It is important to look at every resource you find with a critical eye. There are many different methods to help you do this. Below are a few different methods for evaluation.
While Google Scholar should not be the only place you go for your research needs, it can be a great resource when starting out or looking for a specific article.
While you may be used to going to Google and typing in "Who invented the telescope", this will not work in a database. This is because search engines like Google use natural language processing. They can understand your questions as you ask them. Databases do not work this way. Databases use keyword searching.
Keyword searching involves taking a research question and pulling out the keywords. For example, if your research question is:
How does the use of pesticides in food production affect human health?
You would look through the question and pick out the keywords. For this question, we can pull out pesticides, food production, and human health.
Then, you would use Boolean connectors to connect the terms in a way that the database can understand. Your end search would look something like this:
pesticides AND "food production" AND "human health"
Use Boolean Connectors AND, OR, and NOT to refine your searches!
Use Truncation, Wildcards, and other Methods to Limit your Search!
This is EBSCO Discovery Service, this discovery search box searches across most of the library's resources all at once and can search some external resources.
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