How to do Research

Library databases filter according to the parameters you establish with each search, based on:

• keywords;
• synonyms;
• limiters.

Library databases do not filter results based on:

• what you looked at the last time you used the database;
• who are your friends are on social networking sites;
• what your politics might be.

The web returns content based on your personal preferences as a searcher rather than the actual content indexed. So a lot of relevant content is missed and a lot of irrelevancies find their way into the results.

A library database returns only based on what you enter as your search. Once you have learned to use the tools in the database it is a very quick and simple step to get exactly the content you want.

An effective search has the searcher employing all the search tools available from within the Advanced search interface:

• keyword linking with AND/OR/NOT
• search, field and results limiters
• proximity quotes “ ”
• truncation symbols*
• synonyms.

When undertaking academic coursework, it’s very important to understand how to read and interpret research, whether it be in the form of a scholarly peer-reviewed journal article, electronic book, evidence-based practice or other type of research publication.

You need to ask yourself questions as you read the content you have accessed in order to determine its relevance to your project.

Some of those questions are:

1. What’s this article, book, media content all about – what’s its thesis?
2. How did the writer conduct the research – on the web? Double-blind study? Interviews? Basically, what was their instrument or methodology for gathering their data or evidence?
3. What were the results or conclusions of the study and can you use those conclusions in your research project? Is the data the kind that can be used to make statements across populations (scholarly, academic research) or is it the kind that is specific to a population (hospital study or limited by the institution and therefore credible but not scholarly)?
4. Did the researchers involve their peers or did they publish without peer-review?

Adapted from:
Johnson, B. and Christensen, L. (2007, November). How to Read a Research Article. Educational Research: Quantitative, Qualitative and Mixed Approaches. Retrieved September 5, 2013 

Based on the principles of library indexing, the top article in your results list is there for a reason. You may have to click in and scan the content to realize that the system has maybe presented you with a gem, perhaps the best article on your topic in this database.

OR . . . You may have to go back and limit your search (see the page on Limiting for help). Each search is unique and potentially revealing.

Further research leads to greater understanding and may even lead to rethinking a topic.

The reality is that research is a process, a feedback loop that is informed by and changes every time you search on a topic. Each change of limiter, each addition or subtraction of a synonym, every time you read the reference list in an article and see something new. Each instance informs your next choice in the process. All of these variables will inform the questions you eventually ask in your final project and will inform the next search you put into the database.

Sometimes the results tell us that its time to rethink what we are looking for.