|
Library Learning Center
|
Also known as refereed, scholarly, academic, or juried articles, peer-reviewed articles undergo a rigorous evaluation by experts in the field before publication. This ensures their quality, credibility, and relevance to academic research.
Make Citation Management Easy: Using citation management software is a game-changer for organizing, formatting, and keeping track of your references. Collect references from library databases and websites to streamline your writing process. Start early with a tool like EndNote, Zotero, or RefWorks to boost your research efficiency. Check out the Research Guide to find the right tool for you.
Stay Updated with RSS Feeds: Keeping track of all the new information in your field can be challenging. RSS feeds can help you stay on top of things effortlessly. Subscribe to RSS feeds using services called "aggregators" or "feed readers," which compile and organize your feeds in a readable format. This saves you from visiting multiple websites daily. There are many feed readers to choose from, with Feedly being a popular option.
Master effective search techniques and strategies tailored for graduate-level research to optimize your information retrieval and enhance academic inquiry.
These tools help you refine searches and retrieve more precise, relevant academic results.
Use quotation marks to search for exact phrases.
Example:
"climate change"
Combine keywords to narrow or broaden results
AND = both terms
"climate change" AND "renewable energy"
OR = either term
"climate change" OR "global warming"
NOT = exclude a term
"climate change" NOT "politics"
Capture spelling variations or words stems in your search.
Truncation (*)
Use an asterisk to find multiple word endings
enviro* → environment, environmental, environmentalism
Wildcards
Wildcards substitute for one of more characters inside a word.
Asterisk ( * ) = zero more characters
comput* → computer, computing, computational
Question Mark ( ? ) = exactly one character
wom?n → woman, women
Hash ( # ) = optional character (for varient spellings)
neighb#r → neighbor, neighbour
Use parantheses to group related terms:
(climate OR weather) AND (change OR variation)
OR
(artificial intelligence" OR "machine learning") NOT ("military use" OR "surveillance")
Target specific areas in a database:
ti "artificial intelligence"au "Garcia, Maria"ab "sustainable development"su "renewable energy"so "Journal of Climate"Use database filters to narrow by:
Use assigned vocabulary for more relevant results.
Education:
"Higher Education"
"Educational Technology"
"Curriculum Development"
"Inclusive Education"
"Educational Psychology"
Find terms near each other in the text:
economic NEAR/4 growth
Finds results where economic appears within 4 words of growth, capturing phrases like "economic policies driving growth" or "growth fueled by economic reform."
education NEAR/3 equity
Finds results where education appears within 3 words of equity, capturing phrases like "education for social equity" or "equity in education systems."
Stack your search tools to build more precise, layered queries.
(educat* OR "instructional design") AND ("digital tool" OR technolog*) AND NOT gaming
Purpose: This search expands your net with truncation (educat*, technolog*) and phrase searching, helping you gather a wide range of relevant sources. Using NOT eliminates noise—perfect when keywords overlap with unrelated topics. Great for refining results without missing key variations.
(sustainab* OR renewable) AND (policy OR legislation) AND (corporate NEAR/3 responsibility)
Purpose: Ideal when your keywords are flexible or inconsistently phrased across literature. Truncation and proximity ensure you capture subtle variations and phrasing differences, especially when exploring intersecting themes. A strategic setup for capturing nuanced connections across terms.
su("urban development") AND ab("climate resilience") AND ti("infrastructure")
Purpose: Field searching helps you focus your results by targeting specific areas within the database record. Searching within subject, abstract, and title fields avoids irrelevant content. This technique supports highly focused, context-driven research.
(wom?n OR gender) AND ("healthcare access" OR "maternal care")
Purpose: Wildcards allow your search to account for small but meaningful spelling differences. When combined with phrases and Boolean logic, you can retrieve more inclusive and comprehensive results across varied writing styles and sources.
("environmental justice") AND (inclus* OR equit*) AND su("urban planning")
Purpose: This search blends phrase searchingm truncation, and subject-specific terms to help you find sources that speak across disciplines. It's particularly effective for topics that sit at the intersection of multiple fields.
ti("artificial intelligence") AND ab("education technolog*") AND NOT "video games"
Purpose: By specifying fields like title and abstract, you focus your search on the most meaningful parts of an article's record. This method supports efficient, targeted discovery while filtering out off-topic results.
Library Address: |
Welcome Desk Special Collections |
Circulation, ILL & Course Reserve Research & Instructional Support |