TECH 6700: Data Driven Decision Making

Using advanced searches in library databases can save you time and yield better results. There are a few tips and tricks you can use to do this. They can be used for narrowing, expanding, and refining your searches.

AND

This command tells the database to search for two or more words in article titles, topics, and abstracts:

• management AND communication
• images AND processing AND enhancement

Quotation Marks

Quotation marks are used to tell databases to search for words in a certain order. This is especially useful for finding titles or specific topics that can't be boiled down to a specific word:

• "project management"
• "network security" AND "penetration testing"

OR

This tool tells the database to find at least one of two or three words. This tool is the best way to search for synonyms without having to try an entire series of searches: 

• budget OR cost
• ROI OR "return on investment" OR "rate of return"

Nesting

OR is often paired with parentheses so you can use multiple searching tools in the same search. OR on its own can often bring back too many results, so the parentheses help keep the database from bringing up off-topic resources: 

• security AND (saas OR "software as a service" OR "cloud computing")

NOT

This tool helps you remove irrelevant results from your search. For example, if you're searching for information about artificial intelligence and there are a lot of results for science fiction and movies, you can exclude them like this:

• "artificial intelligence" NOT "science fiction"
• "artificial intelligence" NOT (film OR movie)

Truncation

Like OR, truncation is a great way to find synonyms. In this case, truncation helps you find different variations of a word so you don't have to type in every version of a word that you want the database to look for:

• manage* 

The * lets the database know that you want all words that start with those letters. So, this search would bring up: manager, managers, and management. Be careful with this one. If you shorten a word too much (man*), you'll get unexpected results (like mankind, mango).

What is Peer Review?

It is the quality control system for scholarship. Articles are written by experts and are reviewed by several other experts in the field before the article is published in the journal in order to ensure the article’s quality. They are also referred to as 'academic', 'juried', 'refereed', or 'scholarly'.

How can you tell when something is peer-reviewed?

Some databases will help by labeling results scholarly or academic. However, you will still need to examine each article to be sure that it’s scholarly.

The following characteristics can help you determine if the article you’re looking at is scholarly:

• Author(s) name included
  • Scholarly articles are written by experts or researchers, so make sure that the author’s name, along with their institution and scholarly credentials are included.
• Technical or specialized language
  • Scholarly articles will often use technical or highly specialized language.
• Written for professionals
  • Scholarly articles are published in academic journals. Academic journals have titles that suggest they are written for professionals in a particular field of study, and not for the general public.
• Charts, graphs, and diagrams
  • Scholarly articles communicate research results. They will often include charts, graphs, or diagrams.
• Long ( 5 or more pages)
  • Scholarly articles tend to be long. They are usually five or more pages.
  • Article divided into sections with headings: Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results, Discussion, or Conclusion.
• Bibliography 
  • Scholarly articles will always include references to the sources cited or a bibliography.

As you search, you should evaluate the sources you find. Books, articles, and websites are created by people with a wide range of opinions, education, and purposes for writing. You could also find sources that are outdated, inaccurate, or just not useful for your research.

 As you read sources, keep the following things in mind:

• Relevance: How is the source relevant to your topic? Think about how you would use this information.
  • Is it a source of background information? Does it contribute to or affect your argument and, if so, in what way? Does it support your argument? Refute your argument?
• Authority: How does the source establish its authority?
  • Who wrote the source? What tells you they are authoritative? What are their credentials? Is the source well-known or respected? Does the author draw authority from experience? 
  • Is other information available about them (e.g., from Google?) Does knowing the authority of the source help you make a judgment about the accuracy of the information? 
  • Even if you have doubts about the authority of the source, does it contain links to other authoritative or helpful sources? 
• Date: When was the source last updated or published? Is the publication date important to you?
  • Is the information outdated? Has later research or information affected or disproved this source? Does the source contain ideas or language that are no longer acceptable? Are there important dates that relate to your subject? 
• Appearance: How does the source present itself?
  • Are there advertisements? Is the information presented in a serious and professional way? Does the source have citations and references? 
  • How is the writing? Is it written in formal, academic language? Are there spelling errors or grammatical errors?
  • This one is a quick gut check—does the website look shady to you? 
    • Be careful, though! Appearance can be very easily faked, so keep an eye out and always get a second opinion if you’re unsure. Librarians are pretty good at this, so feel free to ask us!
• Reason: Why was this source written?
  • Was the source written to make an academic argument and/or add to the body of knowledge on a topic? Was it written as part of an ongoing debate, to counter an opposing claim?
  • Is it biased or propaganda?
    • Note: a biased or problematic site may still be useful to you; the key is to recognize its bias or limitations. 
  • Was the source written to sell something? Was it written to entertain? Or for some combination of these reasons?

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