Finding information
There are several places you can look for information, including books, journal articles, websites, and databases.
Depending on what sort of information you are looking for, some sources may be more appropriate than others. For example, if you are trying to understand a new concept, you might want to start with reading something like the Wikipedia page. However, if you are writing about a concept in an assignment, you will want to reference sources that have been peer-reviewed, such as journal articles.
| Source type | Useful for | Avoid for |
|---|---|---|
| Book | Getting to grips with a topic, for example reading a textbook chapter recommended by your lecturer. | Check when the book was published. For information about the latest research or most recent developments you might be better looking at research papers. |
| Research paper | Finding details of a specific study, including the methodology and results. Conclusions and findings may be relevant for assignments. | A basic understanding of a topic. If you are still getting to grips with a topic research papers might be too specific and complex. |
| Literature review | Getting an overview of the key concepts and significant studies/results/methods that have been reported on. | Information about a specific study or finding. Details of methodology and results. |
| Database | Finding relevant sources. Finding useful journals or related articles. | Very broad topics as you will get lots of results if your search terms aren’t specific. |
| Website | Improving your understanding. Starting research on a topic which you have no knowledge of to get familiar with key concepts and terms. | Assignments and assessed work. Most websites aren’t peer-reviewed, which is the standard usually required for sources you reference in your assignments so you can be sure the information is scientifically accurate and robust. |
With any of these sources, it can be easy to fall down a research rabbit hole. The internet means you have access to millions of sources at your fingertips. These can make finding information overwhelming and you can waste a lot of time trawling through books, articles and websites that aren’t relevant.
Here are some ways you can refine your search technique to narrow down sources to the most useful:
- Plan your research in advance: Think about your topic and be clear what you are looking for. This includes thinking about the purpose of your research as described in the table above. Break down your topic into key concepts and identify keywords you could use to describe them. You may also want to identify what you aren’t looking for so you can exclude sources.
- Apply search techniques: Techniques such as truncation, wildcards, phrase searching and proximity operators can help you find relevant information.
- Combine keywords: Once you have identified your keywords and thought about which search techniques to use, the next step is to consider how to combine your keywords into a structured search. Using Boolean operators and parentheses can help you focus your search and save time. (There is an exercise on Boolean operators and parentheses in the ‘See also’ section below).
It’s important to keep track of the sources you have used so you can reference them and to help you save time by avoiding reading the same thing multiple times. We will cover managing your references in a later step.
Finding information is a skill you will develop during your time at university. Through regular practice you will become quicker at finding relevant information. At the University of Nottingham, the Libraries’ Learning Development Team provide a lot of support to help students with this skill. You will learn more about them in Week 3.
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