Effective Searching: Part 2 - Broaden your search (Generic Web)

Editor's Notes

• #2: Senior Manager: Library Research Services [email protected] TurtleLover98l https://pixabay.com/en/baseball-glove-ball-sports-catch-858367/ CC0
• #5: DEFINE - This has two motivations: In terms of form, you must search in the most appropriate places, having decided the type and amount of information you want based upon your information need In terms of subject, you are also defining your boundaries. It is likely that for any extended piece of research you are going to have multiple ‘contexts’ and ‘avenues’ to explore – and there may be other linked areas you are not interested in. Having a broad understanding of the topic may also help inform your choice of search term, as well as helping you identify those areas you wish to exclude from your search. BROADEN Metaphor – cast your net wide to make sure you can capture as much as possible that ‘might’ be relevant, and ensuring you aren’t missing anything which might potentially be useful. - this is about being comprehensive, rather than focussing to precisely to start with. This is about ensuring you don’t inadvertently miss anything. NARROW Metaphor: ensuring you are using the right nets for the job to allow those results you don’t want to slip through the holes, and those you are to be pulled onto your deck. - once you have ensured your search can be as comprehensive as possible, you then need to make sure you focus it to help filter out the ‘noise’ and to just return the most relevant results. This is about ensuring you use your reading time most efficiently. EVALUATE This is not about critically evaluating the content and conclusions of the articles. This is about evaluating your results as a whole to identify problems with your search, or improvements you could make. - rarely will you find all the most relevant and appropriate results in your first search. Using the results you do find to identify:- Key authors, or opposing arguments, to explore further Alternative and additional search terms Specific topics you might want to focus on New avenues of research topic or methodology WORK FOR YOU Finally, this is about using those key sources you locate to work for you:- - providing you with a rich source of pre-selected earlier research from their own list of references - citation searching to see how the ideas and research in the key sources you have identified have been taken and developed further
• #18: - Now itself perceived as not politically acceptable and being replaced by terms including “intellectual disability”. - Still in use in the United States and by the WHO sometime after the phrase became less commonly used in United Kingdom. - APA officially changed terminology in 2013 and under federal US law - Changes in terminology and spelling especially important when searching historic sources such as newspapers, official publication and pamphlet collections. 2018: Scopus Data - “mental retardation” = 641 results - “intellectual disability” = 2,817 results - “mental retardation AND intellectual disability” = 136 results
• #20: Many databases will search for the exact word/spelling you type in. Others might match to a pre-defined, or AI generated, list of related terms and spellings – although this may not include every possibility.
• #37: As postgraduate researchers, there is not just a pressure to “find some stuff”… but you will feel you are expected to have found and read everything which is of relevance to your topic of research, and read around the edges to clearly define your topic. Reading everything is, of course, an impossible task. So what you actually need to have is the confidence, (for meetings with supervisors, conference papers you deliver, articles your write… and then your final completed thesis, your viva and any subsequent direction your career takes you…) the confidence that you have found (and read) everything of importance, and an ability to articulate and demonstrate why you are confident you have searched for that information effectively. DEFINE - This has two motivations: In terms of form, you must search in the most appropriate places, having decided the type and amount of information you want based upon your information need In terms of subject, you are also defining your boundaries. It is likely that for any extended piece of research you are going to have multiple ‘contexts’ and ‘avenues’ to explore – and there may be other linked areas you are not interested in. Having a broad understanding of the topic may also help inform your choice of search term, as well as helping you identify those areas you wish to exclude from your search. BROADEN Metaphor – cast your net wide to make sure you can capture as much as possible that ‘might’ be relevant, and ensuring you aren’t missing anything which might potentially be useful. - this is about being comprehensive, rather than focussing to precisely to start with. This is about ensuring you don’t inadvertently miss anything. NARROW Metaphor: ensuring you are using the right nets for the job to allow those results you don’t want to slip through the holes, and those you are to be pulled onto your deck. - once you have ensured your search can be as comprehensive as possible, you then need to make sure you focus it to help filter out the ‘noise’ and to just return the most relevant results. This is about ensuring you use your reading time most efficiently. EVALUATE This is not about critically evaluating the content and conclusions of the articles. This is about evaluating your results as a whole to identify problems with your search, or improvements you could make. - rarely will you find all the most relevant and appropriate results in your first search. Using the results you do find to identify:- Key authors, or opposing arguments, to explore further Alternative and additional search terms Specific topics you might want to focus on New avenues of research topic or methodology WORK FOR YOU Finally, this is about using those key sources you locate to work for you:- - providing you with a rich source of pre-selected earlier research from their own list of references - citation searching to see how the ideas and research in the key sources you have identified have been taken and developed further
• #38: “15299l” https://pixabay.com/en/darts-dart-board-bull-s-eye-game-102919/ CC 0