OARE Module 2:

Searching Strategies

Table of Contents

• Planning a Search

• Types of Sources

• Boolean Operators

• Google vs. (Google) Scholar

• Evaluating Web Information

Planning a Search Strategy

Example (Steps 1-4) – health problems AND water pollution

1. Ask: What health problems are associated with water pollution? 2. Need: scholarly primary research 3. Main Concepts: health, water, pollution4. Select terms:

– Broader terms: ‘health’, environmental degradation’, ‘agricultural management’,

– Synonyms: health, illness, disease, etc.water, rivers, lakes, sea, domestic water, etc.pollution, ‘oil spills’, chemical, biological, toxicity, etc

– Alternative spellings: (harbour, harbour) (specialization, specialisation) (aluminium, aluminium)

– Plurals: river(s), lake(s), disease(s)– Capitals: e.g. name of a specific lake, disease, region

5. Select a Source

6. Search: construct a search using the appropriate commands and best practices

Question: What health problems are associated with water pollution?

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3 Concept 4

health pollutionwaterproblems

5. water6. H2O

3. problems4. complications

1. health2. wellbeing

9 = 1 OR 2 10 = 3 OR 4 11 = 5 OR 6 12 = 7 OR 8

7. pollution8. contamination

13 = 9 AND 10 AND 11 AND 12

7. Revise

Review and refine you search

• be prepared to review/revise your search• keep your search terms in concept

sets/zones but remember to explore subtopics• try new sources of information • save the search and citations for future use;

usually an option in the search tool - if you register

• promote use of high-quality resources

8. Manage Results

9. Evaluate-Who? What? When? Where? Why?

• Download, print, save, e-mail results & search history• Cite using a biological or ecological citation style• Save search, set up alerts (not available in SCOPUS)

• Accuracy• Authority• Objectivity• Currency• Coverage

10. Apply –Answer the question

Boolean OperatorsAND Operator

(to combine two concepts)

the AND operator is used to combine two concepts e.g. groundwater AND heavy metals – results are in the combined area of the two circlesNote: the parentheses are used to limit the results to the exact phrase – in this case (heavy metals)

groundwater (heavy metals) or(heavy metal*)

In the Environment Index database, the groundwater AND (heavy metals) search has 860 results.

the AND operator is used to combine three concepts e.g. groundwater AND (heavy metals) AND pollution - in the combined area of the three circles

groundwater (heavy metals)

AND Operator (to combine three concepts)

pollution

The groundwater AND (heavy metals) AND pollution has 473 results – nearly half of the previous search.

the OR is a means of combining terms e.g. mercury OR lead - in each circle’s area with the overlap in the middle having both search terms

mercury lead

OR Operator (info containing one or other term)

The mercury OR lead search has 97,832 results – a huge number.

NOT Operator (in one term or the other)

the mercury NOT lead option limits the search to one term (mercury) – only in the left area; it eliminates items in 2nd term (lead) or both terms (center)

Note: NOT does not work in Scholar and possible would eliminate some useful references; use judiciously

mercury lead

The mercury NOT lead search has 13,138 results – significantly less than mercury AND lead.

Other search engine functions• Phrase or proximity searching: “…” or (…)

– allows you to search for an exact phrase, e.g. diseases AND (water pollution) or groundwater AND (heavy metals)

• Truncation/wildcards: * – allow you to search alternative spellings and

plurals river* for river OR rivers pesticide* for pesticide OR pesticides program* for programme OR program• Alternate spellings: ?

– can be used to substitute for characters anywhere in a word

wom?n for woman or women harb?r for harbor or harbour

Asia AND (mercury OR lead)

mercury lead

Asia

Asia AND (mercury OR lead) – in the shaded area The OR operator retains items in each term and the AND operator is used to combine two concepts

The Asia AND (mercury or lead) search has 1,108 results – a more precise search.

More Search Techniques• Field Specific Searching

– author, title, journal, date, url, etc. • Language Restrictions, Humans or Animals and

other limits (see various OARE accessible databases)

• Relevancy Ranking – a grading that gives extra weight to a document

when the search terms appear in the headline or are capitalized

– every found document is calculated as 100% multiply by the angle formed by weights vector for request and weights vector for document found

Google vs. (Google) Scholar

This is the Google search engine. Queries are typed into the Search box – in this case OARE/Online Access to Research in the Environment.

Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature.

(Google) Scholar

The Scholar search for OARE results in academic articles and books where OARE is one of the authors – DA Oare and TR Oare.

Evaluating Web Information• Criteria for Evaluation

- Accuracy- Authority- Currency- Coverage- Objectivity- Design/Navigation

Use the 6 criteria to evaluate the value of

information from a website since Internet material is not reviewed and evaluated.

Google search: global warming

The Google search for global warming results in general articles including news reports and advertisements from Google.

Scholar: global warmingThe Scholar search for global warming results in academic articles and books where global warming is the topic.

Google search: global warming hoax

The Google search for global warming hoax results in general articles including news reports and pseudo scientific websites that argue against global warming.

Scholar: global warming hoax

The Scholar search for global warming hoax results contain academic articles and books about the hoax as atopic.

Exercises

Complete Module 2 exercises #1 - 2 in the accompanying OARE exercises document

Updated: July 2015