Practical Research
for Swarthmore Innovation Fellows

Simon Elichko (they/he)

Social Sciences & Data Librarian

selichk1@swarthmore.edu

All the resources we discussed:

Mirage image credit: Brahan Milla

What we'll go over:

  • Practical research in higher education
  • Reality-checking research: skills and resources
  • Lots of specific tools and tips you can use

Practical research
in higher education

Carnegie Classifications & Peer Institutions

Making more persuasive arguments by understanding institutional context 

Swarthmore access to
Chronicle of Higher Education
and other news resources

Considering AI accuracy for finding info about programs at other colleges & universities

We need a new way to talk about AI outputs when they don't match our expectations for realism or facticity....

Just as a desert mirage is an artifact of physical conditions, an AI mirage is an artifact of how systems process training data and prompts. In both cases, a human can mistake a mirage for reality or see it for what it really is.

 

- Anna Mills and Nate Angell, 2025

 How can you reality-check outputs from generative AI tools?

(+ do better research in general)

  • Proactively identify relevant expertise and reliable sources
  • Build your search engine literacy
  • Seek out resources that are tailored to your research area in addition to general tools

Proactively identify relevant expertise and reliable sources

  • Who is in a position to know about your topic?
  • Are they part of a larger knowledge community you might want to draw on?
    • Some examples include academic disciplines, companies, industries, professions and professional organizations, non-profit organizations, other groups
  • What kinds of perspectives do you want to take into account?
    • What are the interests of each? Blind spots?
  • Do you need to understand the past as well as the present?

Identifying experts & expertise:
Topic Overviews Research Guide

Helpful resources include The Conversation 
and The Journalist's Resource

Understanding the (recent) past
Web Archives

Using archived versions of websites can let you:

This can be particularly helpful when you need to understand how an issue, program, policy, etc. developed over time.

Learning about earlier efforts and discussions on-campus:

Swarthmore College Archives

 

Resources from the College Archives:

Build your search engine literacy

  • Try comparing the output of different search engines for the same search
    • Examples include Google, DuckDuckGo, and others
       
  • Related to choosing your expert(ise) first, consider searching specific websites or domains:
    • Add site:.edu to Google search to limit results to US higher education -- example search  (site:.ac.uk for UK higher ed)
    • FindPolicy's Consulting & Advisory Firms search limits results to 12 major firms (e.g. Deloitte, McKinsey, etc.)
    • Consider using search engines as alternative algorithms for finding relevant content on social media

How to search social media through Google 

Basic set-up

your keyword site:youtube.com

your keyword site:swarthmore.edu 

 

How to search multiple platforms at once:
railroad strike  site:instagram.com | site:tiktok.com | site:pinterest.com
 

railroad strike  site:reddit.com | site:facebook.com

  • Put the URL immediately after site:  (don’t leave spaces)

  • Leave spaces around the pipe | separating multiple sites.

Check for resources tailored to your research area

Swarthmore College → higher education →
Educational Studies resources → ERIC Database


ERIC Database: Use the Education Level feature to find articles focused on higher education. Helps you avoid research on K-12 education or other industries.

Sustainability-related projects →
Environmental Studies resources

Find ebooks from the libraries in Tripod, for example: marketing, published 2022-25

Reach out!

Working with a librarian is a great way to get help and also improve your skills.