Web research
By the end of this module, you will be able to:
- use Google to search for information
- interpret the results of a Google search
- modify a Google search
- restrict a search using domain names and formats
- use Google's Advanced Search function
- use Google Scholar
- use Google Books
Google is the best search tool for serious academic purposes. The Google search engine:
- indexes more of the Web than any other search engine
- includes Adobe Acrobat (PDF) documents and Word files in its index (unlike most other search engines)
- enables you to restrict your search to particular parts of the Web, to specific file types and even to individual sites.
Using Google
To go to Google, simply launch your Web browser and type: http://www.google.com in the Address Box and then press the Enter key.
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Basic search
To perform a basic search, just enter your keywords in the Search Box and click on the Google Search button.
As a default, your search will be run across Google's index of all Web content.
Google then displays a list of Web pages which relate to your keyword. With Google, you don't need to use the Boolean operator AND or the + sign (one or the other of these operators is necessary with most search engines). Google inserts an AND between keywords automatically.
To search for museums in Sydney, simply enter the keywords museums sydney and Google will provide you with a list of relevant hits.
As the above example indicates, Google is not case-sensitive. Search on pAuL KeAtInG, PAUL KEATING or paul keating and you will get the same result.
However, you do need to enclose phrases in quotation marks (eg "cathy freeman").
After you have entered your keywords, you have the option of clicking on the I'm Feeling Lucky button. This button takes you straight to the page which best matches your keyword. Google has other specialised options. The links on the right of the Search box take you to the Advanced Search window and allow you to change some preferences.
There are many more features of the basic Google search window. By clicking on different links, you can restrict your search to particular types of resources. By clicking in the check box next to pages from Australia, you can restrict your search to Australian content.
Interpreting your results
At first glance, you might be confused by the way in which Google displays the results of your search. In fact, it's suprisingly simple. In general, to view a search result, you simply click on the page title (in blue) or the page URL (in green). A more detailed break-down of the Google search result window appears below.
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A | Page title |
B | Page excerpt |
C | URL |
D | Cached |
E | Similar Pages |
Modifying your search
Usually you start your Google search by using one or two keywords. If this process results in too many hits, you will need to narrow your search by adding additional keywords to the terms in the Search box. At other times, you need to exclude a term. To do this, you use the - (minus) operator.
To find pages about the comic book villain known as the Penguin, while excluding sites about Antarctic wildlife, you can use the search penguin -antarctica.
Using OR
Google supports the OR operator. Use this operator if you need to use a keyword which is spelt in a number of ways or to search on the basis of close synonyms: email OR e-mail.
Note that the OR operator must be in uppercase. It is possible to combine the use of quotation marks and the OR operator. For example, to search for pages on organisational behaviour (Australian/English spelling) or organizational behavior (US spelling), you can enter the following search: "organisational behaviour" OR "organizational behavior".
Site searches
If you know the site you want to search but aren't sure where the information is located within that site, you can restrict your search to that site. Do this by entering your keywords followed by the word "site" and a colon followed by the domain name.
For example, to find information about archaeology on the UNE site, enter the search archaeology site:www.une.edu.au.
Using part sentences
Keywords and Boolean operators are all useful. But sometimes, you need to change your approach.
Google's indexing software relies on words, not terms or subject headings. As a result, Google doesn't know the context or meaning of these individual words, as might a librarian or indexer. This means that it's easy to use keywords to find the answers to some questions, but not others.
Let's take a simple example. If you need to find information about Sir Edmund Barton, you can easily search Google using the phrase "Edmund Barton". But, what if you needed to find out the name of first Prime Minister of Australia?
The usual approach would be to identify some keywords (eg first prime minister australia) and combine these to create your search. Unfortunately, this set of keywords will return a large number of irrelevant pages: all those which include the word first and some reference to the Prime Minister of Australia. You might find a page about Edmund Barton, but you will also find pages which refer to John Watson (the first Labor Prime Minister) or James Scullin (the first Prime Minister from an Irish background).
The answer is to think in terms of part sentence or phrases, not keywords. Consider how the information you need is likely to be expressed. The identity of the first Australian PM is probably contained in phrases like:
- X was the first Prime Minister of Australia
- X, the first Prime Minister of Australia
- Y appointed X first Prime Minister of Australia.
Each phrase has the same few words in common: first Prime Minister of Australia. So, let's enclose these words in quotation marks and use "first Prime Minister of Australia" as our search. If we do, Google will give us a long list of pages which refer to Edmund Barton as the first Australian Prime Minister.
The same trick can be used answering other questions. It's particularly good with figures, dates, definitions and other "facts".
Try the following searches:
- "Dawn Fraser was born in"
- "is the tallest mountain in Australia"
- "phytology is the study of"
- "pernicious anemia is"
- "the capital of Brazil is".
Note that the last search could have been expressed as "is the capital of Brazil", but this usage would have found sites which posed the question "What is the capital of Brazil?", without necessarily providing an answer.
It is also possible to use sentence clauses to find the answer to technical or practical questions. Imagine that you want to find out how to measure the pH of a water sample (ie to determine whether the water is acidic or alkaline).
The easiest way to find this information is to use the search like
("measuring ph" water) OR ("how to measure ph" water).
Why don't you just use the search "measuring ph"? The reason is that it is possible to measure the pH of plenty of things other than water. The use of the words "how to" is also a good way to search for information on a practical subject.
Why? Because practical articles are quite often written with titles which include the words "how to".
Benefits of part sentences
There are a number of advantages in thinking in terms of part sentences when searching Google. One is that this method usually results in highly relevant results.
After you enter such a search, Google will present the results of the search in a way which makes it easy to determine the relevance of each particular page. The part sentence used is highlighted and is included in each Google search hit display In addition, you can see at a glance if there is any ambiguity regarding the answer to your enquiry.
By all means use keywords and Boolean logic as your basic tools in constructing a Google search, but where these don't work (or are inappropriate), think in terms of part sentences. In many cases, this simple trick will get you the results you need with a minimum of fuss.
Using domain names
Using site: you can limit your search to sites from a particular Web domain (eg www.une.edu.au). To restrict your search by domain, type your search terms and then site: followed by the domain name.
Enter the keywords admission site:www.une.edu.au to restrict your search to pages on the UNE site which refer to admission.You can also exclude a domain. Enter the keywords booloominbah -site:www.une.edu.au to find all the non-UNE domain pages which mention Booloominbah
Google allows you to limit your search to sites from a particular country or to a type of site (eg all .com sites).
To restrict your search by domain, type your search terms, followed by site: and a country code (site:.au, site:.uk etc) or domain code (site:.com, site:.edu, site:.edu.au).
For example, use admission site:.edu.au to find admission information for different Australian universities or use refugees site:.au to locate Australian pages which discuss the issue of refugees.
Moreover, you can combine the use of domain names with the - operator. Use environment site:.au -site:.gov.au if you wish to search for information about community groups concerned with Australian environmental issues, but wish to exclude pages which restate government policies in this area.
Another choice is environment site:.org.au — most Australian community groups have a domain name which includes site:.org.au.
The first search will not exclude sites within the commercial domain, and will therefore return a larger number of results than the second.
Making use of domain name restrictions
To make the best use of this feature, you need to know a little bit about Web addressing conventions.
Every country has its own two-letter country code. These codes include: .au (Australia), .ca (Canada), .de (Germany), .fr (France), .jp (Japan), .my (Malaysia), .sg (Singapore), .uk (United Kingdom), .us (United States).
If an address doesn't include a country code, it's probably in the USA. Although the United States has its own country code, for historical reasons this is rarely used.
In addition, to these country codes, there are a number of domain codes which relate to different areas of activity. In the Anglo-Saxon world, these domain codes come in two flavours: the UK and US standards. Australia follows the US model and New Zealand, for example, conforms to the UK system. Common codes are: .ac (UK academic) .com (US company) .co (UK company) .edu (educational institution), .gov (US government), .mil (US military), and org. (non-profit organisation). There are some newer domains, such as .biz (business), but the great majority of Web addresses are based on the older system.
Restricting your search by format
Google allows you to search for documents in different formats. These include Word files (.doc), PowerPoint files (.ppt), Excel spreadsheets (.xls) and publications in Adobe Acrobat format (.pdf). This feature can be particulary useful when you need to find specific sorts of information.
By restricting your search to Adobe Acrobat files, you will often improve the quality of your results, as Acrobat is frequently used for the online publication of academic or official documents. To restrict your search to files in a particular format, type your search term followed by the word "filetype" and a colon followed by the relevant abbreviation.
As an example, to find Adobe Acrobat files on e-commerce, you can type: e-commerce filetype:pdf.
Advanced searches
The Advanced Search window is designed to provide you with extra search capabilities with a minimum increase in complexity.
Below is a break-down of the functions of the Advanced Search window.
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In addition, you can narrow your search still further by clicking on the box at the bottom of the Advanced Search window. Probably the most useful of these expanded options is the ability to limit your search by date.
Google's Options Feature
This is a useful feature which deserves to be better known. You can use the Options feature to filter and refine your results. To access this feature, click on the Show options link just under the Google logo at the top of any search results page. The Options feature let you do the following:
- filter results by type, such as videos, forums, and reviews;
- filter results according to when they were created or last updated (even limit your search to specific years, months or days); and
- alter how your results are displayed.
The Wonder Wheel is a particularly interesting tool. It shows the connections between related searches and your search term as an interactive diagram. Click the different nodes in the diagram to see how searches can branch out.
Using Google Scholar
Google Scholar allows you to run a Web search which is (in the main) restricted to high-quality, scholarly literature. Items in Google Scholar's index include citations, full-text peer-reviewed articles, theses, books, preprints, abstracts, conference papers and scientific reports. Much of this material is difficult to access in other ways.
If you are off-campus, go to Google Scholar by going to the Library home page, clicking on the Google tag and then clicking on the Scholar radio button. Enter your search terms and then click on Go. You will be taken to Google Scholar.
If you are using Google Scholar from the UNE campus or via the link on the Library home page, you will find that Google Scholar now includes two new types of links:
Full text @ UNE: Click on this link and you should go straight to the full-text of the article. This link indicates that the article is in a journal to which we subscribe.
Find it @ UNE: Click on this link and a new window will appear. In this window, you will see a number of options for finding the full-text in paper or electronic form. Sometimes you will be able to connect to the full-text of the article through ProQuest or Expanded Academic. If the item is from a journal we hold in paper, the window will allow you to search the catalogue to see if we have the issue in question.
A Word of WarningGoogle claims that Google Scholar indexes scholarly literature. This assertion has been widely repeated. Unfortunately, it is not quite true. Some of the material that you discover in Google Scholar would not normally be regarded as quality academic literature. In a few cases, items have slipped in simply because their work looks academic. Book citations are an occasional problem: Google Scholar includes citations to books on New Age topics such as the healing power of crystals. As ever, you must carefully assess the quality of what you read. |
Author Searching
Google Scholar allows you to search for an article or articles using the author: operator. This can be combined with the author's last name and one or more initials in quotation marks.
For example, if you wish to find articles by the UNE economist Dr Brian Dollery, use author:"b dollery". If you wish, you can narrow your search by using the author's full name, eg author: "Brian Dollery". This is not recommended, as you will miss citations that are limited to last name and one or more initials.
Title searching
If you wish to restrict you search to a particular article, use the intitle: operator. For example: intitle:"The Empirical Analysis of Fiscal Illusion". This search finds a link to the article in question.
If you simply put the title in quotation marks, Google Scholar will find both the article and any other sources which refer to it. eg "The Empirical Analysis of Fiscal Illusion" finds more than 60 hits.
Restricting sources
You can restrict your search to a particular journal, but this requires the use of Google Scholar's Advanced Search.
Follow these steps:
- click on the Advanced Search link
- enter your keywords
- enter the title of the journal (or a standard abbreviation for the title) in the Return articles published in box
- click on the Search Scholar button.
Journal titles can be abbreviated in different ways, so you may need to try several different title combinations and abbreviations in order to get complete results.
Date restrictions
You can also restrict your search to a particular date range. Follow these steps:
- click on the Advanced Search link
- enter your keywords
- enter the range of years in the date boxes.
- click on the Search Scholar button.
This looks simple, but there are problems. If Google Scholar was unable to determine an article's publication date, it will omit the article from the search results entirely, even if the article was actually published within the particular date range.
Limiting subject areas
In Advanced Search, you can limit your search to particular subject areas by clicking in the appropriate check boxes.
 | Finding articles with Google Scholar Click on the Play button below to find out how you can find articles on a particular topic using Google Scholar. This example shows how to find full-text articles on diabetes and Indigenous Australians in less than a minute.  |
Using Google Books
Google Books is an excellent means of searching for new books on a topic and sampling their contents before you buy them or put in an document delivery request.
To search Google Books:
- go to the Google Books site
- enter your keyword or phrase in the Search Box
- click the Search button.
Google Books will display a list of books which include your keywords in their contents. Click on the book title or the book thumbnail to view the page where your keyword or phrase appears.
 | Google Books and the Free Lunch How useful is Google Books? Click on the Play button below to find out.  |
The first time you use Google Books, you will see a message asking you to sign in before you can view a book. Below this message will be a place for you to enter your Google Account details.
If you don't have a Google Account, click on the Create a Google Account link. It only takes a few moments to set up a Google Account and there is no charge. Once you have created a Google Account, you can view a number of pages from a book. Occasionally, you can view the whole book.
When viewing the contents of a book, you will see the Search in this book box on the right side of your screen.
You can enter keywords or phrases in this book to search the full-text of the book.
In addition, Google Books provides links to online book sellers so that you can buy the book.
| Google Books and the University Library You can use Google Books to find relevant books in the University Library collection. Click on the Play button below to find out how. We use "anzac legend" and "gallipoli" as keywords to find books on related topics. |
Google Books Advanced Search
The Advanced Search feature allows you to locate books by author, title, ISBN and date. In addition, you can use a range of options to narrow or broaden your search using different keywords and phrase.
Library Catalogue Search
Google Books has a useful function called Find this Book in a Library. If this service is available for a particular title, the Find this book in a library link is displayed next to the initial page display.
Clicking on Find this book in a library link take you either to the appropriate page in the Libraries Australia database or to WorldCat. If it is the former, at the bottom of this page you will see the libraries which have this title, including UNE if this item is our collection. If you are taken to WorldCat, you need to enter some additional information for WorldCat to show you the nearest library with this title.
Summary
This module has dealt with the following points:
- using Google
- interpreting search results and modifying your search
- Google's Advanced search
- Google Scholar
- Google Books.
 | Self-test Try these quick self-test questions to assess what you have learnt from this module. |