Research Skills Workshop

POLS 63: African Politics

Simon Elichko
Social Sciences & Data Librarian

What we'll cover today:

  • Doing research at Swarthmore
  • Advanced searching
  • Tools for finding news, social media,
    and research
     

Doing research at Swarthmore

Essential resources:

Accessing pay-walled articles

Scholarly / academic journal articles

  1. Search Tripod for the article title. Look for a matching result and follow links to access. (e.g. Teaching South African History in a Digital Age)
     
  2. Can't find it in Tripod? Apply the search filter "Include results without full text" to see more results. (see this example)

    Click on your article title if it appears in the results. Follow the prompt to login to Tripod, then click on Request via Interlibrary Loan.
     
  3. Still not seeing your article? Go to Borrow Beyond TriCo, then choose the journal article request link. Fill out the form to request a PDF of the article.

Accessing pay-walled articles

News articles

  1. Search Tripod for the publication title (e.g. New York Times, The Economist, New Yorker), not the article title. (example search)
     
  2. Look for the publication in your results. Click on the best match to continue. Find access links under "View Online." (example with links)

    Feel free to use the chat button if you need help.
     
  3. Can't find the publication in Tripod? Go to Borrow Beyond TriCo, then choose the journal article request link. Fill out the form to request a PDF of the article.

Advanced Google

Limit results by date
nigeria vaccines before:2020

nigeria vaccines after:2021-02-01

Remove results with certain terms

nigeria vaccines -covid -covax

Filter your results:

Only see results with keyword in page title

nigeria vaccines intitle:abuja

Find files by type (pdf, csv, etc)

nigeria vaccines filetype:pdf

Advanced Google

Find results matching any of these words:
(word1 OR word2 OR word3)

 

Find results matching any of these phrases:

("phrase 1" OR "phrase 2" OR "phrase 3")

 

Example:
nigeria (vaccines OR immunization) filetype:pdf

Expand your results:

Tools for finding news, social media, and research

Research guide for POLS 063

Overviews of Research: Oxford Bibliographies

Great for topic background, when you need 1-2 recommended sources

News & Social Media

Recommended sources for class


AllAfrica

 

Social Media searching:
- site:facebook.com OR site:twitter.com
- Social Searcher

Getting help

  • Quick questions: use chat in Tripod
     
  • Help with finding sources and searching, organizing your results: meet with Simon
     
  • Unsure? Email selichk1@swarthmore.edu

Image credit: Tania Melnyczuk