1. OARE Module 2:
Searching Strategies
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2. Table of Contents Planning a Search Types of Sources Boolean Operators
Google vs. (Google) Scholar
Evaluating Web Information
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3. Planning a Search Strategy
This and the subsequent slides summarize the steps for effective searching. The initial steps can be completed prior to accessing the Internet and a specific database or resource. This is advisable when there is low-bandwidth and high-cost for Internet access.
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4. Example (Steps 1-4) – health problems AND water pollution
Ask: What health problems are associated with water pollution?
Need: scholarly primary research
Main Concepts: health, water, pollution
Select terms:
Broader terms: ‘health’, environmental degradation’, ‘agricultural management’,
Synonyms: health, illness, disease, etc.
water, rivers, lakes, sea, domestic water, etc.
pollution, ‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, toxicity, etc
Alternative spellings: (harbour, harbour) (specialization, specialisation) (aluminium, aluminium)
Plurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s)
Capitals: e.g. name of a specific lake, disease, region
In this example, you will see numerous options for this search. Some of these options will enable you to broaden the search while others will limit it.
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5. 5. Select a Source
Note that tertiary sources are more general than secondary sources which include abstracts, bibliographies and reviews – valuable background information. Primary sources are original research such as conference posters/papers, journal articles, etc. For research projects, primary sources are essential. This slide cites types of material for a health-related search so some of the examples are not relevant.
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6. 6. Search: construct a search using the appropriate commands and best practices
Question: What health problems are associated with water pollution?
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Concept 4
health
problems
water
pollution
health
wellbeing
3. problems
4. complications
5. water
6. H2O
7. pollution
8. contamination
Note how this search uses both the OR and AND Boolean operators (to be discussed in subsequent slides). First, the OR is used to expand the search. Then, the AND is used to combine terms and make the search more precise. Note: this is ‘theoretical’ search, not done with any of the OARE search tools.
9 = 1 OR 2
10 = 3 OR 4
11 = 5 OR 6
12 = 7 OR 8
13 = 9 AND 10 AND 11 AND 12
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7. 7. Revise Review and refine you search
be prepared to review/revise your search
keep your search terms in concept
sets/zones but remember to explore subtopics
try new sources of information
save the search and citations for future use; usually an option in the search tool - if you register
promote use of high-quality resources
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8. 9. Evaluate - Who? What? When? Where? Why?
8. Manage Results
Download, print, save, results & search history
Cite using a biological or ecological citation style
Save search, set up alerts (not available in SCOPUS)
9. Evaluate - Who? What? When? Where? Why?
Accuracy
Authority
Objectivity
Currency
Coverage
10. Apply – Answer the question
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9. AND Operator (to combine two concepts)
Boolean Operators
AND Operator (to combine two concepts)
groundwater
(heavy metals) or
(heavy metal*)
We now will view a series of searches using the Boolean operators. Using the AND operator makes this search more precise or limited.
the AND operator is used to combine two concepts e.g. groundwater AND heavy metals – results are in the combined area of the two circles
Note: the parentheses are used to limit the results to the exact phrase – in this case (heavy metals)
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10. In the Environment Index database (available via OARE), the groundwater AND (heavy metals) search has 860 results.
The following search results are from the Environmental Index database, one of the three tools you have to complete keyword searches for specific full-text articles.
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11. AND Operator (to combine three concepts)
groundwater
(heavy metals)
pollution
Note that the three combined AND terms make the search even more precise/limited. With this request, we are asking the system to find documents with the three concepts together.
the AND operator is used to combine three concepts e.g. groundwater AND (heavy metals) AND pollution - in the combined area of the three circles
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12. The groundwater AND (heavy metals) AND pollution has 473 results – nearly half of the previous search.
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13. OR Operator (info containing one or other term)
mercury
lead
In contrast to the AND search operator, the OR one expands the search. We have used two terms that are related – mercury and lead both being heavy metals - and have expanded the results.
the OR is a means of combining terms e.g. mercury OR lead - in each circle’s area with the overlap in the middle having both search terms
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14. The mercury OR lead search has 97,832 results – a huge number.
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15. NOT Operator (in one term or the other)
the mercury NOT lead option limits the search to one term (mercury) – only in the left area; it eliminates items in 2nd term (lead) or both terms (center)
Note: NOT does not work in Scholar and possible would eliminate some useful references; use judiciously
mercury
lead
Using the NOT operator, this search is for only mercury and eliminates any articles about lead.
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16. The mercury NOT lead search has 13,138 results – significantly less than mercury AND lead.
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17. Other search engine functions
Phrase or proximity searching: “…” or (…)
allows you to search for an exact phrase, e.g.
diseases AND (water pollution) or groundwater
AND (heavy metals)
Truncation/wildcards: *
allow you to search alternative spellings and
plurals
river* for river OR rivers
pesticide* for pesticide OR pesticides
program* for programme OR program
Alternate spellings: ?
can be used to substitute for characters anywhere in a
word
wom?n for woman or women
harb?r for harbor or harbour
While many search engines and databases contain these options, the exact terminology may differ [e.g. for proximity searching “…” or (…) ]. For example, in Google, the AND Boolean Operator is automatically used.
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18. Asia AND (mercury OR lead)
By combining AND plus proximity searching with the OR operator, we have expanded a search to include to two broad subjects and use a geographic limit.
Asia AND (mercury OR lead) – in the shaded area
The OR operator retains items in each term and the AND operator is used to combine two concepts
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19. The Asia AND (mercury or lead) search has 1,108 results – a more precise search.
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20. More Search Techniques
Field Specific Searching
author, title, journal, date, url, etc.
Language Restrictions, Humans or Animals and other limits (see various OARE accessible databases)
Relevancy Ranking
a grading that gives extra weight to a document when the search terms appear in the headline or are capitalized
every found document is calculated as 100% multiply by the angle formed by weights vector for request and weights vector for document found
Relevancy Ranking is the sorting of the results of the search so that the most relevant documents are listed first. With the huge numbers in the Google searches, this ranking is invaluable.
The text in this section uses some material developed by INASP for the ‘Search Engines and Effective Searching on the Web’ presentation. All INASP training materials, unless explicitly stated otherwise, are copyright INASP (International Network for the Availability of Scientific Publications) and are freely available for use in educational settings.
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21. Google vs. (Google) Scholar
This is the Google search engine. Queries are typed into the Search box – note the1st result for this search - Welcome to Online Access to Research in the Environment (OARE).
Google is the world’s most popular search engine with the goal being to ‘organize the world's information and make it universally accessible and useful.’ Called ‘page rank’, Google introduced a unique concept of determining which pages rank the highest in the results list. When you complete a Google search, the pages with the most links pointing to them from other sites, known as ‘back-links’, are placed higher up in the list because they are considered more popular and thus more relevant.
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22. (Google) Scholar
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature.
Google Scholar helps you identify the most relevant research across the world of scholarly research. From this search engine, you can search across many disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations. This search tool aims to sort articles the way researchers do, weighing the full text of each article, the author, the publication in which the article appears, and how often the piece has been cited in other scholarly literature. The most relevant results will always appear on the first page.
While you will receive links to specific journal articles, you will need to LOGIN to OARE to access articles from OARE Partner Publishers. Other material may be freely accessible via the WWW.
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23. The Scholar search for OARE results in academic articles and books where OARE is one of the authors – DA Oare, R Oare and TR Oare.
Note the type of material in this Scholar search. When searching for academic type information, this can be very useful. Note that some of the articles may be accessible (from Open Access journals) while others will be linked to commercial publishers and you will be asked to pay a fee or use a personal username and password. Some of those articles may be available in OARE. Also available will be many of the links to reports, pre-publication papers
and other types of documents.
Note the hypertext link to the article - in the right column. If Open Access journal, this link will work. If signed into Scholar from OARE, the links often work. If not, go to the OARE Journals Collection A-Z listing.
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24. If Google Scholar is opened from OARE, some of the links to full-text journal articles from commercial publishers will be accessible.
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25. Note the url for Google Scholar is from research4life – so that additional full-text articles are accessible.
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26. Evaluating Web Information
Criteria for Evaluation
Accuracy
Authority
Currency
Coverage
Objectivity
Design/Navigation
Use the 6 criteria to evaluate the value of information from a website since Internet material is not reviewed and evaluated.
Since the Internet is a self-publishing medium, the information is not selected by professionals (or in the case of journals, a peer-review process). Information retrieved from the Internet must be evaluated and analyzed for appropriateness for research and educational purposes. Per the criteria listed in this slide, the key is to remember to use these basic evaluation tools when you view a website for the first time. Also check the url (web address) of each site as this is a key for identifying the reliability of the website.
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27. Google search: global warming
The Google search for global warming results in general articles including news reports and advertisements from Google.
The initial page of the Google search contains ‘more general’ than ‘scientific’ information.
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28. Scholar: global warming
The Scholar search for global warming results in academic/ research articles and books where global warming is the topic.
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29. Google search: global warming hoax
The Google search for global warming hoax results in general articles including news reports and pseudo scientific websites that argue against global warming.
Note the ‘non-scientific’ types of articles in the global warming search – what could be called ‘fake news’.
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30. Scholar: global warming hoax
The Scholar search for global warming hoax results contain academic articles and books about the hoax as a topic. Note the links to full-text.
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31. Exercises
Complete Module 2 exercises #1 - 2 in the accompanying OARE exercises document
Updated: March 2018
26 March 2018