Roaming on this website? Maybe, you are well determined to grow your research interest and higher study fascination a little bit more. Hopefully, this blog can be time worthy content for you!
Research, the foundation of academic success, doesn’t limit itself to any certain extension but rather explores every kind of interesting field. But finding research sources can make you feel exhausted, as the searching procedure, scrolling through various websites, opening more tabs, etc. are really tiresome. However, time is short but the work load is huge. To stop this endless confusion, standardised research search tips can be useful here.
In general, university libraries showcase various research articles, which you can access easily in their web portals or pages. But an effective searching process can be hugely convenient in your research-article reading phase. So, here we are using some short tips from the webpage of University of Saskatchewan to get exact results.
To master article databases, choose them according to your field of interest first.
Then the core searching process begins:
1. The database’s main page shows the search bar; now the power of keyword mastery is in your hands. Enter the relevant keywords to depict your topic. Using the right keywords can make or break your search results. Instead of typing broad terms, get specific by using Boolean operators: AND, OR in your search.
AND: To narrow or combine your search. Such as, “Saskatchewan AND Engineering”
OR: To broaden/include synonyms. Like, “Engineering OR Technology”
2. Refining your keyword search, another term is introduced. That is Truncation: a feature allowing you to replace letters in a word/symbol, usually an asterisk (e.g., farm*). It pulls up many words like farm, farms, farmer, etc.
3. Select the search button and you’ll get a bunch of results. The information that is displayed: Article titles, Authors, Journal titles, Journal volume and issue numbers, Publication dates, Accessing Full-Text Articles.
4. To read the complete article, look for options like “PDF full-text,” “HTML full-text,” or “Linked full-text.” Click the relevant link to access the article online.
5. When facing problems in keyword selection or unsuccessful searches, the library has a guide to formulate search strategy with resources. It will include boolean searching and many advanced searching methods.
6. Take advantage of USearch tips. USearch tips depict a search tool in the main page, presenting a library catalogue, open access resources and databases. It also includes basic searching, advanced searching and more developed methods.
In conclusion, hopefully, these discussed tips will be a great help in researching and lead you to the exact targeted, useful articles. Utilisation of these steps can make you a confident searcher.
So, don’t delay and proceed to your adventurous article searching!
Happy researching!
Monika Das Shimu,
MD Nahian Sadik,
Oindrila Barua
University of Chittagong.