doing research at the university level, or if you are taking a class in
a different discipline or field where the expectations and
conventions may be unfamiliar to you.

If you feel you are already an experienced researcher, consider this

guide to be a refresher.

Technical requirements: The modules work best in the most recent

versions of Chrome or Firefox; Internet Explorer is not supported at
this time. If you experience difficulties, check your browser version
and update.

A note to faculty: This guide is informed by the Association of

College and Research Library’s Framework for Information Literacy
for Higher Education, a new approach to teaching and learning
research skills through a set of integrated core concepts and
knowledge practices that emphasize the reflective nature of
information discovery, the understanding of how information is
produced and valued, and the ethical use of information in creating
new knowledge.

Each module has been developed around one of these core

concepts (Key Takeaways) and utilizes one or two of the knowledge
practices (Learning Objectives) associated with it.

For more information about how the Framework is being

implemented at KPU, please visit the Library’s Information Literacy
page.

Introduction | 1
Source

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2016). Framework

for Information Literacy for Higher Education. http://www.ala.org/
acrl/standards/ilframework
2 | Introduction

How to Use This Tutorial

There Are Four Modules in This Tutorial:

1. Get Started on your Research

2. Recognize Types of Information
3. Develop your Search Strategy
4. Evaluate your Sources
The modules are ordered, more or less, as though you are
conducting a research project, starting with developing research
questions and ending with using sources in your writing. In
between, you will learn how to figure out what kind of sources to
look for, where to find them, and how to evaluate them.

Some instructors may assign one module or all of them, depending

on the requirements of your class.

Each Module Consists of:

• Written text
• Activities to try out your skills and test your understanding •
Short quizzes (linked through your course Moodle site) that
will be graded

The modules should take roughly 20 minutes each to complete. You

will be able to revisit the text and activity portions as many times
as you like; however, you will only have one opportunity to do each
quiz.

How to Move Around the Tutorial:

How to Use This Tutorial | 3

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move forward and
backward through the modules. Or, use the Contents menu in the
top left hand corner to go to a particular section.

Any Questions?

Please contact librarian Celia Brinkerhoff at

celia.brinkerhoff@kpu.ca.
4 | How to Use This Tutorial

Acknowledgements
Doing Research: A Student’s Guide to Finding and Using the Best
Sources was initially conceived as a quick adaptation of the
Choosing and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research by The
Ohio State University Libraries. Over time, it developed into its
own project suited to a different purpose and an audience of
Canadian students. My thanks to the librarians at OSU Libraries for
their generosity in sharing their excellent guide.
Members of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University English
Department were helpful in shaping the development of the
content and establishing learning objectives for each module;
specifically Jennifer Williams, Elizabeth Gooding, Gillian Dearle,
and Julia Grandison were enthusiastic in their support of the
project. Several KPU librarians were also generous in providing
feedback and ideas for activities.

Many thanks to Rajiv Jhangiani, Caroline Daniels, and Karen Meijer

Kline for their help with this project and to Todd Mundle for the
time to work on it. Where indicated, supplementary videos were
created by Graeme Robinson-Clogg through the generous support
of a BCcampus Open Education Grant. And many thanks to David
Hauck, who lent his image-editing skills.

Source

Teaching and Learning, University Libraries. (n.d.). Choosing and

Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research. Ohio State University
Libraries. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/

Acknowledgements | 5
PART I
PART 1. GET STARTED ON
YOUR RESEARCH

Key Takeaway
 Research is a process of strategic exploration, one that
begins with learning how to ask the right question.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Understand the difference between a search topic

and a research question
• Identify the features of a reference article that can
aid in further research

Navigation: How to move around this tutorial

Part 1. Get Started on Your

Research | 7
This module should take roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move

forward and backward through the modules. Or, use the
Contents menu in the top left hand corner to go to a
particular section.

It’s useful to think about this early stage of your research project as
a process of exploration, one that will help you develop a research
question that is going to be searchable. If a topic is completely new
to you, you will likely want to find some background information in
order to understand the context of your topic and how it relates to
a larger picture. This exploratory process will also help you with
any specialized terms associated with your topic that you might
use in developing a search strategy. And sometimes, this initial
exploration will also lead you to realize that your question might
not be searchable, or that you are going to have to modify it a little.
That’s ok. A little work up front will save you time later.

Even if you already have some familiarity with a topic, some

additional background work can help to bring a fresh perspective to
your understanding of it.

8 | Part 1. Get Started on Your Research

Figure
1.1 Research as strategic exploration. Image by
 pixelcreatures.

Tip: Review your assignment

Before you get started on your research, make sure you

understand the requirements of your assignment. Pay
attention to the kinds of information sources you need and
how you will be expected to incorporate them into your
own work.

This page on analyzing your assignment from the KPU Part

1. Get Started on Your Research | 9

Learning Centres can help you figure out what you need
to do for your assignment

Source

Image:” Compass Map” by Pixelcreatures.

10 | Part 1. Get Started on Your Research

1. Narrowing a Topic
Defining your research question is a process of working from the
outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your
assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your
interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find
out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing

research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped
(not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

The Process of Narrowing a Topic

Figure. 1.2 Moving from broad topic to specific research question. Image by
Ohio State University Libraries.

Narrowing a Topic | 11
ACTIVITY: Which Topic is Narrower?

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics

with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next
question.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=29#h5p-1
TIP: Use Some of the 5 W’s to Help Narrow Your
Topic to a Searchable Question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher

education. You decide you want to write about the high
cost of tuition, but that is still too broad.

Start by asking some or all of the following questions. 12 |

Narrowing a Topic

Question More Specific Focus Who? First year students,

mature students, part-time students
completion, attrition,
What? dropout
Graduation rates, degree
 When? Last 10 years

Why or how? Financial burden,

employment, student debt

From asking these questions, you might come up with

a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree

completion of mature college students?”

Source

Image: “Rq-narrow” by Teaching and Learning, University Libraries

is licensed under CC BY-4.0.

Narrowing a Topic | 13

2. But Avoid Getting too

Narrow
Be careful about getting too specific with your research
question. Not every question that you come up with will be
searchable.
 For the above question about college tuition, the important
questions to ask would be who? and what? Trying to find
information on the impact of rising tuition in a particular
city or province will be too restrictive, and the location
may, in fact, be irrelevant to the search. A large-scale study
across Canada or North America would likely yield relevant
information that could be useful to your question.

The bottom line is, you will be working toward a balanced

research question that is specific enough to guide you in
your research, but not too restrictive.

ACTIVITY: Find the balanced topic

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about balanced topics

with these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next
question.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=470#h5p-2 14 | But

Avoid Getting too Narrow

3. Background Reading
As you are exploring your topic and figuring out ways to narrow it
down to a searchable question, it is a good idea to do some initial
reading. For one thing, you might not know much about your topic
yet. For another, such reading will help you learn the terms used by
professionals and scholars who have studied your narrower topic.
Those terms might become your keywords or search terms later on,
so keep them in mind.

Getting Your Words Right

It’s important to understand that the search terms you use will have
a direct correlation with the kinds of sources you find. And
spending some time early on in your research learning relevant
terms will save you time later on.

For instance, if you were going to do research about the risk of bird
flu to humans, initial background reading would teach you that
professionals and scholars usually use the term avian influenza
instead of bird flu when they write about it. (Often, they also use
H1N1 or H1N9 to identify the strain.) If you didn’t learn that, you
would miss the kinds of sources you will eventually need for your
assignment.

Take a look at the Google search results using the terms “bird flu”
and human risk vs. “avian influenza” and human risk. Compare the
kinds of sources listed.

(Click on the thumbnail image for a larger view. Use your browser’s
back-button to return to the page.)

Background Reading | 15
 Figure 1.3 Comparing Google search terms

If you were to follow the linked results, you would see that the
sources on the right come from government agencies and scientific
journals, whereas the sources on the left come from news outlets or
consumer health websites.

16 | Background Reading

4. A Note about Wikipedia

 Wikipedia is a popular place to start
your research and will likely be one of the
top results in a Google search of your
topic. A well-developed Wikipedia article,
with its content boxes and overviews, will
provide a “road-map” of your subject and
help you to focus on related and narrower
sub-topics. Most introductory paragraphs
will offer definitions, related terms, and
key historical dates where relevant. Every article provides links to
external references and further reading that can be useful sources
for you to follow up with. In fact, no Wikipedia article can be
published unless it is backed with a list of credible sources. See
Wikipedia’s own policy on Verifiability and its discussion of what
can be considered a reliable source.
However, while it is not quite true that anyone can edit a
Wikipedia article, there are concerns about the potential for
inaccuracies and misinformation. This is especially true for
controversial topics; a quick look at the “Talk” page of any article
will reveal how editors are actively involved to ensure that
information presented is free from bias and maintains neutrality.
Unlike more traditional scholarly sources of information, content
on Wikipedia is continually changing. For these reasons, your
instructors may caution you against using it in your research, and
will probably discourage you from citing it.
What you can do with a Wikipedia article is look at the external
links, the supporting references, and the suggestions for further
reading. As someone new to a topic, these sources can be a
goldmine; try locating them in the library’s collection or on the
internet.

A Note about Wikipedia | 17

Activity: Watch, think and learn

The following short video from Civic Online Reasoning at Stanford

University demonstrates how Wikipedia can be used effectively in
early stages of your research.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded

from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/
doingresearch/?p=732#oembed-1

Source

Image: “Old version of Wikipedia logo” by Wikimedia Commons is

licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0.
Verifiability from Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia is licensed
under CC BY-SA.
Video: “How to Use Wikipedia Wisely” by Civic Online Reasoning
is licensed under CC BY-NC-NC 4.0.

18 | A Note about Wikipedia

5. Use a Library Encyclopedia

or Dictionary
Although you will likely start your background reading with a quick
Google search, you should visit the library and its collection of
reference materials early in your research. The library has access
to many encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks, both in print
and online.

Encyclopedias
and
handbooks will
provide:

• A broad
overview of your
topic
• Sub-topics and related
issues Figure 1.4 The reference collection.
Image by geralt.
• Controversies and criticism

• Key thinkers or researchers in the area

• References, recommended articles, and links to further reading

Dictionaries will offer a definition of your term and related terms

that will be important as you develop your search strategy. From
the Research Help guide linked on the library’s homepage, you can
find several of the library’s reference collections listed on the Find
Background Information page. Many subject-specific reference
books can also be found on the various subject guides. You can also
access all of the library’s reference books from your Summon
search by focussing your results using the “reference” filter. Recall
that Summon is the default search box on the library’s homepage.

Use a Library Encyclopedia or

Dictionary | 19
ACTIVITY: Watch, think and learn

The following short video from KPU Library demonstrates

 how to locate a source for background information using
the library’s Summon search.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=473#h5p-37

ACTIVITY: Use an encyclopedia article

The article below is from the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of

Psychology and was found using the library’s Summon
search tool.

Click on the purple question marks to explore how an

encylopedia can be useful at this stage of your research.

(Use Fullscreen to maximize the image, and your Esc button

when finished.)

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=473#h5p-3 20 | Use

a Library Encyclopedia or Dictionary

After this background work, you are now ready to start developing
the research question you will try to answer for your assignment.
Sources

Image: “Library” by geralt.

Video: “Finding Background Information” by KPU Library is
licensed under CC0.
Waller, G. (2006). Eating disorders. In G. Davey (Ed.),
Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Psychology. Routledge. https://search
credoreference-com.ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/content/entry/
hodderdpsyc/eating_disorders/0

Use a Library Encyclopedia or Dictionary | 21

6. Developing Your Research

Question
By now, it should be clear that finding a research question is a
process of exploration and refining: exploring a topic will lead to
developing a question, and further refinement will help you to focus
that question to something that is not too broad and not too
narrow.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Think, and Learn

Take a minute to watch this short video on how to develop a

research topic. Think about the steps the student takes starting
from a wide open topic, to something too narrow, and finally, to
finding a balanced topic that is searchable.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded

from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/
doingresearch/?p=34#oembed-1

Steps for Developing a Research Question

The steps for developing a research question, listed below, can help
you organize your thoughts.

22 | Developing Your Research

Question
Step 1: Pick a topic (or consider the one assigned to you). Step 2:
Write a narrower topic that is related to the first. Step 4: Do
some background reading, using the Library’s
reference books. Do some initial research in a library database.
Step 5: Readjust your topic if you get too few, or too many, search
results.
Step 6: List some potential questions that could logically be asked
in relation to the narrow topic.

ACTIVITY: Summing up Module 1

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=34#h5p-4

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=34#h5p-5

Key Takeaway

Developing Your Research Question | 23

Research is a process of strategic exploration, one that
begins with learning how to ask the right question.

Well done! You have completed the text and activity portion of Part
1 Getting Started on your Research. You are welcome to review any
part of this module at any time.

Source

Video: “Picking your Topic is Research” by North Carolina State

University Libraries is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

24 | Developing Your Research Question

PART II
PART 2. RECOGNIZE TYPES
OF INFORMATION

Key Takeaway
 Information creation is a process that results in a variety
of formats and delivery modes, each having a different
value in a given context.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Identify the various information types in order to

match a research need with an appropriate source •
Describe the process of peer review in order to select
quality sources for your research

Navigation: How to move around this tutorial

Part 2. Recognize Types of

Information | 25
This module should take roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move

forward and backward through the modules. Or, use the
Contents menu in the top left hand corner to go to a
particular section.

Once you have your research question, you will need to locate
the information sources appropriate to your question and the
requirements of your assignment. Taking a minute to understand
how information is created and delivered through a variety of
formats will help you in selecting the best sources.

With so many sources available, the question is usually not whether

sources exist for your project, but which ones will best meet your
information needs.

26 | Part 2. Recognize Types of Information

Figure 2.1 Information overload. Image by Pexels.

Source

Image: “pile of covered books” by Pexels.

Part 2. Recognize Types of Information | 27

7. Types of Information
Sources
Consider a topic such as the safety of genetically modified food.
Wading into this large and controversial area, you will quickly
discover that information about it comes from a wide range of
sources:

• Blogs and opinion pieces

• Natural medicine and consumer health sites
• Scientific research articles
• Government and NGO sites
• Books, newspapers, and magazine articles
Each of these types of sources has different content, written by
people with varying levels of expertise, and written for different
audiences. And each of these types of sources will have a different
value for you, depending on the context and requirements of your
research need. Some assignments will require that you use
scholarly, academic sources that have to undergo a lengthy editorial
process and therefore take longer to appear. Other assignments
may allow you to use less formal, popular sources of information
that may be more timely.

Types of Information Sources | 29

Social media real-timeWebsite possible

Newspapers, news sites

up-to-dageneral a

Magazines current eGovernment/NGO

reports, s
30 | Types of Information Sources

Scholarly article new rese

in-depth
Scholarly book audience

Encyclopedia, Wikipedia overview,Fig. 2.2 Types of information

sources.

Types of Information Sources | 31

Sources
All images above are from The Noun Project and are licensed under
CC BY 3.0 US.
“Social Media” by Petai Jantrapoon
“world wide web” by Wilson Joseph
“Newspaper” by Kick
“Magazine” by nareerat jaikaew
“Government” by lathiif studio
“Research” by Tanuj Abraham
“Book” by Bertama Graphic
“Encyclopedia” by Komkrit Noenpoempisut

32 | Types of Information Sources

8. What Kind of Information

Do You Need?
Click the arrows below to learn about which types of information
sources best meet various research needs.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=45#h5p-6

ACTIVITY: Match the resource with the

research need

Think about which kind of resource would be best suited for each
question.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=45#h5p-7

What Kind of Information Do You

Need? | 33

9. Popular and Scholarly

Articles
For some of your research assignments, you will be expected to use
“scholarly” articles. These may be called “academic” or “journal”
articles, or more specifically, “peer reviewed” articles. In a later
tutorial we will learn how to focus your searches in order to find
these.

For now, it is useful to learn to recognize the difference between

these types of publications so that whether you are searching in a
library resource or on Google, you will be able to make some
judgment about the kind of information source you are looking at
and whether it will be appropriate for your assignment.

34 | Popular and Scholarly Articles

Fig. 2.3 Some key differences between popular and scholarly articles. Image by
adstarkel.

Source

Image: “Scholarly & popular articles” by adstarkel is licensed under

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Popular and Scholarly Articles | 35

10. Trade and Professional

Sources
Depending on your area of study, you may also be asked to
consider a third type of publication that is written for
professionals and people within a particular field of work.
These articles target a specialized audience, may report on
primary research but from an applied or summary
perspective, and may have advertisements of interest to
people in that profession.

In Summon and some of the library’s article databases,

these publications will be called “trade publication” or
“magazines”.

Activity: Examine the following sources to

find out what a trade publication is.

(Use + to maximize each image.)

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=485#h5p-27 36 |
 Trade and Professional Sources

11. Producing Information

The process of information creation follows a timeline. As soon as
an event occurs, social media and online news sources are the first
to provide coverage. Magazines and newspapers will follow shortly
after, and journal articles and books take even longer to get
published.

Knowing this will be important in your research: if you choose a

very recent event to write about, you will likely not find information
about it in a book or scholarly article. You may, however, need to
expand your topic to look for a similar or related event, or broader
treatment of the subject, to find sources that you can still use to
support your writing.
Producing Information | 37
Fig. 2.4 Timeline of information creation. Image by adstarkel.

ACTIVITY: Explore the timeline

The following timeline details how the media covered an important

news event in 2012. (Maximize the screen for best viewing and use
Esc button when finished.)

38 | Producing Information
An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this
version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=49#h5p-8
Sources
Images
“Information timeline” by adstarkel is licensed under CC BY-NC
SA 4.0.
“Police at Sandy Hook” by Voice of America, is in the Public
Domain.

Producing Information | 39

12. Understanding Peer

Review
Your assignment may require that you include information from
“peer reviewed” articles. These articles are published in scholarly or
academic journals after they have gone through a lengthy editorial
process which usually involves the author making many revisions.
The reviewers themselves are experts in the same field, and judge
the strength of the article on the originality of the research, the
methods used, and the validity of findings. The highest standard of
peer review is “double-blind,” meaning that both the identity of the
authors as well as the reviewers are kept anonymous in order to
ensure that bias and subjectivity do not influence the process.

But be careful! Not all of the content in an academic journal is

subject to peer review. There may be other content such as letters,
opinion pieces, and book reviews that have been edited, but not
necessarily gone through a formal peer review process.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

The following KPU Library video describes the process of peer

review.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded

from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50

40 | Understanding Peer Review

ACTIVITY: Summarize The Peer Review Process

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50#h5p-9
But how can you, the researcher, recognize a peer reviewed article?

Fortunately, the library’s Summon search and most of our databases

have a filter or limit which will help you find the right type of
information. Various databases will use different terms: look for
“academic” or “scholarly” or “peer reviewed.”

There are other clues you can look for.

Understanding Peer Review | 41

Tip: Clues to Help You Decide if it is Peer
Reviewed

Look for the author’s

Author’s credentials and Journal publisher
affiliations

degrees, as well as the

References university or research
institution they are affiliated
with.

Any peer reviewed article

Submission guidelines will have a lengthy list of
sources used by the author.

Somewhere on the
journal’s homepage will be a
 link for submitting an article a scholarly society? A
for review. You may have to university press?
dig around a little!

Is the journal published by

ACTIVITY: Summing Up Module 2

Pick the correct statement.

42 | Understanding Peer Review

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this
version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50#h5p-10

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50#h5p-11

Key Takeaway
 Information creation is a process that results in a variety
of formats and delivery modes, each having a different
value in a given context.

Well done! You have completed the text and activity portion of Part
2 Recognizing Types of Information. You are welcome to review any
part of this module at any time.

Understanding Peer Review | 43

Source:

Video: “Recognize Types of Information” by KPU Library is licensed

under CC0.
44 | Understanding Peer Review
PART III
PART 3. DEVELOP YOUR
SEARCH STRATEGY
Key Takeaway

Research is a circular process that involves asking

questions whose answers will lead to revised questions or
new lines of inquiry.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Develop a search strategy in order to use research

tools more efficiently
• Implement key features of library search tools to
improve search results

Navigation: How to move around this tutorial

Part 3. Develop your Search

Strategy | 45
This module should take roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move

forward and backward through the modules. Or, use the
Contents menu in the top left hand corner to go to a
particular section.
 You’ve developed a research question and identified main
concepts to use as keywords. You have an idea of what kinds of
sources you need and what is required by your assignment. Now it’s
time to consider how you will build a search strategy that will allow
you to use the library’s resources most efficiently.

It is useful to understand that the research process is iterative,

which means the results of initial searches will help shape and
improve your subsequent searches. As we learned in the video in
Part 1, it is seldom a linear process that starts and ends with a single
question.

You will likely perform a sequence of searches several times and use
various tools, including Google and library resources, before getting
a set of results that will meet your needs.

A Good Search Strategy Should Consist of the Following:

1. Keyword searching
2. Examining the results of initial searches and adjusting
keywords if necessary
3. Using filters or limits
4. Citation tracking

46 | Part 3. Develop your Search Strategy

Figure
3.1 Expert searching. Image by quimono.

Source

Image: “Question mark important sign” by quimono. Part 3.

 Develop your Search Strategy | 47

13. Strategy #1: Start with Just

the Keywords
The first strategy in effective research is to start with a basic
keyword search of your topic. Keep the focus on just the main
concepts, or keywords, of your question. Typing a complete
sentence or question into a search box, whether you are in Google
or one of the library’s research tools, will not give you as
comprehensive or relevant results as just entering the two or three
keywords that best reflect your question.

See what happens when you enter your search question, in natural
language, directly into the library’s Summon search:

The question is “Should vaccinations be mandatory for school

aged children?”

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Use the back button in
your browser to return to the page.)
Figure 3.2 Search results from natural language query

Strategy #1: Start with Just the

Keywords | 49
Only a little over 1,000 results come back, which is not as many as
you might expect considering that Summon searches everything
the library has in its collection. Furthermore, the results are rather
evenly split between journal articles and books.

Now, repeat the search again, but with just the keywords that are
central to the question you are researching. Removing the non
essential words in the question would leave you with something like
this:

“Should vaccinations be mandatory for school-aged children?”

The search below was done using mandatory vaccinations

children.

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Use the back button in
your browser to return to the page.)
 Figure 3.3 Search results using just the keywords

This search results in over 15,000 items, with many more journal 50

| Strategy #1: Start with Just the Keywords

articles. That’s because in the first search, Summon is

looking for items in which ALL of the words of the search
query are present. In the second search, only those three
terms need to occur in the results. Furthermore, the words
left out of the question are not essential to the overall
strategy of the query.
Note that other keywords, such as immunization, are also
used in the results.

Activity: Find the Keywords

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
 https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=55#h5p-12 Strategy

#1: Start with Just the Keywords | 51

14. Check your Bias

When thinking about researching your topic, be aware of
confirmation bias, the tendency that most of us have to look for
information that supports what we already believe to be true. This
bias can lead us to ignore evidence or information that contradicts
our own assumptions and to perhaps even make inferences about
causal relationships where there may not be any. Confirmation bias
is especially significant in highly-contested, hot-button issues that
we feel strongly about. It may also be amplified by the sources we
choose to get our news from.
When turning to Google or a library database for information, it
is important to frame your questions objectively and without bias
so that your search results are not merely confirming what you
already believe to be true. Avoid any search words which may lead
to a bias in the results; negative, positive, benefits, harms, and so
on, could skew results in favour of one side or perspective.
And even the words themselves you choose can be inherently
biased. Consider the difference between anti-vax and vaccine
hesitant, similar terms that correspond to two very different
groups of people. Searching with one or the other will bring you
different results.
Remember, you are searching for a balanced treatment of the
topic.

Activity: Examine the first few search results

Click the purple question marks in the following screenshot to

examine the first few search results from the question: “Why the
minimum wage should not be raised.”
(Expand to fullscreen if you need to; use the ESC to exit.)

52 | Check your Bias

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
 https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=344#h5p-38

A better search would be minimum wage AND unemployment or

any other concept you wish to investigate in relation to minimum
wage, for example, poverty or families. You should see a mixed set
of results coming from mainstream media and organizations from
across the political spectrum.

Source

Confirmation bias by Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia is licensed

under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Check your Bias | 53

15. Searching the Library's

Collection using Summon
Most library’s now employ what is called a discovery layer. You
might think of this as a search engine for the library’s entire
collection. At KPU Library, our discovery layer is called Summon,
and you have probably already used it if you’ve done any research at
all.
Summon is a great place to start your research. Using a few well
chosen keywords will bring back thousands of results, and then you
will need to use various tools to narrow your search to more
precise and relevant results.
The following short video demonstrates the Summon search
interface.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

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version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=578#h5p-32

54 | Searching the Library's

Collection using Summon
REVIEW: What are some key features of
Summon?
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https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=578#h5p-34
 Searching the Library's Collection using Summon | 55

16. Strategy #2: Examine your

Results
In the previous section we looked at search results using the
library’s Summon search tool and found a range of items coming
from scholarly journal articles, books and ebooks, newspapers, and
more.

If you were to examine just a few of the top results, you would
quickly see related and more specific terms that might help in
subsequent searches. For example, vaccine exemption and vaccine
hesitancy provide slightly different perspectives on the topic and
correspond to different disciplinary approaches. Articles about
vaccine exemption would examine the issue from a legal
perspective (an individual’s right vs. population health). Articles
about vaccine hesitancy might examine the issue from a
philosophical or psychological perspective (opinions, trust in
government, or misinformation). Similarly, you might find
additional synonyms or alternate terms (immunization, herd
immunity) that will help make your searches more complete.

As a researcher, asking yourself how these narrower and alternate

terms relate to what you want to find out will be an important part
of your search strategy.

Tip: Results Ranked by Relevance

Summon and most of the library’s databases will return

search results ranked in order of relevance. After

56 | Strategy #2: Examine your

Results
performing a search, always examine closely the top few
items for more precise search terms, synonyms, or
other related pieces that you might add to the next
search.
 Strategy #2: Examine your Results | 57

17. Creating a Search

Statement

Once you have identified the important key words and any
related or similar terms that describe your research question, it is
useful to understand a bit about how to combine them in order to
get a relevant and focussed set of results. Both Summon and most
library databases allow for a set of operators, or specific words and
symbols, that indicate how you want your search to be run. This is
sometimes known as a search statement.
Employing even just one or two of these operators will vastly
improve you results beyond just merely throwing in one or two
keywords.

58 | Creating a Search Statement

Boolean operators
 Creating a Search Statement | 59
AND

OR
 when there aalternative or related terms
you need to uin your search. The more
words you
combine with OR, the larger the number
Using AND will narrow your search results results you will find.
by combining all the keywords and phrases example: children AND poverty
in your search statement. The more words
All results must contain both the words
you combine with AND, the fewer results
children and poverty.
you will find.

Phrase searching
example: wage OR income
60 | Creating a Search Statement
Using OR will broaden your search Results will contain either or both of the
resultsretrieving sources that contain at terms.
least onterm. This operator is useful
To find an exact phrase use quotation marks to exclude results that
do not contain the exact phrase. For example, using quotation
marks around “social media” will find results containing the exact
phrase (the words social and media next to each other). Without
quotation marks, the database finds the word social and the word
media separately, and you will get search results about social
relationships portrayed in media, and other unrelated topics.
This is also useful when searching for an author’s name (e.g.
“George Orwell”), and article, book or film titles, (e.g. “Brave New
World”).

Parentheses and nesting

Use parentheses or brackets to group keywords joined by OR, in

order to include synonyms or related terms. The database will
search for what is grouped inside the parentheses first.
Example: (young adults OR adolescents) AND gaming By using
parentheses, you can ask a search engine to perform several
Boolean searches at the same time. It will first perform

Creating a Search Statement | 61

the search enclosed in parentheses before moving on to the other
search terms. This is called nesting.
Example: (obesity OR overweight) AND (young adults OR
adolescents) AND women
Truncation and wildcards

Broaden your search results by using a truncation symbol that

allows you to search for alternate word endings. The asterisk * is
the most common symbol, but check the help option in a database
to see which symbol to use.
Example: searching for statistic* will return results with the
following words: statistic, statistics, statistical
Wildcards also increase your search results by including words
with different spellings. Wildcard symbols vary by database so
check the help option to see which one to use.
Example: searching for wom?n will return results for woman or
women. Searching for labo?r will return results for both labor or
labour

62 | Creating a Search Statement

18. Move to a Database

Move to an Article Database

Moving your research over to one of the library’s databases will
bring a more focussed set of results.

Our earlier keyword search showed us that vaccine hesitancy might

be a useful concept for finding information about what motivates
some people to refuse vaccinations for their children. Doing a
search with the term “vaccine hesitancy” in Academic Search
Complete, the library’s largest multi-disciplinary database, yields
the following results.
(Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Use your browser back
button when finished.)

Figure 3.4 Database search results

Move to a Database | 63
The majority of articles using the term “vaccine hesitancy”
come from academic journals, indicating that it is a
concept or term used by researchers or scholars in a
variety of fields, but not so much in the popular or
mainstream press. A close look at the subject terms also
provides an indication of how the results are focussed:
some will concentrate on public health, others on parental
attitudes, and others on immunization more generally. This
kind of strategy tells you how the issue is approached by
different perspectives, and what might be most relevant for
your own research.

See this page for a list of article databases the library

 subscribes to. 64 | Move to a Database

19. Using Academic Search

Complete
The Library subscribes to more than 200 databases. Some of these
are subject specific, and some are multi-disciplinary. Over time you
will learn to use those databases most relevant to your field of
study, but a good place to explore how you can search with more
precision for academic and peer reviewed articles, is with a large
database such as Academic Search Complete. You will be searching
the contents of over 6,000 journal titles, and using the powerful
tools within the database to refine your results.
 New to database searching? Watch this short video on how to
build a search, and the tools that will help you manage your results.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

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version of the text. You can view it online here:
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Using Academic Search

Complete | 65
SUMMARIZE: Review the key features of
Academic Search Complete database

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the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=592#h5p-35 66 |
 Using Academic Search Complete

20. Use the Library Catalogue

Try the Library Catalogue

A search of the library catalogue will yield books/ebooks, as well as

videos in the collection. Again, results are ranked by relevance.
Examining the first few items in the list will give you further ideas
for searching. You may find books whose entire contents will be
useful to your search, or you may find edited works, with a single
chapter relevant for your research.
ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

The following brief video from KPU Library introduces you to

searching the library catalogue, including using subject terms and
filters.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded

from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=352

You can access the library catalogue directly by selecting it from

the library’s homepage, above the Summon search box.

Use the Library Catalogue | 67

ACTIVITY: Analyze the Details of a Book

The image below was taken from the catalogue record for a book on
vaccines and children.
Click on the purple question marks to see what kind of
information about an item is available in the catalogue. Use this to
further inform your search.
(Use Fullscreen for an expanded view and your keyboard’s ESC
button when finished.)

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
 https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=352#h5p-13

Source

Video: “Catalogue Search Strategies” by KPU Library is licensed

under CC0.

68 | Use the Library Catalogue

21. Strategy #3: Add Some

Filters
An effective search strategy makes use of the specialized features
within the library’s search tools to focus on the kinds of resources
you need. Summon, library databases, and the catalogue have
features called filters or limits that allow you to further refine your
results list in a few ways.

Recall in the second module you were introduced to the idea that
information comes in a variety of sources; part of your strategy
should be to ensure you are getting the content you need. Does
your assignment require that you use only certain kinds of
sources? Is there a date restriction? Can you use a video?
 Tip: Use a filter or limit

After an initial search, look for these tools to further

refine your search

Strategy #3: Add Some Filters | 69

What do you need? Filter/Limit Scholarly
journal? book/
e-book? newspaper article? Content type or source
video?

Recent? last 10 years? Publication date

Subject headings,
Focussed on a specific discipline, or topic
subject

ACTIVITY: Selecting the Best Limits Click

on the arrows to answer the 4 questions below.

 An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this version of
the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=58#h5p-14 70 |

Strategy #3: Add Some Filters

22. Strategy #4: Citation

Tracking
A final strategy for finding more sources to support
your writing is to examine the works cited by the
authors of the sources you find. Consider that
scholarship is a
conversation among researchers on a
particular subject, with everyone
offering evidence, theories, and
 criticism to advance what is known
and what may not be known about a
topic. Your task is to understand what
connections are being made between
and what conclusions or
Figure 3.5 Scholarship as a
conversation. Original image by
advances you might be able to
905513. add.
these viewpoints, how you will
integrate them in your own work,

In practical terms, as a researcher, this means paying attention to

the reference lists or bibliographies of the works you find in your
initial searching. This is known as citation tracking and is an
important strategy to use to find additional resources.

There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. Follow the authors and works mentioned in the introduction or

literature review section of your first article

2. Use the links that Summon, library databases, and sometimes

Google Scholar provide to locate any articles that cite your
article, as well as other recommended or related works. Look
for: Cited By, Recommended, or Related articles

Strategy #4: Citation Tracking | 71

ACTIVITY: Click on the Hotspots

The image below is taken from the introduction of an article on

populism, found in one of the library’s databases. Click on the
purple question marks to view details from the article record.

(Use Fullscreen to expand and your keyboard’s Esc button when

finished.)

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

 version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=60#h5p-15

Sources
Image: “Citation circle” adapted by author from original 905513.
Article: Moffitt, B., & Tormey, S. (2014). Rethinking populism:
politics, mediatisation and political style. Political Studies, 62(2),
381–397. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12032

72 | Strategy #4: Citation Tracking

23. Library Research Tools

and When to Use Them
Throughout this module, we have referred to various library
research tools, but we have not discussed when to use them.
Learning which tools to use at the various stages of your research
is also another strategy for finding the sources best suited to your
assignment, and will decrease the amount of time you spend
looking.
(Click the tools below for an image of their search interfaces.)
 Library Research Tools and When to
Use Them | 73
Tool What’s in it? When should I use it?

Summon Everything the Start here when you are new

library has in its to your topic or assignment.
collection: Summon is great for seeing
the breadth of what is
• books/ebooks available on your subject.
•
journal/magazi
ne/ newspaper
articles
• government
documents
• reference books
• videos
 Catalogu Almost everything Use this when you know
e the library has in you are looking for a
its book or
collection, except ebook, or when you are
articles looking for a specific title.
You will NOT find journal
• books/ebooks, articles here. The catalogue
• government does not have the full-text
documents of items, but many books
• videos will have a table of contents.

Article Specialized or Use a database when you

Database multi-disciplinary know you need peer
reviewed journal content.
• peer reviewed Learn which databases are
journal articles focussed on particular
• some trade/ subjects.
professional
publications
• some newspapers

Google • scholarly While not technically a

Scholar journals library tool, Google Scholar
articles with its Library Links
• conference feature will bring you results
proceedings from beyond the library’s
• research/ collection as well as
government subscribed content. Ask us
publications how to enable this feature.
NEVER pay for articles!

74 | Library Research Tools and When to Use Them