Before you search using any tool or database, brainstorm and identify keywords that relate to your topic to assist you when you are searching for resources. Often different words can describe the same concepts and as a researcher, you can never be sure which keywords will be most successful in retrieving the information you are looking for. Begin by putting down the main ideas or concepts from the topic or question you are trying to research, like this:
Sample Research Question: How effective are Secondary School policies and programs in controlling cyberbullying?
KEYWORDS: Secondary schools, policies & programs, control, cyberbullying
Then drawing a table like this one for potentially useful synonyms for these main ideas will help you improve your searching:
|
Secondary Schools |
Policies / Programs |
Control |
Cyberbullying
|
|
High Schools Middle School Adolescents + school |
Projects Intervention Rules |
Eliminate Prevent / prevention Regulate / regulation Lessen |
online bullying online harassment digital bullying (or harassment)
|
Although recording your main ideas as search terms and creating synonyms for additional searching effectiveness, ongoing improvement throughout the searching you do for your research project will be enhanced by keeping a Research Journal - which is a formal way of saying, use your Class Journal to also record the tools you have used and how you have used them. For example:
Used the Library Catalog. Search terms = cyberbullying AND “high school”. Results= 2000+ Examined first 10 items: chose 2 books and an article. Discovered additional “Subjects”, including “Bullying in schools” and “Internet and teenagers”. Re-ran search using “Bullying in schools” and online (then digital). Chose two more articles.
Used Academic Search Complete. Search terms = cyberbullying BUT as I typed this, the database suggested “Cyberbullying in schools” which are chose as the search terms. Results = 1900+ Examined first 20 citations. Found lots of new terms to improve search, ex. = “Schol-based management” and “Prevention of cyberbullying” Chose two articles focused on policies and prevention.
Consult your main concepts and "grid" of synonyms to construct the most effective terms for searching.
Other features, called "facets", which you see in the left-hand frame, can be used to further focus your initial search results, including:
limiting to only Academic Journals or only Magazines
(see the other subpage titled "Professional Journals" under the Finding Articles tab for distinguishing features of these two types of periodicals),
limiting by date of publication,
narrowing by adding additional subject terms - either chosen from the Subjects attached to the individual citations in the result list or from the Subject Term menu in the "facet" area.
As you can see, some citations in the result set (about 80% of the material in Academic Search) have the full text of the article attached to the citation in the database. However, if the link "Check the RIC library for the item" appears, use it. We have over 125 databases with embedded full text articles and this is the mechanism for discovering if your article is in one of them or physically in Adams Library in the Periodicals or Microforms shelves.
Keep track of articles of interest by using the Add to Folder function. The items in your Folder can be emailed, printed or saved.
