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Education and Childhood Studies: Literature searching

Mae'r dudalen hon hefyd ar gael yn Gymraeg

MyUni Library Essentials course

MyUni Library Essentials includes a section on Researching. Follow the link below to learn how to plan a search strategy and conduct your search. (You need to log in to Canvas to access the link.)

Please follow the link to self-enrol on MyUni Library Essentials if you have not accessed the course before.

Search tips

Keywords

  • Find the keywords for your assignment topic. Don’t type in a long sentence.
  • Are there synonyms or related terms (broader or more specific) that might be relevant?

Getting more results

  • You can use a truncation symbol (usually an asterisk *) to find different endings to your keyword. For example, searching for read* would find read, reading, reads, etc.
  • You can find alternative terms simultaneously by linking them with OR; for example, you could search for adolescent OR teenager.

Getting fewer results

  • If you get too many results try searching just the title or abstract rather than the full record. You should get fewer, more relevant results.
  • Use quotation marks if you want your search terms to appear as a phrase; for example "artificial intelligence"
  • Use the filter options down the side of the results page to make your search more specific

Critically appraising your sources is a crucial element of any literature search.  You need to consider is your sources are:

  • reliable
  • academic enough
  • Free from bias

Ask yourself the following questions about the information you have found.

Who?  

  • Who is the author or organisation responsible for the information?
  • Are they qualified to write on this topic?

When?  

  • Is the information out of date?
  • Does it matter?

What sort of information?

  • Is it opinion or fact?
  • Is it reliable and independent?
  • Is it academic/research-focussed or commercial?

Effective searching with Google

Google can be a useful tool for finding information online. However, it can be difficult to find the most relevant and reliable sources of information from a list of thousands or millions of results. Don't assume the results at the top are the best ones! The following strategies will help you search Google more effectively.

Search a website or group of websites

Use your keywords and the command site:url to find results from one website or from a group of websites. For instance, a search for foundation phase site:gov.wales will find information about the Foundation Phase from the Welsh Government website. You could use site:ac.uk to search academic websites.

Find a particular type of document

Use the command filetype: to limit your search to a particular type of document. This can be useful if you are looking for a certain type of information. For example, if you government documents are likely to be published in PDF form, so you could use filetype:pdf to limit your results to PDFs and make it easier to find what you need. Numerical data is likely to appear in a spreadsheet, so you could use filetype:xls to look for Excel documents.

Google Scholar searches scholarly literature such as journal articles and abstracts, but you may have difficulty accessing the full-text of the material you find. Linking your Google Scholar account to Swansea University will help with this. Just go to the settings cog from the menu

 

and then go to Library Links to find Swansea University.

 

Why use library databases instead of Google Scholar?

Although Google Scholar can be useful, iFind and subject databases such as Science Direct have certain key advantages:-

  • Identify peer-reviewed articles.
  • Easy access to an abstract (summary of the article).
  • Easy access to the full article, where available, with no extra charges.
  • Citations and reference lists for each article - usefull for widening your reading.
  • Pre-publication research.
  • Be more organised -  options to email, download & integration with bibliography managers (like Endnote).

Centre for Academic Success

From help with structuring and writing assignments, to support with maths and stats, the Centre for Academic Success can help you. Click on the link below to find out more about their services:

Centre for Academic Success Image

Sage Research Methods

Artificial Intelligence (AI) and research

There are AI tools that can help you with your research. You will need to use your judgement to review the information they find as these tools are not always reliable. They should be used alongside more traditional literature searching techniques.

Remember you must use AI tools responsibly. As a general rule, you should say if you have used AI to help with your research and how you have used it. You should not use AI to write any parts of your assignment; submitted work should be original. Check for guidance on AI use in your module handbooks and assignment briefs. Please read the University's policy on AI use and Academic Misconduct.