How to search for information

You can go to Mriga Online Academic Support website to get practical feedback to help you develop your assignment.

Plan:

·         Start your search by planning your search strategy and brainstorm (mind map) your topic / essay title / question

·         What you need to find out?

·         How much information do you need?

·         Think of keywords (concepts)

·         Remember to think about synonyms, variant spellings, abbreviations e.g.  carers, care, caring, caregivers, informal care, anaesthesia/anesthesia, anaesthetics/anesthetics etc.

·         Define your limits – language, date, geography, gender, age etc.

·         Decide what type of information you need and where you are going to look.  For example - Do you need books?  Do you need journal articles?  Do you need guidelines, statistics, government policies, research?

Search:

·         Think about where you are going to search:

·         Start with your library website and login to search and where available access full text resources (e-books, e-journals – full text of journal articles etc.)

·         Books - use Quick Search on the library website to search for books and e-books. 

·         Journal articles - use databases e.g. British Nursing Index, CINAHL, Medline, ASSIA etc. via the Advanced Search on the library website

·         Websites - use subject gateways e.g. Intute: Nursing, Midwifery and Allied Health, Intute Social Sciences, Intute: Medicine etc. via the Advanced Search on the library website

·         Guidelines and policy e.g. Department of Health, NICE, NHS Evidence, NMC via the Advanced Search on the library website

·         Statistics e.g. National Statistics, Department of Health, WHO via the Advanced Search – Health Statistics sub category on the library website

·         Use your keywords from you plan as search words.  Combine words and short phrases using AND, OR, NOT e.g. wound care and diabetes

·         Make use of other search tips for the database (truncation e.g.* or $, wildcards - ?, phrase searching etc.) and also online help and guides

·         Refine – be prepared to change your search words

Evaluate:

·         What you find - check for authority, quality, authorship, currency, reliability, quality and use of references, bias, research quality etc.

      (see reverse for more information)

Record:

·         Keep details of what and where you search as you go along.  

·         Keep details of the full references for future use.  For websites include the web address (URL) and date you accessed the information. 

·         Remember to use the Harvard Referencing style.

·         Save to My Digital Library within Advanced Search or use RefWorks

Evaluating information

Where?

·         Where has the information come from?

·         Is it from an academic publisher?

·         Have you used an academic database indexing journal articles, or library catalogue?

·         Is it from a peer reviewed journal?

·         Is it from an official source e.g. Government department, Royal College, Conference?

·         Have you used Google or similar? - academic credibility will need verification

Who?

·         Who wrote or published the information?

·         Can you establish the academic credibility of the author(s)? 

      Have they got the authority to write what they are writing about?

·         Has the information been peer reviewed?

·         Has the author published other works?

What?

·         Is the content and coverage suitable? 

·         What level is it?

·         Is the content primary research (new information), secondary research, an overview, literature review etc.?

·         Can you check for the accuracy and quality of the information?

·         What is the purpose of the source and what audience is it targeted at?

·         How does it compare with other sources?

·         Are there any obvious biases?  e.g. geographical focus, organisational viewpoint etc.

·         How good are the references – currency etc.?

·         Is it relevant to your work?

When?

·         How up to date is it?  What is the date of publication?

Further help with searching and evaluating information:

Online help via the library website (Help and Advice section)

• Information Skills Tutorial (PILOT) –   Online tutorial to help you with searching for and evaluating information

• Library Guides –includes Harvard Referencing, RefWorks, Subject Guides e.g. Nursing, Database guides e.g. CINAHL 
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• Harvard Guide to Referencing as well as other systems (go to the referencing systems blog)

• Internet for Nurse (Intute)

      A tutorial about how to find nursing information on the web 

• Internet Detective

      Online tutorial to learn more about evaluating websites

           

• Library website - Internet Searching – Search Tips section