A few tips to help you get started

Researching a Paper

Research techniques and tips

• Organization and pre-planning research is

key.

• Knowing WHAT to search for prior to

beginning makes the research process easy.

Preparing to Search - the mass confusion

• Choose (or be given) a topic.

• Make a list of key words about that

topic.

• The broader the topic the more results

you will get

Example Topic: the use of math in Medical Assisting

Medical Assisting

Anatomy

Physiology

Phlebotomy

Hematology

Urinalysis

Microbiology

Key words – medical assisting:

Math

Mathematics

Calculate

Calculation

Formulas

Addition

Subtraction

Key words – math:

Search Engines

• Search engine capabilities can be simple• May just look for search words in the title

• Or complex• May use summary information or the entire article or page

• May use meta data

• May use algorithms to “rank” good hits

• Most have the capability to retrieve/present more pertinent results• Advanced search mode

• Limit terms to fields

• Sorting options

• Boolean terms

BOOLEAN searching

• AND

• Use AND to reduce the number of items found: phlebotomy and formula

finds fewer items than either phlebotomy by itself or formula by itself.

• OR

• Use OR to combine synonyms or alternate terms and thus increase the

number of items found:

hematology or phlebotomy

finds more items than either hematology by itself or phlebotomy by itself.

• NOT

• Use NOT to eliminate some items from the search: hematology not

phlebotomy

will find items containing hematology but excludes any mentioning

phlebotomy

BOOLEAN combinations

• BOOLEAN operators can be used together

in a single search:

• phlebotomy and (formula or calculation)

finds only those items that have the term

phlebotomy and also contain either the term

formula or the term calculation.

Note the use of parentheses to group similar

concepts.

Searching - Phrases

• Most search engines treat strings of words as having an

implicit Boolean AND between them

• Medical assisting will return results that have both medical

and assisting.

“After assisting the lady with the cane, the man continued to

read a medical journal.”

• “medical assisting” finds those items that have both words in

that exact order.

Note the use of quotes to indicate a phrase.

Truncation (Word Roots)

• Use this technique to find variant forms of a single word.

Type the first part of the word, followed by an asterisk.

• Calculat* finds calculate, calculated, calculates, calculation,

calculator, etc.

• This technique is generally NOT available in web search

engines such as Google.

• Check the “HELP” button or tab on the search engine

page to find out if this feature is available and which

format it uses

Spelling Variations

• Don’t forget about British spelling variations

• An added “u” as in labour, flavour or colour

• “re” for “er” as in centre, fibre or theatre

• “s” for “z” as in analyse, recognise or organise

• “ae” for “e” in many medical terms such as paediatrics or leukaemia

• “oe” for “e” as in oestrogen, oesophagus or manoeuvre

• “ence” for “ense” as in licence and defence

• “ogue” for “og” as in analogue or dialogue

• A search engine may be programmed for specific word variations or it may not!

Wildcard

• Use this technique to find words where there are unknown

characters or frequent misspellings.

• Use a ? where the unknown letter is.

• Ne?t will find neat, nest, next (but not net).

• Analy?e will find analyze and analyse

• The # will look for an alternate spelling.

• Colo#r will find color and colour.

• Check the “HELP” button or tab on the search engine page to

find out if this feature is available and which format it uses

Where to search

• Choices depend on what you are searching for and how

familiar you are with the topic

• Google, Bing, Yahoo, etc. may or may not provide good,

reliable sources of information

• Wikipediea may (or may not) provide a good overview of a

topic. The article may have references that may be good

follow up sources. Beware!

The above might help you identify additional terms to

use in your search

Where to search

• Online catalogs will help you find non-digital

materials

• Check to see if a professional site provides access

to publications

• BMC online library provides access to full length

and some synopses of articles, books, transcripts

and recordings

Evaluating your Sources

Do you have

the right source

for the job?

Evaluating your Sources

• Date of the article, book or website

• Also look at the dates in an article’s bibliography

• Find out about the author

• Is there an author?

• Does the article provide any biographical information?

• Might the author (or the institution they work for) be biased?

• How was the research for the article funded?

Journal Articles and Books

Evaluating your Sources

• When was the web page last updated?

• Does the page link to other pages?

• Are those links valid?

• Is the page linked to by others?

• Does the exact wording seem to appear on lots of

different web pages?

• .edu, .gov and.org site are generally more reliable

• but remember anyone can register a domain name

Web Pages

Evaluating your Sources

• Who is the publisher?

• Is it a university press or a professional organization?

• Is the author associated with an academic institution, a

research group or a professional organization?

• Is the article peer-reviewed?

• Journal publication information will often let you know

• You can have a scholarly source without it being peer-

reviewed

Is it Scholarly?

The Search Cycle

• Searching is an investigative process

• Look for other words or terms that appear in “good” results

• Take note of the authors of “good” results

• Don’t be afraid to narrow or broaden results – you may just

find a better set of terms

• Use Boolean search operations or the advanced search

feature