How to search for information?

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.

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:

• List of search databases for all subjects
• Internet for Nurse (Intute) provides a tutorial about how to find nursing information on the web
• Internet Detective has an online tutorial to learn more about evaluating websites
• Your library websites - Internet Searching – Search Tips section also provide relevant information