Expert Search Strategies

 

 

Figure 1: Mind map of ILA search terms including synonyms, alternative and related terms.

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Table 1: Expert search strategies with various databases

	Google	Google Scholar	ERIC	ProQuest	A+ Education via Informit
How the database works	Searches for text in web pages – results are not just from academic journals or articles, but book chapters, blogs and web sites. One main search box. Autocomplete options that prioritises past searches. Recognises Boolean operators: quotation marks, exclusion (“-xx”) and alternatives (“xx OR yy”). Customise using search settings and advanced search option.	Indexes academic articles. Boolean operators: not necessary to put AND (done automatically); NOT is represented by a minus (-) symbol next to the term. Provides a ‘Cited By’ link which takes you to other highly relevant articles on the same topic which have cited the particular article you have looked at.	Extensive access to education-related literature. Option of basic or advanced search. Similar to ProQuest in terms of Boolean Operators - Uses "quotation marks" to search for exact phrases. Separates terms with OR to find any of the words entered. Option to select ‘peer reviewed’ articles only.	Similar to Google. It has a main search box; an advanced search option box; and auto-complete. The database inserts the Boolean operator “AND” between terms. Unless quotation marks are used, ProQuest will search individual terms.	Indexes education research, specifically (across all learning contexts – early childhood to tertiary). Comprehensive search box – search, indexes and thesauri tabs. Search terms are taken as ‘direct terms’ unless Boolean Operators like AND / OR / NOT are used. Query box with additional term boxes with choice to add more. Choice to limit search by “full text only” and by date range. Also provides “Search Hints” to improve search success.
1st compound search string	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND research	“inquiry-based” “higher education” OR “tertiary education” research	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND research	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND research	#1 (inquiry based) AND (higher education) OR (tertiary education) Results returned: 4549 #2 (higher education) AND (undergraduate research) Results returned: 23 #3 (inquiry learning) AND (higher education) Results returned: 32 #4 (higher education) AND (research process) Results returned: 130 #5 (higher education) AND (research process) AND (undergraduate) Results returned: 16 #6 (higher education) AND (information seeking) AND (undergraduate) Results returned: 18
Number of results	184,000 (0.28 seconds)	14, 600 (0.18 seconds)	1611	5480
2nd compound search string	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research"	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research"	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research"	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research"
Number of results	33,400 (0.38 seconds)	860 (0.03 seconds)	578	262
3rd compound search string	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research" -science	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research" -science	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research" NOT science	“inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research" NOT science
Number of results	2,840 (0.49 seconds)	42 (0.12 seconds)	196	8 (limited – might need to expand)
Notes	Prioritised Google Scholar as a suggested search database – the first result on each page.	Can set preferences to link with university databases such as QUT. This allows you to view the article’s full text. Link to Related Articles. Tabs to customise the search and sort by relevance; selecting year of publication.	The ‘basic’ search function was difficult to conduct searches – often stated that there was ‘no results’. The advanced search option worked better – entering each term into individual boxes separated by Boolean Operators.	The search term “higher education” often tagged numerous journals/ education magazines with the terms “higher education” in the title i.e. Research in Higher Education; Journal of Higher Education.	Using the term inquiry-based with a hyphen limited search results – used within quotation marks produced more search results.

Analysis of Search Strategies

Table 1 shows the five databases that were used to search for relevant articles on the topic. Key observations about how each of the databases worked, and three varying degrees of complex searches were recorded in a tabularised format to best synthesise and compare the various databases. When possible, each of the search strings kept the same search terms to provide consistency in comparing the database results. Changes to certain search strings had to be made to suit the indexing format of the individual databases i.e., NOT science rephrased as –science in Google Scholar (see Figure 3).  

In accordance with the Information Learning Activity (ILA) topic, the initial search began with finding information about inquiry-based learning in higher education, particularly around student research. The search results for these three key terms, even encased in quotation marks, were excessive and unmanageable. To narrow down these search results, “undergraduate research” replaced the term “research” which eliminated a number of articles that focused on ‘graduate’ and ‘postgraduate research’. Tertiary education was also used as an alternative to “higher education”. This significantly constricted the second round of results. After quickly skimming the first twenty search results, the researcher found that there were a number of articles that focused on the discipline of science. While the ILA concentrates on undergraduate’s research in the general field of education for which science is a part of, the researcher did not want to specify or constrict the results according to discipline. Hence, the third complex search string that included the terms: “inquiry-based” AND (“higher education” OR “tertiary education”) AND "undergraduate research" NOT science, yielded a manageable amount of suitable results (see Table 1). Many of these results were bookmarked and critiqued for use in the Annotated Bibliography section of this blog. Using parenthesis (brackets) to encase key terms ensured that the database computed what was inside the brackets before it calculated what was outside the brackets.
 

 

 

               

                    Figure 2: Screen shot of Google database 3rd compound search string

 

 

 

       Figure 3: Screen shot of Google Scholar database 3rd compound search string

 

 

 

      Figure 4: Screen shot of ERIC database 3rd compound search string

 

 

     Figure 5: Screen shot of ProQuest 3rd compound search string

 

 

      Figure 6: Screen shot of A+ Education Informit 6th compound search string
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Screen Capture Video - ProQuest Search

 

 

  Source: http://www.tunerpage.com/archives/119459/googleworks-eps (Retrieved September 20, 2012)

                                    

                       Reference: BCOnlineLibrary (Sep 26, 2012). Search Strategies [video]. YouTube.

A helpful video that discusses different strategies to achieve successful  searches with online databases.