Advanced Information Research Skills

Once you have formulated your research question, you are ready to start searching. A well-organised search involves the following steps: 

• Identify your research question, synonyms and relevant subject headings (words used to describe the content of articles/books, assigned by indexers using a controlled vocabulary).
   
• Consider the types of information required to answer the question, including peer reviewed articles, books, conference papers and reference texts.
   
• Use appropriate search tools to find relevant and accurate information including library catalogues, journal databases and internet search tools. 
   
• Design appropriate search statements and operators, including Boolean operators, phrase and proximity searching, truncation and wildcards.
   
• Limit the results of your search appropriately and organise your records using bibliographic management software. 

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Consider the search process in terms of four sets of questions that need to be answered:

1. What are you researching? What are the key terms and synonyms that define your question? Are there subject terms that encompass the identified concepts? What type of information is important in your discipline area?
    
2. Where will you search? Which tools will you use to find information? Will you use FiNDit and Google Scholar to get started to get a sense of how others describe your topic area?
    
3. How will you express your search terms in the search tools? How will you construct your search statements and which search techniques will you use?
    
4. How well did your search retrieve results? Evaluate and broaden or narrow your search.

A literature review is an evaluative report of information found in the literature related to your selected area of study. The review should describe, summarise, evaluate, and clarify this literature. It should give a theoretical base for the research and help you (the author) determine the nature of your research.

A good literature review should:

• find what information already exists in your field of research
• identify the gaps in the literature
• find experts working in your field
• identify major seminal works
• identify main methodologies and research techniques
• identify main ideas, theories and conclusions and establish similarities and differences
• provide a context for your own research
• show relationships between previous studies and theories.
   

The first step in the process of searching is to identify the key concepts from your research question or search objectives. These concepts describe the kinds of information you need to investigate in order to answer your research question. Consider the concepts in the context of key readings you are already aware of or search around the topic generally before commencing serious research.

A concept or mind map can help explore your topic and clarify the logic of these concepts and illustrate their relationships. You should also consider the different search objectives you might have relevant to the different sections of your thesis or stages of your research.
 

Example of a concept map: A concept map puts the main topic in the centre of the map and graphically represents the major concepts that relate to the main topic.