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OGC Personal Project: Research

See all research skills

Remember to use Evidence to support your assertion that you have learned and make progress in any of these skills

Search Engines (beyond Google)

   Search Tips:

  • Identify Key Words: Write out questions, circle necessary words, anticipate words in the answer
  • Use Booleans to narrow or broaden your search (And, Or, Not)
  • Use truncation (*) to catch more results (for example: creat* will bring create, creation, creating...)
  • Use quotation marks to keep exact phrases together ("Florida Marlins")
  • Use wildcards (?) to catch various spellings or meanings (wom?n brings woman and women)
  • Use a minus sign to filter out irrelevant results (-fish)
  • Filter results with "Search Tools" in Google
  • Search for files and scans using " filetype:pdf" in a search
  • Limit results by domain, such as .gov  .edu  .cn
  • Limit to terms in the title of a site or article with "intitle:"

Sample Search String:

  • "amnesty international"    iran   intitle:execution*    site:http://.gov    "cultur* impact"    -oil

Using Google? Choose Advanced Search

Build a search string with Boolify - a puzzle-style google search

 

Identifying the Difference between Popular and Academic/Scholarly Sources

Popular sources Academic sources
Written by journalists, bloggers or the average Joe. Written by academics (professors, PhD or Masters students) for other researchers in their subject area.
Do not often cite their sources. Always include a Bibliography or a Works Cited and include footnotes or citations.
Appear in magazines, newspapers, blogs, websites or videos. Usually appear in academic journals (print or electronic) or in print or electronic books.
Aim to inform a wide audience. Aim to inform other researchers with some advanced knowledge of the subject.
Chosen for publication by an editor or by the writer. Chosen for publication by a group of peers in the subject area.