Library: Research Process

Use library resources to search for the articles, books, and other sources of information that you need.

• Use your list of keywords to search the library's databases. Check out the Search Tips to make better searches.
• Use database limiters to shorten and focus your list of results. Limiters like "Full Text," "Peer-Reviewed," and date ranges can be very helpful.
• You may start searching and not be able to find the type of information you need right away. Be flexible. You may have to broaden or narrow your topic or use different keywords in your search. You may have to do several searches to find what you are looking for.

Keep in mind the assigned length of the research paper, project, bibliography or other research assignment. Be aware of the depth of coverage needed and the due date. These important factors may help you decide how much and when you will modify your topic. You instructor will probably provide specific requirements, if not the table below may provide a rough guide:

You will often begin with a word, develop a more focused interest in an aspect of something related to that word, then begin to have questions about the topic. For example:

Ideas = Frank Lloyd Wright 
Research Question = How has Frank Lloyd Wright influenced modern architecture?
Focused Research Question = What design principles used by Frank Lloyd Wright are common in contemporary homes?

Discovery at Gates  searches  almost all of the library's journal articles, books, ebooks,  films, and other resources. For more databases for a specific topics try our Research Guides.

• Facets: Most databases will allow you to filter your results using "facets" (sometimes called limiters or refiners). Using facets can help to cut down the number of results you get from a search.
  • These are the options (normally located on the right hand side) that allow you to only display results that meet certain criteria such as peer-review, full-text, year of publication, etc.
• Keywords: Use the most specific words to describe your topic including synonyms and alternate terms, such as abbreviations and scientific terms.
• Controlled vocabulary: Database descriptors, the Library of Congress Subject Headings, or other thesauri gather information on the same topics together and may contain other useful words for your research. Ask the library reference staff for help in finding thesauri.
• Natural Language: Try not to use full sentences when searching library databases. Leave out prepositions or interrogative words like "how," "why," and "where." Searching in the library works best when you use nouns and noun phrases as keywords.
• Phrase Searching. Some databases and search engines will allow the use of quotations to search for an exact phrase or words together in a paragraph or sentence. This also may be referred to as proximity searching.
  • Example: "air pollution" Retrieves sources with the complete phrase instead of "air" in one sentence and "pollution" in another, unrelated sentence.
• AND, OR, and NOT may be used to combine key words in electronic database searching. Using these ;operators can make your search more focused and yield more precise results.
  • Use AND to retrieve records containing only all search terms. AND will reduce and refine the results.
  • Use OR to retrieve records containing one, both or all of the search terms. OR will expand the search and retrieve more results.
  • Use NOT to exclude terms in a search. Be cautious when using NOT, useful search results may be omitted.
  • These operators are weighted with NOT having precedence, then AND, and finally OR.

• Bibliography Scanning: When you find an article you like, look at the bibliography. There is a good chance that you'll find other articles that would be helpful to your research.
• Find Alternate Keywords: Often databases will list the keywords or subjects that are associated with the article you find. You can sometimes find this information in the abstract of the article as well.
• AND, OR, NOT: Use of database operators (AND, OR, NOT) can sometimes be useful to help tie together or separate search terms.
  • Use AND to only find articles that contain both of the keywords you're looking for.
  • Use OR to search for articles that use either one. 
  • Use NOT to eliminate a search term from your search. 
  • These operators are weighted with NOT having precedence, then AND, and finally OR.
• Truncation or Wildcards: used to expand results by instructing the computer to look for the root of the word and all alternate word endings. The * (asterisk) or ? (question mark) may substitute for any number of characters at the beginning, middle or end of a word.
  • Example: gun* Retrieves gun, guns, gunners, gunnery, gunning, etc.
  • Some search tools and databases automatically use truncation and phrase searching will often override this function.