Muhammad Asif Deputy Manager, LUMS

Need for superior online search techniques Developing the ability to:
Determine breadth and depth of information needed Search for information in an organized and efficient manner Evaluate sources of information critically Reference and cite sources properly using standard formats

Course related readings, Class Assignments Academic Research (Thesis/Dissertations, Projects, Research Article) Teaching Support

Choose your topic Write a clear topic statement For example: This paper will discuss the prevalence and use of drugs by teenagers in Pakistan. Select the keywords from your topic statement Prevalence and use of drugs by teenagers in Pakistan Select synonyms and related terms Teenagers (teens, adolescents, adolescence, youth, young people ) Drugs (Heroine, Sheesha, Hashish, Marijuana, pot, weed, ganja etc) Pakistan (Punjab, Subcontinent, Sindh, KPK, Balochistan, etc.
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Keywords are words that describe or relate to your research topic. You

determine what you think are the best keywords.

Choosing the best keywords can be difficult. The easiest method of determining

effective keywords is by simply reflecting upon your topic and focusing on its main points. Think of terms describing those main points and you have keywords.
Examples:

Research topic
Starting a business in Afghanistan;

Potential keywords Afghanistan, business, foreign investment, labor, entrepreneurship, market forces

Guessing the URL (Uniform Resource Locator) Using a Search Engine (General, Subject, Meta) Using a Web directory, Subject Gateway

FindingInformation Information Finding

Places to GO

Library Library

Internet

Tools to USE

Library Library Catalogs Catalogs

Abstracts and Indexes

World Wide Web (WWW)

Card Catalog Catalog Card

Online Catalog Catalog Online

Print Indexes

Electronic Databases (e.g.,

CD ROM, WWW

What to GET

Books and other materials owned by libraries

Articles in magazines, journals and newspapers Web Pages

What to DO with it

Evaluate and Select to use effectively

Tool

1. Identify your keyword When planning your search, break down your topic into its separate concepts. e.g: Cloud Computing , SAP ERP Packages 2. Make a list of search terms for each concept Once you have identified your concepts, list the terms which describe each concept.

3. Specify the logical relationships among your search terms

Once you know the words you want to search, you need to establish the logical relationships among them using Boolean logic: AND, OR, NOT.

Use specific keywords

The more relevant results will return to you.

Correct Spelling
Beware of the differences between English and American

spellings (Color, Colour) (color OR colour)

Stop words
Ignore the most common words the, is, e.g.

searching the web and the search engine will ignore the.

AB

Allows combing two or more terms Retrieves only records that contain all the specified terms Can be used to narrow down search results

Computer

Internet

Term A

Term B

A And B : AB

AB

Allows combing two or more terms B Retrieves records containing either one or some or all the specified terms Can be used to expand the search results
Internet

Computer

Term A

Term B

A OR B : A, B, AB

AB

Allows combing two or more terms B Retrieves only records containing the Term A (students) and not records containing the term B (Teens) or both AB Can be used to narrow down search results
Teens

Students

Term A

Term B

A NOT B : A

Phrase Searching
Instead of American English

Try American English or (American English)

Truncation

Truncation locates multiple forms of a word, including different endings

Instead of industry

Try

industry

stem
industr*

industries

industrial

industrialization

Wildcard Searches
If you want both Woman Women Try Wom*n If you want to search for language literacy acquisition language vocabulary acquisition language lexical acquisition language phonologically acquisition etc. simultaneously; Search as Language*acquisition

Field Searching
title, author, subject, keyword, all fields, etc.

Setting Limits
language, date, region, file format

Indexing Database
ERIC, Agricola, Medline, EconLit, etc.

Statistical databases
Stat-USA, UN Common Database, PC-TAS,

Infofish, etc.

Full text databases

Science Direct, Emerald, JSTOR, Springer,

Wiley Interscience, Lexisnexis, etc.

Personalization/Registration

Alert Services

Search Alert Volume/Issue Alert

Citation Alert
Recall to retrieve updated information

Save Searches

Email Search Results

Article Display Format (pdf and HTM) Exporting citations in citation management tools, EndNote,

Refwork, etc.

(http://www.sciencedirect.com)
The world's leading electronic collection of scientific journals and provides access to the full text of last 15 years. The subject areas covered in this database are: Business Management and Accounting, Mathematics, Computer Science, and Economics.

(http://www.informaworld.com)
Informaworld provides access to over 1100 peer-reviewed research journals published by Taylor & Francis, Rutledge, Psychology Press and Informa Healthcare in Sciences, Engineering and Humanities subject areas generally from 1997 to present.

(http://www.jstor.org)
An online archive database with complete back files of over 700 core scholarly journals covering Business, Finance, Economics, Mathematics, Statistics, Language, Law, Religion, Philosophy, Anthropology, History, Geography, Biological Sciences, Political Sciences and Education.

Online Databases
(https://web.lexis-nexis.com)

More than legal research, the LexisNexis Total Research System provides you online access to state and federal case law; codes and statutes; court documents and extensive secondary materials such as treatises and law journal articles. It has over 3.5 billion public records; business news, legal news, and regional news; expert commentary on the law; Shepard's Citations Service; and so much more.

(http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com)

Wiley InterScience offers over 3 million articles from 1400+ journals, the combined output of all Wiley-Blackwell peer-reviewed primary research and survey journals. It covers the full spectrum of science, technology, Engineering, medicine, business, social sciences, and the humanities. Many of these titles are ranked at the forefront of their fields

(http://www.emeraldinsight.com/Insight)

Provides full text of all 150+ Emerald online journals available, with full text back files, many going back to 1990's abstracts going back in some cases to 1980's.

Online Databases

(http://www.springerlink.com )
One of the world's leading online information services for scientific, technical, and medical books and journals. Over 1100 fully peer reviewed journals are available with back files starting from different dates.

(http://journals.cambridge.org)
Cambridge University Presss collection of nearly 200 leading journals across the sciences, social sciences and humanities. \

Business Source Premier (http://search.ebscohost.com)

Business Source Premier is the industrys most used business research database, providing full text for more than 2,300 journals, including full text for more than 1,100 peer-reviewed titles. This database provides full text back to 1886, and searchable cited references back to 1998.

To find FEWER & MORE RELEVANT results,

Search in specific fields (title, abstract, subject,

keywords, etc.) Add or change search limits (date, language, etc.) Add more search terms (using AND) Use phrase searching instead of AND Use specific subject headings instead of common language words Decrease search terms connected with OR

To find MORE results,

Use truncation or wildcard characters (* or ?) Include more synonyms (using OR)

Search all fields rather than in specific fields

Remove search limits (e.g. date, language, etc.) Use AND instead of phrase searching Use broader subject headings

Online databases return results that match your keywords. Most databases provide search within results feature which helps you to get specific material Search results can be sorted and sent through email. Relevant Article feature helps you to get article with same subject headings and keywords Citations can also be exported through citation management tools.

1. The number range operator, .. (two periods), looks for results

that fall inside your specified numeric range (e.g. digital camera 3..5 megapixel $800..$1000) 2. Definitions of words using define: word, as in define: Google 3. Exclude words from search using - and include using +, as in: Disney pixar 4. Drop common words (to, the, etc.) in search text, unless wanted explicitly 5. The Google synonym operator~ (tilde) character include not only exact matches, but also synonyms for each of the keywords. Searching for: ~ape turns up results for monkey, gorilla, chimpanzee, and others

6. Localize by type of file, as in phrase filetype:pdf 7. Phrase the question as an answer instead of How many awards did Finding Nemo win, use Nemo won * awards 8. Use wildcards * instead of words, as in eastern * university

9. For phrases use search phrase, as in Finding Nemo

10. For complex searches use advanced search located beside the basic search area

Thank you