Search

& Research

PSRF / ENVS 089A

Andrea Baruzzi
Science & Engineering Librarian

Simon Elichko
 Social Sciences Librarian

Finding Sources
Two Approaches

Open-Ended

Expertise-Based

Who has relevant expertise?

Who = disciplines,
professions, experiences

What's out there?

• Choose a format:
    • Digital Go to Coggle.it
       Sign up (can use Swarthmore Google)
    • Analog Go to the board

• Create a new diagram
• Put your topic in the center
• Add a branch:  Expertise
   - List possibilities
 

Research Mapping

Review Articles

Annual Reviews

Insect Declines in the Anthropocene (Entomology, 2020)

Good for:

• Up-to-date and reliable information about environmental problems
   
• Substantial, research-based overviews for broad categories of interventions
   
• Overviews of how a topic has been studied by scholars in a discipline

Green Infrastructure and Health
(Public Health, 2021)

See also: Web of Science (if you limit results to Reviews)

Start with:

Environmental, Economic, and Social Consequences of the Oil Palm Boom

(Resource Economics, 2020)

Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It (Public Health, 2021)

Sociology and the Climate Crisis
(Sociology, 2020)

Living in a Toxic World
(Anthropology, 2020)

Filtering & Refining Results

Web of Science

Example: Looking for evidence on sustainability interventions at other institutions.
 

1. Search for  TOPIC: energy consumption

2. Look over results- some will be irrelevant. (Why?)

3. Improve your results by adding terms that help

    differentiate your interests from those represented
    in the results

Start with:

This strategy works across research tools (JSTOR, Google, Tripod, etc.)

Filtering & Refining Results

Web of Science

3. Improve your search results by...

Start with:

This strategy works across research tools (JSTOR, Google, Tripod, etc.)

Adding search terms that help differentiate your interests from those represented in the results.

TOPIC: energy consumption

AND TOPIC: (program OR initiative)

AND TOPIC: higher education

Limiting your results by year

You can filter results to review articles (including Annual Reviews)

Discipline-Specific Databases

GreenFile

Start with:

See other databases listed on the class research guide: https://guides.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/psrf

Discipline-specific databases often have a built-in vocabulary
that can make searching easier.

Compare results in GreenFile for:

compost
AND university OR college

compost
AND university OR college (select field: Subject Terms)

"Search is a form of data mining, but a strangely focused form that only shows you what you already know to expect."

-- Ted Underwood, "Theorizing Research Practices We Forgot
to Theorize Twenty Years Ago" (2014)

Search → Research

Web of Science

19,400

Google Scholar

2,890

⟵ Research Tool

How to improve your searches
1. Choose the right research tool

Cross-Disciplinary
Web of Science • ProQuest
Google Scholar • JSTOR

Discipline-Specific
PubMed • EconLit
GreenFile • PsycInfo • ERIC

Research Tools:

TriCo Libraries

Research Guides

Find Research Tools:

19,400

Google Scholar

2,890

How to improve your searches
2. Use search operators to combine your keywords

Search Operators

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

19,400

Google Scholar

Search Operators:

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

Phrase Search

To search for articles with a specific phrase, enclose it in quotation marks:
"exact phrase"

hydrofracking OR hydraulic fracturing

215,000

19,400

Google Scholar

2,890

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

hydrofracking AND "hydraulic fracturing"

14,440

hydrofracking "hydraulic fracturing"

14,440

Search Operators:

OR and AND

To find articles matching either keyword, combine with OR

To find articles matching both, combine with AND  *usually this is automatic

19,400

Google Scholar

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

How to improve your searches
3. Combine groups of topics

Need help finding sources?  Want to talk over your research?


Simon Elichko (Social Sciences Librarian)
selichk1@swarthmore.edu

Andrea Baruzzi (Science & Engineering Librarian)

abaruzz1@swarthmore.edu

Library research guide: https://guides.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/psrf