Doing Research

Doing Research

A Student's Guide to Finding and Using the Best

Sources

CELIA BRINKERHOFF
KWANTLEN POLYTECHNIC UNIVERSITY
SURREY, B.C
Doing Research by Celia Brinkerhoff is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution
4.0 International License, except where otherwise noted.
Contents

Introduction 1

How to Use This Tutorial 3

Acknowledgements v

Part I. Part 1. Get Started on Your Research

1. Narrowing a Topic 11
2. But Avoid Getting too Narrow 14
3. Background Reading 15
4. A Note about Wikipedia 17
5. Use a Library Encyclopedia or Dictionary 19
6. Developing Your Research Question 22

Part II. Part 2. Recognize Types of Information

7. Types of Information Sources 29

8. What Kind of Information Do You Need? 33
9. Popular and Scholarly Articles 34
10. Trade and Professional Sources 36
11. Producing Information 37
12. Understanding Peer Review 40

Part III. Part 3. Develop your Search Strategy

13. Strategy #1: Start with Just the Keywords 49

14. Check your Bias 52
15. Searching the Library's Collection using Summon 54
16. Strategy #2: Examine your Results 56
17. Creating a Search Statement 58
18. Move to a Database 63
19. Using Academic Search Complete 65
20. Use the Library Catalogue 67
21. Strategy #3: Add Some Filters 69
22. Strategy #4: Citation Tracking 71
23. Library Research Tools and When to Use Them 73
24. Put all your strategies to work 76

Part IV. Part 4. Evaluate your Sources

25. Checklists 83
26. Question Authority 84
27. Who is the author? 85
28. Consider Currency 87
29. Check for Purpose and Accuracy 89
30. Beyond Checklists: The SIFT Method 91
31. Putting it all together 97
32. Summing up Part 4 100
33. Completion 102
Introduction
Welcome to Doing Research, KPU Library’s guide to helping you get
started on your research assignment. Whether that assignment is
a paper or blog post, multimedia project or poster, you will likely
be expected to do some amount of research as part of completing
the work. This can be daunting at first, especially if you are new to
doing research at the university level, or if you are taking a class in a
different discipline or field where the expectations and conventions
may be unfamiliar to you.

If you feel you are already an experienced researcher, consider this

guide to be a refresher.

Technical requirements: The modules work best in the most recent

versions of Chrome or Firefox; Internet Explorer is not supported at
this time. If you experience difficulties, check your browser version
and update.

A note to faculty: This guide is informed by the Association of

College and Research Library’s Framework for Information Literacy
for Higher Education, a new approach to teaching and learning
research skills through a set of integrated core concepts and
knowledge practices that emphasize the reflective nature of
information discovery, the understanding of how information is
produced and valued, and the ethical use of information in creating
new knowledge.

Each module has been developed around one of these core concepts
(Key Takeaways) and utilizes one or two of the knowledge practices
(Learning Objectives) associated with it.

For more information about how the Framework is being

implemented at KPU, please visit the Library’s Information Literacy
page.

Introduction | 1
Source

Association of College and Research Libraries. (2016). Framework

for Information Literacy for Higher Education. http://www.ala.org/
acrl/standards/ilframework

2 | Introduction
How to Use This Tutorial
There Are Four Modules in This Tutorial:

1. Get Started on your Research

2. Recognize Types of Information
3. Develop your Search Strategy
4. Evaluate your Sources

The modules are ordered, more or less, as though you are

conducting a research project, starting with developing research
questions and ending with using sources in your writing. In
between, you will learn how to figure out what kind of sources to
look for, where to find them, and how to evaluate them.

Some instructors may assign one module or all of them, depending

on the requirements of your class.

Each Module Consists of:

• Written text
• Activities to try out your skills and test your understanding
• Short quizzes (linked through your course Moodle site) that
will be graded

The modules should take roughly 20 minutes each to complete. You

will be able to revisit the text and activity portions as many times
as you like; however, you will only have one opportunity to do each
quiz.

How to Move Around the Tutorial:

How to Use This Tutorial | 3

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move forward and
backward through the modules. Or, use the Contents menu in the
top left hand corner to go to a particular section.

Any Questions?

Please contact librarian Celia Brinkerhoff at

[email protected].

4 | How to Use This Tutorial

Acknowledgements
Doing Research: A Student’s Guide to Finding and Using the Best
Sources was initially conceived as a quick adaptation of the Choosing
and Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research by The Ohio State
University Libraries. Over time, it developed into its own project
suited to a different purpose and an audience of Canadian students.
My thanks to the librarians at OSU Libraries for their generosity in
sharing their excellent guide.

Members of the Kwantlen Polytechnic University English

Department were helpful in shaping the development of the content
and establishing learning objectives for each module; specifically
Jennifer Williams, Elizabeth Gooding, Gillian Dearle, and Julia
Grandison were enthusiastic in their support of the project. Several
KPU librarians were also generous in providing feedback and ideas
for activities.

Many thanks to Rajiv Jhangiani, Caroline Daniels, and Karen Meijer-

Kline for their help with this project and to Todd Mundle for the
time to work on it. Where indicated, supplementary videos were
created by Graeme Robinson-Clogg through the generous support
of a BCcampus Open Education Grant. And many thanks to David
Hauck, who lent his image-editing skills.

Source

Teaching and Learning, University Libraries. (n.d.). Choosing and

Using Sources: A Guide to Academic Research. Ohio State University
Libraries. https://ohiostate.pressbooks.pub/choosingsources/

Acknowledgements | 5
PART I
PART 1. GET STARTED ON
YOUR RESEARCH

Key Takeaway

Research is a process of strategic exploration, one that

begins with learning how to ask the right question.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Understand the difference between a search topic

and a research question
• Identify the features of a reference article that can
aid in further research

Navigation: How to move around this tutorial

Part 1. Get Started on Your

Research | 7
 This module should take roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move

forward and backward through the modules. Or, use the
Contents menu in the top left hand corner to go to a
particular section.

It’s useful to think about this early stage of your research project as
a process of exploration, one that will help you develop a research
question that is going to be searchable. If a topic is completely new
to you, you will likely want to find some background information in
order to understand the context of your topic and how it relates
to a larger picture. This exploratory process will also help you with
any specialized terms associated with your topic that you might
use in developing a search strategy. And sometimes, this initial
exploration will also lead you to realize that your question might
not be searchable, or that you are going to have to modify it a little.
That’s ok. A little work up front will save you time later.

Even if you already have some familiarity with a topic, some

additional background work can help to bring a fresh perspective to
your understanding of it.

8 | Part 1. Get Started on Your Research

 Figure 1.1 Research as strategic exploration. Image by
pixelcreatures.

Tip: Review your assignment

Before you get started on your research, make sure

you understand the requirements of your assignment.
Pay attention to the kinds of information sources you
need and how you will be expected to incorporate them
into your own work.

This page on analyzing your assignment from the KPU

Part 1. Get Started on Your Research | 9

 Learning Centres can help you figure out what you need
to do for your assignment

Source

Image:” Compass Map” by Pixelcreatures.

10 | Part 1. Get Started on Your Research

1. Narrowing a Topic
Defining your research question is a process of working from the
outside in: you start with the world of all possible topics (or your
assigned topic) and narrow down until you have focused your
interest enough to be able to state precisely what you want to find
out, instead of only what you want to “write about.”

Going through this process can be the hardest part of doing

research, but once you have a question that is realistically scoped
(not too broad, not too narrow) it will guide the rest of your work.

The Process of Narrowing a Topic

Figure. 1.2 Moving from broad topic to specific research question. Image by
Ohio State University Libraries.

Narrowing a Topic | 11
ACTIVITY: Which Topic is Narrower?

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about narrower topics with
these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=29#h5p-1

TIP: Use Some of the 5 W’s to Help Narrow Your

Topic to a Searchable Question

Your assignment is to write on the topic of higher

education. You decide you want to write about the high
cost of tuition, but that is still too broad.

Start by asking some or all of the following questions.

12 | Narrowing a Topic
 Question More Specific Focus
First year students, mature
Who?
students, part-time students
Graduation rates, degree
What? completion, attrition,
dropout
When? Last 10 years
Financial burden,
Why or how?
employment, student debt

From asking these questions, you might come up with

a research question like this:

“How does the high cost of tuition impact the degree

completion of mature college students?”

Source

Image: “Rq-narrow” by Teaching and Learning, University Libraries

is licensed under CC BY-4.0.

Narrowing a Topic | 13
2. But Avoid Getting too
Narrow
Be careful about getting too specific with your research question.
Not every question that you come up with will be searchable.

For the above question about college tuition, the important

questions to ask would be who? and what? Trying to find
information on the impact of rising tuition in a particular city or
province will be too restrictive, and the location may, in fact, be
irrelevant to the search. A large-scale study across Canada or North
America would likely yield relevant information that could be useful
to your question.

The bottom line is, you will be working toward a balanced research
question that is specific enough to guide you in your research, but
not too restrictive.

ACTIVITY: Find the balanced topic

Now it’s your turn. Practice thinking about balanced topics with
these 3 examples. Click the arrow to show the next question.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=470#h5p-2

14 | But Avoid Getting too Narrow

3. Background Reading
As you are exploring your topic and figuring out ways to narrow it
down to a searchable question, it is a good idea to do some initial
reading. For one thing, you might not know much about your topic
yet. For another, such reading will help you learn the terms used by
professionals and scholars who have studied your narrower topic.
Those terms might become your keywords or search terms later on,
so keep them in mind.

Getting Your Words Right

It’s important to understand that the search terms you use will have
a direct correlation with the kinds of sources you find. And spending
some time early on in your research learning relevant terms will
save you time later on.

For instance, if you were going to do research about the risk of

bird flu to humans, initial background reading would teach you that
professionals and scholars usually use the term avian influenza
instead of bird flu when they write about it. (Often, they also use
H1N1 or H1N9 to identify the strain.) If you didn’t learn that, you
would miss the kinds of sources you will eventually need for your
assignment.

Take a look at the Google search results using the terms “bird flu”
and human risk vs. “avian influenza” and human risk. Compare the
kinds of sources listed.

(Click on the thumbnail image for a larger view. Use your browser’s
back-button to return to the page.)

Background Reading | 15
 Figure 1.3 Comparing Google search terms

If you were to follow the linked results, you would see that the
sources on the right come from government agencies and scientific
journals, whereas the sources on the left come from news outlets or
consumer health websites.

16 | Background Reading
4. A Note about Wikipedia

Wikipedia is a popular place to start

your research and will likely be one of the
top results in a Google search of your
topic. A well-developed Wikipedia article,
with its content boxes and overviews, will
provide a “road-map” of your subject and
help you to focus on related and narrower
sub-topics. Most introductory paragraphs
will offer definitions, related terms, and
key historical dates where relevant. Every article provides links to
external references and further reading that can be useful sources
for you to follow up with. In fact, no Wikipedia article can be
published unless it is backed with a list of credible sources. See
Wikipedia’s own policy on Verifiability and its discussion of what can
be considered a reliable source.
However, while it is not quite true that anyone can edit a
Wikipedia article, there are concerns about the potential for
inaccuracies and misinformation. This is especially true for
controversial topics; a quick look at the “Talk” page of any article will
reveal how editors are actively involved to ensure that information
presented is free from bias and maintains neutrality. Unlike more
traditional scholarly sources of information, content on Wikipedia
is continually changing. For these reasons, your instructors may
caution you against using it in your research, and will probably
discourage you from citing it.
What you can do with a Wikipedia article is look at the external
links, the supporting references, and the suggestions for further
reading. As someone new to a topic, these sources can be a
goldmine; try locating them in the library’s collection or on the
internet.

A Note about Wikipedia | 17

Activity: Watch, think and learn

The following short video from Civic Online Reasoning at Stanford

University demonstrates how Wikipedia can be used effectively in
early stages of your research.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded

from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/
doingresearch/?p=732#oembed-1

Source

Image: “Old version of Wikipedia logo” by Wikimedia Commons is

licensed under a CC BY-SA 3.0.
Verifiability from Wikipedia the Free Encyclopedia is licensed
under CC BY-SA.
Video: “How to Use Wikipedia Wisely” by Civic Online Reasoning
is licensed under CC BY-NC-NC 4.0.

18 | A Note about Wikipedia

5. Use a Library Encyclopedia
or Dictionary
Although you will likely start your background reading with a quick
Google search, you should visit the library and its collection of
reference materials early in your research. The library has access
to many encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks, both in print
and online.

Encyclopedias and
handbooks will provide:

• A broad overview of your

topic
• Sub-topics and related
issues Figure 1.4 The reference collection.
• Controversies and Image by geralt.
criticism
• Key thinkers or researchers in the area
• References, recommended articles, and links to further reading

Dictionaries will offer a definition of your term and related terms

that will be important as you develop your search strategy.
From the Research Help guide linked on the library’s homepage,
you can find several of the library’s reference collections listed
on the Find Background Information page. Many subject-specific
reference books can also be found on the various subject guides.
You can also access all of the library’s reference books from your
Summon search by focussing your results using the “reference”
filter. Recall that Summon is the default search box on the library’s
homepage.

Use a Library Encyclopedia or

Dictionary | 19
ACTIVITY: Watch, think and learn

The following short video from KPU Library demonstrates how to

locate a source for background information using the library’s
Summon search.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=473#h5p-37

ACTIVITY: Use an encyclopedia article

The article below is from the Encyclopaedic Dictionary of

Psychology and was found using the library’s Summon search tool.

Click on the purple question marks to explore how an encylopedia

can be useful at this stage of your research.

(Use Fullscreen to maximize the image, and your Esc button when
finished.)

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=473#h5p-3

20 | Use a Library Encyclopedia or Dictionary

After this background work, you are now ready to start developing
the research question you will try to answer for your assignment.

Sources

Image: “Library” by geralt.

Video: “Finding Background Information” by KPU Library is
licensed under CC0.
Waller, G. (2006). Eating disorders. In G. Davey (Ed.),
Encyclopaedic Dictionary of Psychology. Routledge. https://search-
credoreference-com.ezproxy.kpu.ca:2443/content/entry/
hodderdpsyc/eating_disorders/0

Use a Library Encyclopedia or Dictionary | 21

6. Developing Your Research
Question
By now, it should be clear that finding a research question is a
process of exploration and refining: exploring a topic will lead to
developing a question, and further refinement will help you to focus
that question to something that is not too broad and not too narrow.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Think, and Learn

Take a minute to watch this short video on how to develop a

research topic. Think about the steps the student takes starting
from a wide open topic, to something too narrow, and finally, to
finding a balanced topic that is searchable.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded

from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/
doingresearch/?p=34#oembed-1

Steps for Developing a Research Question

The steps for developing a research question, listed below, can help
you organize your thoughts.

22 | Developing Your Research

Question
 Step 1: Pick a topic (or consider the one assigned to you).
Step 2: Write a narrower topic that is related to the first.
Step 4: Do some background reading, using the Library’s
reference books. Do some initial research in a library database.
Step 5: Readjust your topic if you get too few, or too many, search
results.
Step 6: List some potential questions that could logically be asked
in relation to the narrow topic.

ACTIVITY: Summing up Module 1

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=34#h5p-4

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
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Key Takeaway

Developing Your Research Question | 23

 Research is a process of strategic exploration, one that
begins with learning how to ask the right question.

Well done! You have completed the text and activity portion of Part
1 Getting Started on your Research. You are welcome to review any
part of this module at any time.

Source

Video: “Picking your Topic is Research” by North Carolina State

University Libraries is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.

24 | Developing Your Research Question

PART II
PART 2. RECOGNIZE TYPES
OF INFORMATION

Key Takeaway

Information creation is a process that results in a variety

of formats and delivery modes, each having a different
value in a given context.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Identify the various information types in order to

match a research need with an appropriate source
• Describe the process of peer review in order to
select quality sources for your research

Navigation: How to move around this tutorial

Part 2. Recognize Types of

Information | 25
 This module should take roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move

forward and backward through the modules. Or, use the
Contents menu in the top left hand corner to go to a
particular section.

Once you have your research question, you will need to locate
the information sources appropriate to your question and the
requirements of your assignment. Taking a minute to understand
how information is created and delivered through a variety of
formats will help you in selecting the best sources.

With so many sources available, the question is usually not whether

sources exist for your project, but which ones will best meet your
information needs.

26 | Part 2. Recognize Types of Information

Figure 2.1 Information overload. Image by Pexels.

Source

Image: “pile of covered books” by Pexels.

Part 2. Recognize Types of Information | 27

7. Types of Information
Sources
Consider a topic such as the safety of genetically modified food.
Wading into this large and controversial area, you will quickly
discover that information about it comes from a wide range of
sources:

• Blogs and opinion pieces

• Natural medicine and consumer health sites
• Scientific research articles
• Government and NGO sites
• Books, newspapers, and magazine articles

Each of these types of sources has different content, written by

people with varying levels of expertise, and written for different
audiences. And each of these types of sources will have a different
value for you, depending on the context and requirements of your
research need. Some assignments will require that you use
scholarly, academic sources that have to undergo a lengthy editorial
process and therefore take longer to appear. Other assignments
may allow you to use less formal, popular sources of information
that may be more timely.

Types of Information Sources | 29

Social media real-time,

Website possible c

Newspapers, news sites

up-to-dat
general au

Magazines current ev

Government/NGO reports, st

30 | Types of Information Sources

Scholarly article new resea

in-depth c
Scholarly book
audience

Encyclopedia, Wikipedia overview,

Fig. 2.2 Types of information sources.

Types of Information Sources | 31

Sources

All images above are from The Noun Project and are licensed under
CC BY 3.0 US.
“Social Media” by Petai Jantrapoon
“world wide web” by Wilson Joseph
“Newspaper” by Kick
“Magazine” by nareerat jaikaew
“Government” by lathiif studio
“Research” by Tanuj Abraham
“Book” by Bertama Graphic
“Encyclopedia” by Komkrit Noenpoempisut

32 | Types of Information Sources

8. What Kind of Information
Do You Need?
Click the arrows below to learn about which types of information
sources best meet various research needs.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=45#h5p-6

ACTIVITY: Match the resource with the

research need

Think about which kind of resource would be best suited for each
question.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=45#h5p-7

What Kind of Information Do You

Need? | 33
9. Popular and Scholarly
Articles
For some of your research assignments, you will be expected to
use “scholarly” articles. These may be called “academic” or “journal”
articles, or more specifically, “peer reviewed” articles. In a later
tutorial we will learn how to focus your searches in order to find
these.

For now, it is useful to learn to recognize the difference between

these types of publications so that whether you are searching in
a library resource or on Google, you will be able to make some
judgment about the kind of information source you are looking at
and whether it will be appropriate for your assignment.

34 | Popular and Scholarly Articles

Fig. 2.3 Some key differences between popular and scholarly articles. Image by
adstarkel.

Source

Image: “Scholarly & popular articles” by adstarkel is licensed under

CC BY-NC-SA 2.0.

Popular and Scholarly Articles | 35

10. Trade and Professional
Sources
Depending on your area of study, you may also be asked to consider
a third type of publication that is written for professionals and
people within a particular field of work. These articles target a
specialized audience, may report on primary research but from an
applied or summary perspective, and may have advertisements of
interest to people in that profession.

In Summon and some of the library’s article databases, these

publications will be called “trade publication” or “magazines”.

Activity: Examine the following sources to find

out what a trade publication is.

(Use + to maximize each image.)

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=485#h5p-27

36 | Trade and Professional Sources

11. Producing Information
The process of information creation follows a timeline. As soon
as an event occurs, social media and online news sources are the
first to provide coverage. Magazines and newspapers will follow
shortly after, and journal articles and books take even longer to get
published.

Knowing this will be important in your research: if you choose a

very recent event to write about, you will likely not find information
about it in a book or scholarly article. You may, however, need to
expand your topic to look for a similar or related event, or broader
treatment of the subject, to find sources that you can still use to
support your writing.

Producing Information | 37
Fig. 2.4 Timeline of information creation. Image by adstarkel.

ACTIVITY: Explore the timeline

The following timeline details how the media covered an important

news event in 2012. (Maximize the screen for best viewing and use
Esc button when finished.)

38 | Producing Information
 An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this
version of the text. You can view it online here:
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Sources
Images
“Information timeline” by adstarkel is licensed under CC BY-NC-
SA 4.0.
“Police at Sandy Hook” by Voice of America, is in the Public
Domain.

Producing Information | 39
12. Understanding Peer
Review
Your assignment may require that you include information from
“peer reviewed” articles. These articles are published in scholarly or
academic journals after they have gone through a lengthy editorial
process which usually involves the author making many revisions.
The reviewers themselves are experts in the same field, and judge
the strength of the article on the originality of the research, the
methods used, and the validity of findings. The highest standard of
peer review is “double-blind,” meaning that both the identity of the
authors as well as the reviewers are kept anonymous in order to
ensure that bias and subjectivity do not influence the process.

But be careful! Not all of the content in an academic journal is

subject to peer review. There may be other content such as letters,
opinion pieces, and book reviews that have been edited, but not
necessarily gone through a formal peer review process.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

The following KPU Library video describes the process of peer

review.

One or more interactive elements has been excluded

from this version of the text. You can view them online
here: https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50

40 | Understanding Peer Review

ACTIVITY: Summarize The Peer Review Process

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50#h5p-9

But how can you, the researcher, recognize a peer reviewed article?

Fortunately, the library’s Summon search and most of our databases

have a filter or limit which will help you find the right type of
information. Various databases will use different terms: look for
“academic” or “scholarly” or “peer reviewed.”

There are other clues you can look for.

Understanding Peer Review | 41

 Tip: Clues to Help You Decide if it is Peer
Reviewed

Look for the author’s

degrees, as well as the
Author’s credentials and
university or research
affiliations
institution they are affiliated
with.
Any peer reviewed article
References will have a lengthy list of
sources used by the author.
Somewhere on the
journal’s homepage will be a
Submission guidelines link for submitting an article
for review. You may have to
dig around a little!
Is the journal published by
Journal publisher a scholarly society? A
university press?

ACTIVITY: Summing Up Module 2

Pick the correct statement.

42 | Understanding Peer Review

 An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this
version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50#h5p-10

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=50#h5p-11

Key Takeaway

Information creation is a process that results in a variety

of formats and delivery modes, each having a different
value in a given context.

Well done! You have completed the text and activity portion of Part
2 Recognizing Types of Information. You are welcome to review any
part of this module at any time.

Understanding Peer Review | 43

Source:

Video: “Recognize Types of Information” by KPU Library is licensed

under CC0.

44 | Understanding Peer Review

PART III
PART 3. DEVELOP YOUR
SEARCH STRATEGY

Key Takeaway

Research is a circular process that involves asking

questions whose answers will lead to revised questions or
new lines of inquiry.

Learning Objectives

By the end of this module, you should be able to:

• Develop a search strategy in order to use research

tools more efficiently
• Implement key features of library search tools to
improve search results

Navigation: How to move around this tutorial

Part 3. Develop your Search

Strategy | 45
 This module should take roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move

forward and backward through the modules. Or, use the
Contents menu in the top left hand corner to go to a
particular section.

You’ve developed a research question and identified main

concepts to use as keywords. You have an idea of what kinds of
sources you need and what is required by your assignment. Now it’s
time to consider how you will build a search strategy that will allow
you to use the library’s resources most efficiently.

It is useful to understand that the research process is iterative,

which means the results of initial searches will help shape and
improve your subsequent searches. As we learned in the video in
Part 1, it is seldom a linear process that starts and ends with a single
question.

You will likely perform a sequence of searches several times and use
various tools, including Google and library resources, before getting
a set of results that will meet your needs.

A Good Search Strategy Should Consist of the Following:

1. Keyword searching
2. Examining the results of initial searches and adjusting
keywords if necessary
3. Using filters or limits
4. Citation tracking

46 | Part 3. Develop your Search Strategy

 Figure 3.1 Expert searching. Image by quimono.

Source

Image: “Question mark important sign” by quimono.

Part 3. Develop your Search Strategy | 47

13. Strategy #1: Start with Just
the Keywords
The first strategy in effective research is to start with a basic
keyword search of your topic. Keep the focus on just the main
concepts, or keywords, of your question. Typing a complete
sentence or question into a search box, whether you are in Google
or one of the library’s research tools, will not give you as
comprehensive or relevant results as just entering the two or three
keywords that best reflect your question.

See what happens when you enter your search question, in natural
language, directly into the library’s Summon search:

The question is “Should vaccinations be mandatory for school-

aged children?”

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Use the back button in
your browser to return to the page.)

Figure 3.2 Search results from natural language query

Strategy #1: Start with Just the

Keywords | 49
Only a little over 1,000 results come back, which is not as many
as you might expect considering that Summon searches everything
the library has in its collection. Furthermore, the results are rather
evenly split between journal articles and books.

Now, repeat the search again, but with just the keywords that are
central to the question you are researching. Removing the non-
essential words in the question would leave you with something like
this:

“Should vaccinations be mandatory for school-aged children?”

The search below was done using mandatory vaccinations

children.

(Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Use the back button in
your browser to return to the page.)

Figure 3.3 Search results using just the keywords

This search results in over 15,000 items, with many more journal

50 | Strategy #1: Start with Just the Keywords

articles. That’s because in the first search, Summon is looking for
items in which ALL of the words of the search query are present.
In the second search, only those three terms need to occur in the
results. Furthermore, the words left out of the question are not
essential to the overall strategy of the query.
Note that other keywords, such as immunization, are also used in
the results.

Activity: Find the Keywords

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Strategy #1: Start with Just the Keywords | 51

14. Check your Bias
When thinking about researching your topic, be aware of
confirmation bias, the tendency that most of us have to look for
information that supports what we already believe to be true. This
bias can lead us to ignore evidence or information that contradicts
our own assumptions and to perhaps even make inferences about
causal relationships where there may not be any. Confirmation bias
is especially significant in highly-contested, hot-button issues that
we feel strongly about. It may also be amplified by the sources we
choose to get our news from.
When turning to Google or a library database for information, it
is important to frame your questions objectively and without bias so
that your search results are not merely confirming what you already
believe to be true. Avoid any search words which may lead to a bias
in the results; negative, positive, benefits, harms, and so on, could
skew results in favour of one side or perspective.
And even the words themselves you choose can be inherently
biased. Consider the difference between anti-vax and vaccine
hesitant, similar terms that correspond to two very different groups
of people. Searching with one or the other will bring you different
results.
Remember, you are searching for a balanced treatment of the
topic.

Activity: Examine the first few search results

Click the purple question marks in the following screenshot to

examine the first few search results from the question: “Why the
minimum wage should not be raised.”
(Expand to fullscreen if you need to; use the ESC to exit.)

52 | Check your Bias

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A better search would be minimum wage AND unemployment or

any other concept you wish to investigate in relation to minimum
wage, for example, poverty or families. You should see a mixed set
of results coming from mainstream media and organizations from
across the political spectrum.

Source

Confirmation bias by Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia is licensed

under CC BY-SA 3.0.

Check your Bias | 53

15. Searching the Library's
Collection using Summon
Most library’s now employ what is called a discovery layer. You
might think of this as a search engine for the library’s entire
collection. At KPU Library, our discovery layer is called Summon,
and you have probably already used it if you’ve done any research at
all.
Summon is a great place to start your research. Using a few well-
chosen keywords will bring back thousands of results, and then you
will need to use various tools to narrow your search to more precise
and relevant results.
The following short video demonstrates the Summon search
interface.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

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54 | Searching the Library's

Collection using Summon
REVIEW: What are some key features of
Summon?

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Searching the Library's Collection using Summon | 55

16. Strategy #2: Examine your
Results
In the previous section we looked at search results using the
library’s Summon search tool and found a range of items coming
from scholarly journal articles, books and ebooks, newspapers, and
more.

If you were to examine just a few of the top results, you would
quickly see related and more specific terms that might help in
subsequent searches. For example, vaccine exemption and vaccine
hesitancy provide slightly different perspectives on the topic and
correspond to different disciplinary approaches. Articles about
vaccine exemption would examine the issue from a legal perspective
(an individual’s right vs. population health). Articles about vaccine
hesitancy might examine the issue from a philosophical or
psychological perspective (opinions, trust in government, or
misinformation). Similarly, you might find additional synonyms or
alternate terms (immunization, herd immunity) that will help make
your searches more complete.

As a researcher, asking yourself how these narrower and alternate

terms relate to what you want to find out will be an important part
of your search strategy.

Tip: Results Ranked by Relevance

Summon and most of the library’s databases will return

search results ranked in order of relevance. After

56 | Strategy #2: Examine your

Results
performing a search, always examine closely the top few
items for more precise search terms, synonyms, or
other related pieces that you might add to the next
search.

Strategy #2: Examine your Results | 57

17. Creating a Search
Statement

Once you have identified the important key words and any related
or similar terms that describe your research question, it is useful
to understand a bit about how to combine them in order to get
a relevant and focussed set of results. Both Summon and most
library databases allow for a set of operators, or specific words and
symbols, that indicate how you want your search to be run. This is
sometimes known as a search statement.
Employing even just one or two of these operators will vastly
improve you results beyond just merely throwing in one or two
keywords.

58 | Creating a Search Statement

Boolean operators

Creating a Search Statement | 59

 AND

OR

Using AND will narrow your search results Using OR will broaden your search results
by combining all the keywords and phrases retrieving sources that contain at least one
in your search statement. The more words term. This operator is useful when there ar
you combine with AND, the fewer results alternative or related terms you need to us
you will find. in your search. The more words you
combine with OR, the larger the number o
results you will find.

60 | Creating a Search Statement

 example: children AND poverty example: wage OR income

All results must contain both the words Results will contain either or both of the
children and poverty. terms.

Phrase searching

To find an exact phrase use quotation marks to exclude results

that do not contain the exact phrase. For example, using quotation
marks around “social media” will find results containing the exact
phrase (the words social and media next to each other). Without
quotation marks, the database finds the word social and the word
media separately, and you will get search results about social
relationships portrayed in media, and other unrelated topics.
This is also useful when searching for an author’s name (e.g.
“George Orwell”), and article, book or film titles, (e.g. “Brave New
World”).

Parentheses and nesting

Use parentheses or brackets to group keywords joined by OR, in

order to include synonyms or related terms. The database will
search for what is grouped inside the parentheses first.
Example: (young adults OR adolescents) AND gaming
By using parentheses, you can ask a search engine to perform
several Boolean searches at the same time. It will first perform

Creating a Search Statement | 61

the search enclosed in parentheses before moving on to the other
search terms. This is called nesting.
Example: (obesity OR overweight) AND (young adults OR
adolescents) AND women

Truncation and wildcards

Broaden your search results by using a truncation symbol that

allows you to search for alternate word endings. The asterisk * is
the most common symbol, but check the help option in a database
to see which symbol to use.
Example: searching for statistic* will return results with the
following words: statistic, statistics, statistical
Wildcards also increase your search results by including words
with different spellings. Wildcard symbols vary by database so check
the help option to see which one to use.
Example: searching for wom?n will return results for woman or
women. Searching for labo?r will return results for both labor or
labour

62 | Creating a Search Statement

18. Move to a Database

Move to an Article Database

Moving your research over to one of the library’s databases will

bring a more focussed set of results.

Our earlier keyword search showed us that vaccine hesitancy might

be a useful concept for finding information about what motivates
some people to refuse vaccinations for their children. Doing a
search with the term “vaccine hesitancy” in Academic Search
Complete, the library’s largest multi-disciplinary database, yields
the following results.
(Click on the thumbnail for a larger view. Use your browser back
button when finished.)

Figure 3.4 Database search results

Move to a Database | 63
 The majority of articles using the term “vaccine hesitancy” come
from academic journals, indicating that it is a concept or term used
by researchers or scholars in a variety of fields, but not so much in
the popular or mainstream press. A close look at the subject terms
also provides an indication of how the results are focussed: some
will concentrate on public health, others on parental attitudes, and
others on immunization more generally. This kind of strategy tells
you how the issue is approached by different perspectives, and what
might be most relevant for your own research.

See this page for a list of article databases the library subscribes to.

64 | Move to a Database
19. Using Academic Search
Complete
The Library subscribes to more than 200 databases. Some of these
are subject specific, and some are multi-disciplinary. Over time you
will learn to use those databases most relevant to your field of
study, but a good place to explore how you can search with more
precision for academic and peer reviewed articles, is with a large
database such as Academic Search Complete. You will be searching
the contents of over 6,000 journal titles, and using the powerful
tools within the database to refine your results.
New to database searching? Watch this short video on how to
build a search, and the tools that will help you manage your results.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

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Using Academic Search

Complete | 65
SUMMARIZE: Review the key features of
Academic Search Complete database

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66 | Using Academic Search Complete

20. Use the Library Catalogue

Try the Library Catalogue

A search of the library catalogue will yield books/ebooks, as well

as videos in the collection. Again, results are ranked by relevance.
Examining the first few items in the list will give you further ideas
for searching. You may find books whose entire contents will be
useful to your search, or you may find edited works, with a single
chapter relevant for your research.

ACTIVITY: Watch, Listen, and Learn

The following brief video from KPU Library introduces you to

searching the library catalogue, including using subject terms and
filters.

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You can access the library catalogue directly by selecting it from the
library’s homepage, above the Summon search box.

Use the Library Catalogue | 67

ACTIVITY: Analyze the Details of a Book

The image below was taken from the catalogue record for a book on
vaccines and children.
Click on the purple question marks to see what kind of
information about an item is available in the catalogue. Use this to
further inform your search.
(Use Fullscreen for an expanded view and your keyboard’s ESC
button when finished.)

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Source

Video: “Catalogue Search Strategies” by KPU Library is licensed

under CC0.

68 | Use the Library Catalogue

21. Strategy #3: Add Some
Filters
An effective search strategy makes use of the specialized features
within the library’s search tools to focus on the kinds of resources
you need. Summon, library databases, and the catalogue have
features called filters or limits that allow you to further refine your
results list in a few ways.

Recall in the second module you were introduced to the idea that
information comes in a variety of sources; part of your strategy
should be to ensure you are getting the content you need. Does your
assignment require that you use only certain kinds of sources? Is
there a date restriction? Can you use a video?

Tip: Use a filter or limit

After an initial search, look for these tools to further

refine your search

Strategy #3: Add Some Filters | 69

 What do you need? Filter/Limit

Scholarly journal? book/

e-book? newspaper article? Content type or source
video?

Recent? last 10 years? Publication date

Focussed on a specific Subject headings,

subject discipline, or topic

ACTIVITY: Selecting the Best Limits

Click on the arrows to answer the 4 questions below.

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70 | Strategy #3: Add Some Filters

22. Strategy #4: Citation
Tracking
A final strategy for finding more sources to support your writing is
to examine the works cited by the authors of the sources you find.
Consider that scholarship is a
conversation among researchers on a
particular subject, with everyone
offering evidence, theories, and
criticism to advance what is known
and what may not be known about a
topic. Your task is to understand what
connections are being made between
these viewpoints, how you will
Figure 3.5 Scholarship as a
conversation. Original image integrate them in your own work, and
by 905513. what conclusions or advances you
might be able to add.

In practical terms, as a researcher, this means paying attention

to the reference lists or bibliographies of the works you find in
your initial searching. This is known as citation tracking and is an
important strategy to use to find additional resources.

There are a couple of ways to do this:

1. Follow the authors and works mentioned in the introduction or

literature review section of your first article

2. Use the links that Summon, library databases, and sometimes

Google Scholar provide to locate any articles that cite your
article, as well as other recommended or related works. Look
for: Cited By, Recommended, or Related articles

Strategy #4: Citation Tracking | 71

ACTIVITY: Click on the Hotspots

The image below is taken from the introduction of an article on

populism, found in one of the library’s databases. Click on the purple
question marks to view details from the article record.

(Use Fullscreen to expand and your keyboard’s Esc button when

finished.)

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Sources
Image: “Citation circle” adapted by author from original 905513.
Article: Moffitt, B., & Tormey, S. (2014). Rethinking populism:
politics, mediatisation and political style. Political Studies, 62(2),
381–397. https://doi.org/10.1111/1467-9248.12032

72 | Strategy #4: Citation Tracking

23. Library Research Tools
and When to Use Them
Throughout this module, we have referred to various library
research tools, but we have not discussed when to use them.
Learning which tools to use at the various stages of your research
is also another strategy for finding the sources best suited to your
assignment, and will decrease the amount of time you spend
looking.
(Click the tools below for an image of their search interfaces.)

Library Research Tools and When to

Use Them | 73
 Tool What’s in it? When should I use it?

Everything the library

has in its collection:

• books/ebooks Start here when you are new to

• journal/magazine/ your topic or assignment.
Summon newspaper articles Summon is great for seeing the
• government breadth of what is available on
documents your subject.
• reference books
• videos

Almost everything the

library has in its Use this when you know you
collection, except are looking for a book or
articles ebook, or when you are looking
for a specific title. You will NOT
Catalogue find journal articles here. The
• books/ebooks,
catalogue does not have the
• government
full-text of items, but many
documents
books will have a table of
• videos
contents.

Specialized or
multi-disciplinary
Use a database when you know
• peer reviewed
you need peer reviewed journal
Article journal articles
content. Learn which databases
Database • some trade/
are focussed on particular
professional
subjects.
publications
• some newspapers

While not technically a library

• scholarly journals
tool, Google Scholar with its
articles
Library Links feature will bring
• conference
Google you results from beyond the
proceedings
Scholar library’s collection as well as
• research/
subscribed content. Ask us how
government
to enable this feature. NEVER
publications
pay for articles!

74 | Library Research Tools and When to Use Them

ACTIVITY: Which Research Tool is Best?

Pick which tool would best serve the research need. Click the arrow
to answer the next question.

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Library Research Tools and When to Use Them | 75

24. Put all your strategies to
work

ACTIVITY: Summing up Module 3

Pick the correct statements.

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Key Takeaway

76 | Put all your strategies to work

 Research is a circular process that involves asking
questions whose answers will lead to revised questions or
new lines of inquiry.

Well done! You have completed the text and activity portion of Part
3 Developing your Search Strategy. You are welcome to review any
part of this module at any time.

Put all your strategies to work | 77

PART IV
PART 4. EVALUATE YOUR
SOURCES

Key Takeaway

Evaluating a source of information involves asking critical

questions about its suitability for your research project.

Learning Objectives

After this module, you should be able to:

• Identify indicators of authority to determine the

credibility of information sources
• Evaluate the relevance of a source for a particular
research need, based on considerations of currency,
accuracy, and purpose

Navigation: How to move around this tutorial

Part 4. Evaluate your Sources | 79

 This module should take roughly 15 minutes to complete.

Use the arrows at the bottom of each page to move

forward and backward through the modules. Or, use the
Contents menu in the top left hand corner to go to a
particular section.

At this point in your research, you’ve likely found several sources

of information that might work for your assignment. Now it’s time
to take a closer look at these sources and make sure they are the
best ones for your research purposes. This is true of information
you find in a general Google search as well as the library resources.
Whether you are considering a blog post or a journal article, you
will need to pay attention to several factors, including not just the
expertise of the author, but also the purpose, quality, and relevance
of the information before deciding whether or not to use it in your
assignment.

The bottom line is that most experienced searchers view the

information they find with a degree of skepticism as well as an open
mind.

80 | Part 4. Evaluate your Sources

 Figure 4.1 Being an effective researcher. Image by GotCredit.

Source
Image: “Expert key” by GotCredit is licensed under CC BY 2.0.

Part 4. Evaluate your Sources | 81

25. Checklists
There are many checklists available to help guide you through this
critical process of evaluating your sources; you may have heard of
the CRA(A)P test, RADAR, Rate my Source, or something similar.
All of these lists are really just devices to help novice researchers
remember the criteria by which they should evaluate the
information they find.

Beyond checking that your source satisfies some of the criteria

suggested below, your search should also involve digging a little
deeper. What can you learn from a Google search about the site,
author, or publisher?

The following list is meant to be a starting point for you to develop

your own internalized set of questions.

Click the arrows below.

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Checklists | 83
26. Question Authority
In terms of evaluating a source of information, the expertise or
credibility of its author is extremely important. This is the case
not only for your university assignments, but also your personal
information needs; in general, we want to know that our sources are
reliable and our information sound.

But this idea of authority can be complicated. Within the academic

publishing world, determining someone’s expertise is somewhat
straightforward in that advanced degrees, a publishing record, and
an affiliation with an institution of higher learning or research are
the conventional indicators of authority.

Outside of the scholarly community, there are other indicators of an

author’s credibility; other communities may recognize authority or
expertise by means of specific credentials or practical experience.
For example, we generally rely on articles in the mainstream press
because professional journalists are supposed to abide by a code of
ethics and have a lengthy publishing record.

When it comes to verifying an author’s credibility within the

scholarly literature, library research tools can help us to make a
quick determination of authority. Recall that in the last module we
looked at using the scholarly or peer reviewed limits in Summon
and library databases to find results that are published in academic
journals.

But looking a little more closely at the author and the journal, and
perhaps doing some quick Google searching, can help us to make
a better decision about the author’s expertise in a particular area.
Having an advanced degree in theoretical physics does not
necessarily make someone an expert in evolutionary biology.

84 | Question Authority
27. Who is the author?

ACTIVITY: Check the Authors

Take a look at the following record for an article from the library’s
Academic Search Complete database. Click on the purple question
marks to see how an article record can provide you with clues as to
the authors’ credibility.

(Use Fullscreen to expand and your keyboard’s Esc button when

finished.)

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Tip: Go one step further

Going a step further to search for your author on

Google Scholar will lead to their publication record.
What else have they written?

You might also do a quick Google search for the

Who is the author? | 85

 journal’s homepage. Look for author submission
guidelines where a peer review process should be
described, as well as the scope and aim of the journal.

86 | Who is the author?

28. Consider Currency
To evaluate the currency of your information source, you will first
need to know the requirements of your assignment. You may be
able to use older sources, or you may need to look for current
information. Currency is also somewhat discipline or topic
dependent; research in history or literature may involve using
sources older than 10 years but in the sciences and technology, up-
to-date information can be extremely important.

And sometimes, our research may involve examining a change in

thinking or perspective over time, in which case you may need a
variety of sources spanning a certain period.

Learn to ask the following kinds of questions:

• What is the publication or copyright date?

• Is it a reprint of a previous work? a new edition or revision?
• Is there newer information available on the topic?
• How might ideas and perspectives have changed since the
work was published?

ACTIVITY: Decide Whether the Following

Sources are Current Enough for the Topic

Chose the correct answer. Click the arrow to answer all 3 questions.
(Maximize the image by clicking the plus +.)

Consider Currency | 87
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88 | Consider Currency
29. Check for Purpose and
Accuracy
Making some judgment as to the purpose of your source will also
help you determine whether the information it contains is accurate.
Asking why something has been published, what overall purpose
its author had in creating and sharing it, is part of the critical
assessment you will need to do in order to decide whether you
should use it for your research.

For peer reviewed journal articles, books published by scholarly

or professional publishers, government reports, and stories from
mainstream news outlets, you can be fairly confident that the
purpose behind such publications is to provide unbiased
information or to contribute to knowledge about a certain topic. A
large part of a formal review process includes careful fact-checking
by the reviewers.

But evaluating sources from your Google search requires close

scrutiny. Ask why a website exists. Are the authors or creators
likely to be using unbiased information? Might they be motivated to
spread inaccuracies or misinformation? What evidence do they use
to support their claims?

ACTIVITY: Watch, Think, and Learn

Take a few minutes to watch this short video from KPU Library
on how to evaluate sources. Think about the techniques used to
determine the underlying purpose and potential bias of a website.

Check for Purpose and Accuracy | 89

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Source

Video: “Evaluating Sources” by KPU Library is licensed under CC0.

90 | Check for Purpose and Accuracy

30. Beyond Checklists: The
SIFT Method
So far we’ve looked at ways to evaluate sources of information
according to some fairly simple criteria. Now it’s time to dig a little
deeper and learn to ask questions about a source that can quickly
help you decide whether to trust it or move on to find something
better.
What follows is an adaptation of the SIFT (The Four Moves)
method, a strategy for making a quick assessment as to whether or
not a source of information is reliable and worthy of your attention.
This method was developed to teach college students a shorter
version of what experienced fact-checkers regularly do when
confronted with news sources that are unfamiliar.

Move #1: STOP

The first thing to do when looking at a source of information is to

STOP. Take a brief pause and ask yourself what you already know
about the author, publication or website. Are they familiar to you?
Do you already know them to be a reliable source?

Activity: Do you know these sites?

You are researching the topic of whether municipalities should add

fluoride to public drinking water. The screenshot below shows a
snip of some of the top results for this search. Most of the sites, or at
least their domains, should be easily recognizable: Harvard School
of Public Health (.edu) and the Centres for Disease Control (.gov).

Beyond Checklists: The SIFT

Method | 91
Even if you do not recognize HealthLinkBC, a simple click on the
link would indicate that it is part of the BC Ministry of Health
(.gov.bc.ca).
(Click on the image to enlarge it. Use your browser’s back button
to return to this page.)

Figure 4.2 Top search results for fluoride and drinking water

If you are confident that your sources are known to be reliable, you
don’t need to go any further. But if you are not familiar with an
author or site, consider using the next 3 moves.

Move #2: INVESTIGATE THE SOURCE

Exploring the source means finding out whatever you can about its
author, publisher, sponsoring organizations and partners, and so on,
before you spend much time on reading it. Knowing the context of
a source will help you to be aware of any potential biases, hidden
agendas or purposes, and even misinformation.

92 | Beyond Checklists: The SIFT Method

 A key part of this move is to use something that digital literacy
experts call “lateral reading“. Making a habit of reading through
various external sources about your source will help you assess
its credibility and appropriateness for your research. This involves
getting off the page, opening up a new tab (or three!) and
investigating the source itself. In their initial stages of information
gathering, fact-checkers frequently use this strategy, investing
more time in reading about the site up front before turning their
attention to the content.

Activity: What can you determine about this site?

The previous search on fluoride and public drinking water also led
to this result, a story on the website Natural News. (Link opens in a
new tab. Keep it open to answer some questions about the site.)

Never heard of Natural News? Now is the time to investigate this

source!

Open a new tab or window and do a quick Google search for the
website or the owner’s name. (You can find his name on the About
page of the website.) Scan the first few results. How is the website
or its owner regarded by other sources, namely the mainstream
press and Wikipedia?

Open another tab and do a quick search for the topic fluoride
and drinking water. Notice that the Water Fluoridation page on
Wikipedia includes a link to controversy surrounding this topic. Go
one step further and open the Talk page for this article. What do the
comments from Wikipedia editors indicate?
Head back to the Natural News story. What might the heavy
presence of advertisements for various alternative and natural
health products suggest about the purpose of this site?

Beyond Checklists: The SIFT Method | 93

Move #3 FIND BETTER COVERAGE

Investing a bit of time up front in order to determine the quality of

a site will pay off. Look around for better coverage of your topic,
whether this means re-wording your initial search or following the
references of other sites. What you are aiming for is an
understanding of the context of a topic and who the credible
authors and organizations are that can provide consensus and
agreement.

Remember, you are not obligated to stay with any specific source.
Keep looking, and you will find something better.

Activity: Can you find a better source?

It is beyond the scope of this section to provide all the tips for better
searching in Google, but there is one strategy you might consider
using for our water fluoridation topic: the site or domain limit in
Advanced Google search. For this subject, it might be appropriate
to consider searching educational sites or perhaps Canadian
governmental sites, which would include information from
scientists and public health professionals.
Going back to Google and trying a new search for water
fluoridation, see what happens when you limit the search to the
domain .edu or .ca.
Click the images below to see the results list. Where are the
majority of sites coming from?

94 | Beyond Checklists: The SIFT Method

 Figure 4.3
Google
searches
using site
limits

Move #4 TRACE CLAIMS QUOTES AND MEDIA TO THE

ORIGINAL CONTEXT

Much of what we find online comes to us out of context and

sometimes could be a misrepresentation of original stories, reports
or findings, either intentional or by mistake. If the source you are
considering claims justification through citing research or referring
to an earlier source, go one step further and trace back to the
original. Did the source get it right? Have they distorted findings or
only partially considered what was reported?

Activity: Find the original source

Our earlier Natural News story included a reference to an article

published in the journal Environmental Health. However, rather than
linking out to the scientific article, the author of the story instead
points to other Natural News pieces on the topic, making it difficult
for the reader to assess the accuracy of the claim and ultimately
casting doubt about the trustworthiness of this site.
Checking for the original article using the library’s Summon
search, you can see for yourself that the authors conclude that
any association between levels of fluoridation and ADHD warrants
further study. A Google search of the article shows several leading
scientific journals point out methodological flaws of the study and
caution against making causal connections.

Beyond Checklists: The SIFT Method | 95

Sources
Text adapted from SIFT (The Four Moves) by Mike Caulfield is
licensed under CC BY 4.0.
Text adapted from Teaching Lateral Reading by Stanford History
Education Group is licensed under CC BY-NC-ND 4.0.
“Water Fluoridation Found to Increase Hypthyroidism Risk by
30%” (2018) from Natural News.
“Water Fluoridation” by Wikipedia is licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Article: Malin, A. J., & Till, C. (2015). Exposure to fluoridated water
and attention deficit hyperactivity disorder prevalence among
children and adolescents in the United States: an ecological
association. Environmental Health : A Global Access Science
Source, 14, 17 https://ehjournal.biomedcentral.com/articles/
10.1186/s12940-015-0003-1.

96 | Beyond Checklists: The SIFT Method

31. Putting it all together
The following graphic illustrates the process of determining the
credibility of sources you find on the internet. It is can also serve as
a useful reminder of the critical questions you should be asking of
all the sources you find in your research, including those you find in
the library.

Putting it all together | 97

Figure 4.4 How to spot fake news. Image from IFLA.

98 | Putting it all together

Source
Infographic: “How to spot fake news” by IFLA is licensed under CC
BY 4.0.

Putting it all together | 99

32. Summing up Part 4
ACTIVITY: Summing up Module 4

Your research question is: What are the potential harms and
benefits of e-cigarettes?

Decide which of the two sources is better. Use the arrow on the
right to move to the next question.

An interactive H5P element has been excluded from this

version of the text. You can view it online here:
https://kpu.pressbooks.pub/doingresearch/?p=290#h5p-21

Key Takeaway

Evaluating a source of information involves asking critical

questions about its suitability within the context of the
research need.

Well done! You have completed the text and activity portion of Part

100 | Summing up Part 4

4 Evaluate your Sources. You are welcome to review any part of this
module at any time.

Summing up Part 4 | 101

33. Completion
Congratulations! This marks the end of KPU Library’s tutorial, Doing
Research: A Student’s Guide to Finding and Using the Best Sources.
Throughout these modules we have tried to demonstrate one
way for you to approach your research, starting with developing
a searchable question and ending with critically examining the
sources you will use in your writing. Along the way, we have
emphasized that research is not a linear, straightforward process
but one that involves both exploration and reflection and requires
you to continually ask questions.
If you have questions about your specific research needs, or what
library resources can best help you, don’t hesitate to ask a KPU
Librarian.

102 | Completion