During your studies, you will have to conduct research more and more frequently. Which role does searching for literature play within research? This is explained in the following video.
You would like to find the answer to the following question: “How can you improve the spread of tourists in Amsterdam?”. To answer this question, you need to search for information.
<
Exploration
It is very important to know what exactly you will be researching. To start with, it means exploring the subject. As you begin, your subject will very likely be much too broad to research. In the video, you will see how to narrow down a subject into a clearly defined one.
To find the information you need, you should formulate your subject in terms of a main question. This question describes exactly what it is you would like to know about and is a way of giving direction to your search. How do you formulate a good main question?
You have thought up the following main question:
“Should the infrastructure be modified to deal with the growing number of tourists and which possible adaptations exist?”
There is great scope for improving this main question. Work out what is not very good about it and what you could do differently. If necessary, write down your suggestions for improvement!
How do you establish a good main question?
While exploring the subject, you transformed your research problem into a subject: “Modifications to public transport to ease congestion in relation to the growing number of tourists in Amsterdam.”
How do you now come to a good main question now?
Below, you can see how a question can be improved, step by step.
This question does not represent a logical next step from the research problem to the subject. That is because you are researching the infrastructure in Amsterdam, not the city’s economy. A better question would be:
A good main question consists of one single question, and no more. Your main question is now:
Another thing to remember is that a main question should be open-ended, not one that only requires a yes or no answer. Therefore:
This question is still somewhat vague - what do you mean by “deal with”? Make your question more specific:
Make sure your main question is not too broad, and not too narrow. In your subject, you had already opted for “public transport” rather than “infrastructure”. This should feature in your main question. Your main question now ends up as:
Importance of your research population
Many degree programmes expect your research population to form part of your main question. A research population is the group of people or objects to which a research project applies and about which a statement is made. Some examples:
for research into the prevention of dementia among women aged thirty, your research population is “women aged thirty”.
for research into the quality of pharmacies in Amsterdam, your research population is “pharmacies in Amsterdam”.
Including the research population in your main question provides the right focus and a clear definition.
It also prevents you from making up answers yourself; for market research, for example, you would like to know what your group of customers (research population) thinks of a particular product. For social studies, you may wish to learn the opinions of a specific section of the population (research population) on the theme of discrimination, for example.
Sub-questions
Often a main question is too complex to be answered in one go. That is why you split it into sub-questions. It makes the main question easier to manage.
Sub-questions always answer a specific part of the main question. Collectively, the sub-questions answer the main question. Questions that do not contribute towards answering the main question are not relevant.
Example
Your main question is:
“Which modifications to public transport are needed to ensure that the growing number of tourists in Amsterdam can move around more efficiently?”
You have now thought up a number of sub-questions:
Which modifications have been made to the infrastructure in Amsterdam in the last five years?
How many tourists come to The Netherlands?
Does the ease with which tourists can move around Amsterdam compare well to other Dutch cities?
Which modifications have been made to public transport in the last five years?
These sub-questions certainly have their flaws. What is wrong with these sub-questions, and what would you do differently? If necessary, write down your suggestions!
What are good sub-questions?
It is important that there is a direct relationship between the sub-questions and the main question. For the main question,
“Which modifications to the infrastructure are needed to ensure that the growing number of tourists in Amsterdam can move around more efficiently?”
The sub-questions could be:
What have been the effects of the growth in the number of tourists in Amsterdam on traffic flow in the last five years?
How large is the expected growth in the number of tourists in Amsterdam for the next five years?
Which are the main traffic bottlenecks?
What is the design of the infrastructure at the main bottleneck locations?
Which are the main criteria for effective traffic flow?
Which measures relating to infrastructure have been taken in similar cities in order to make it easier for tourists to move around?
Sometimes, you can make your sub-questions even more specific, in the form of search questions. Search questions for the last sub-question could be:
Which measures relating to infrastructure have been taken in Berlin in order to make it easier for tourists to move around?
Which measures relating to infrastructure have been taken in Barcelona in order to make it easier for tourists to move around?
Summary
You have learned to:
clarify your question and to define your assignment
explore a subject in different ways
divide up your main question into sub-questions
formulate main and sub-questions
Search Logbook
You can use the search logbook to keep a record of how you have conducted searches during your own project. This is useful and saves time, although it is not a compulsory part of the course, unless your degree programme has stated otherwise.
Now note down your hypothesis, your research question and sub-questions in your logbook.
2 - Think up search terms
Sample question
For a developer of educational games, you are researching how games about the history of Amsterdam can be effectively used in secondary education. First, you check if you can find any information about this subject.
Expanding search terms
In Searchlight Basic, you were given a number of tips for thinking up search terms. There are various ways of creating an even longer list of search terms. Which are these?
TIP: Match the search terms to the information resource you use.
Articles aimed at a wider audience will often contain different terms to those in a trade publication.
Scholarly articles will usually feature scientific words more often. The language used will be different to that in publications aimed at a wider audience or even trade journals.
The thesaurus
A useful tool for thinking up new search terms is a thesaurus. This is a list of words in which relationships between different terms are shown, such as broader or more specific (narrower) terms. Whenever you get but a few search results, you should use broader terms for your search. Conversely, whenever you get too many results, you should use narrower terms.
Some thesauruses are specific for a particular field, such as theNational Agricultural Library Thesaurus. Some large databases have their own thesaurus, like Business Source Premier, Eric, SportDiscus, and ProQuest. Checking a thesaurus is an easy way of finding new search terms.
Summary
When thinking up search terms, you have learned to:
consider spelling variations, conjugations, compound nouns, and antonyms
use information you already found
use a thesaurus to find new search terms
Search Logbook
Now note down the search terms you have thought up in your logbook.
3 - Select information sources
Sample question
Since 2020 the city of Amsterdam's ambition is to make sure every festival in the city is fully sustainable. A festival organiser asks you to investigate what methods exist for making his festival more sustainable.
Types of resources
Introduction
In the basic course, you learned about the various types of information resources, subdivided according to form and content.
To determine whether or not you can use an information resource when answering your question, there are other aspects you can bear in mind - level and originality.
There are different levels of journals. What exactly are the differences between these journals and when is it best to use them?
Trade journals
Trade journals are aimed at specialists in a particular field. They contain practical applications of ideas, models, and theories. Articles usually describe the most commonly occurring situations in everyday practice. You can compare them to your own case. Examples of trade journals are: Modern English Teacher and Flight International.
Non-specialist journals
These publications are aimed at a general audience. This is why you will usually not find detailed descriptions of a research method or references to sources used. For this reason, you should not use publications of this kind as a source for your assignment. Examples of non-specialist journals include: Time, Newsweek or National Geographic.
Scholarly journals
Scholarly magazines contain articles written by scholars, for scholars. The research method is always clearly described and the sources used are described precisely. That way, you can see how the author obtained his information. In the articles, you will often find explanations for certain phenomena in the professional field. You can then link them to your own case. Examples of scholarly journals include: The Lancet, The Journal of Machine Learning Research en The Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology.
Originality
You can also categorise information according to originality. A distinction is made between primary and secondary sources:
Primary sources contain new information. This could be research reports, for example.
Secondary sources use information from primary sources. They discuss a subject on the basis of various articles and publications. They often give a clear picture of what research has been carried out and published in relation to a particular subject. Possible examples include handbooks or review articles.
Databases and Google Scholar
You are of course already familiar with Google and you know that the Library offers access to various databases. But how do you find the right databases for your specific assignment?
that information sources differ in terms of level and originality
what the difference is between trade journals and scholarly journals
what the difference is between primary and secondary information
how to find a suitable database for your question
how to use Google Scholar to search the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences databases
Search Logbook
Now note down in your logbook what you have found and how.
4 - Search for information
Sample question
You are searching for information about improving the air quality in Amsterdam. Your first search in a database has produced 15 results, all of which are relevant.
Improving your search results
How can you ensure that you find as much relevant information as possible, while excluding as much non-usable information as possible at the same time?
When you search in a database, it is not always clear which search terms will get you the best results. A thesaurus can be useful in this case. In module 2, you learned that a thesaurus can help you think up search terms. In a number of databases you can also conduct a search using the thesaurus. Such a very targeted search will often give you good search results.
When you have found an article which deals with your subject, you can use it for finding other publications on the same subject. In the basic course, you learned that you can find older literature with the help of the bibliographies in articles that you found. If you would like to find more recent articles, then you can use the “cited by” function.
Let’s say that you are searching for information on the link between mortality rates and air pollution caused by traffic in Amsterdam. Looking in the Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences Library, you find the following article:
The article is highly relevant to your subject, but it is not very recent.
If you now click “cited by”, you will see an overview of the sources that have quoted this article. There is a good chance that this overview will contain articles on the same subject. The articles you find this way will always be more recent than the article from which the citation is taken.
In addition, the number of citations tells you something about the article itself. If the article has been cited a lot, it is probably of major significance.
By clicking “citations”, you will see an overview of older articles to which the article makes reference.
Tip: Google Scholar also offers both options.
Searching for citations in Science Direct
Some databases also have a citation index. In Science Direct, for example, there is the Citing Articles option to the right of each article.
Who has cited whom, and what has been cited, can be found in the Web of Science database. This is where you can find references to scientific articles, among other things. If an article is also available in one of our databases, you can retrieve the full text straight away.
Summary
You have learned to:
make your results more specific
search by using a thesaurus
search by using a citation index
Search Logbook
Now note down in your logbook what you have found and how.
5 - Make your selection
Sample question
How can you quickly evaluate a scientific article?
You find an interesting article about obesity among schoolchildren in Amsterdam.
Scanning articles quickly
For some projects, you will have to substantiate your reports with scientific evidence. You will often find such evidence in scholarly reports or publications. They have a fixed structure that makes it easier for you to read and evaluate them quickly. By way of example, let’s take a scholarly article.
In the Searchlight Basic course, you learned what to look out for when evaluating websites. There are also a number of interrelated criteria which you should apply when evaluating publications. These are the same for most publications. As you can see from the chart below, there are a number of additional criteria specifically for scholarly publications. They are explained immediately below the chart. You can also use a checklist. This is a Word document, so you can save it and print it.
Relevance
Reliability
Checking the search process
Did you not find enough good-quality sources? If not, go back one or more stages in your search process. Check, for example, whether:
you should make your question more specific or more broadly based
you have used every important search term
other suitable databases are available
you have combined your search terms in the right way
Tip: Not every sub-question can be answered by searching in literature. The reasons for this could be:
A subject is too new: there are simply no publications that deal with it yet. If there are, however, any ongoing research projects on the subject, you could try contacting the researchers.
The answer to your question is confidential - it may concern sensitive commercial information, for example. You could try approaching businesses, in this case.
Summary
You have learned:
how to quickly scan a scholarly article
what to look out for when evaluating a scholarly article in terms of its authority and content
Search Logbook
Now note down in your logbook what results are usable.
6 - Process your information
Sample question
What data are you allowed to use?
For your internship with a company, you interviewed your fellow students. You have made a file of all the names of the students and the transcriptions of the interviews.
Privacy-sensitive information
In the basic course, you learned that you should always acknowledge a source if you use the work of other people. However, there are some types of information which you may never include in your reports. On the other hand, there is some information that may be used by everyone. So how do you know whether or not you may use certain information in your reports?
So, you may not use information as you see fit. For example, you must always acknowledge your sources. On the internet, you can often see what you may do with certain information when a Creative Commons (CC) licence is provided. With a CC licence, an author gives permission to everyone to use his or her work, subject to certain conditions. “Use” here means that you may copy, distribute, and display the work to others.
A CC licence consists of the following building blocks:
Building block
Meaning
Attribution. Others may use your work, as long as they mention your name. This building block comes with every licence.
Non-commercial. Others may use your work, as long as they derive no income from it.
NoDerivatives. Others may use your work, as long as they do not alter it or use it as the basis for new material
ShareAlike. Others may use your work as a basis for creating new material, as long as they use the same licence as you have.
Refworks
If you would like to keep all your sources in one place and make quick references to them in Word, then use the RefWorks program. Watch the video for more information.
If you would like to use RefWorks, go to the Library website to create a free account.
Would you like to use RefWorks? Visit the library's website to create a free account.
APA style
The APA style is the most commonly used citation style at Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. Would you like to learn how to mention sources in the APA style? Go to the APA module.
Summary
You have learned:
that you need a person’s permission to use their personal details
that you must anonymise people’s names
that you should treat commercial information with care
what a Creative Commons licence is
what CC licences exist and what they mean
Search Logbook
Now note down your own information in your logbook.
Het arrangement Searchlight Advanced is gemaakt met
Wikiwijs van
Kennisnet. Wikiwijs is hét onderwijsplatform waar je leermiddelen zoekt,
maakt en deelt.
Dit lesmateriaal is gepubliceerd onder de Creative Commons Naamsvermelding-GelijkDelen 4.0 Internationale licentie. Dit houdt in dat je onder de voorwaarde van naamsvermelding en publicatie onder dezelfde licentie vrij bent om:
het werk te delen - te kopiëren, te verspreiden en door te geven via elk medium of bestandsformaat
het werk te bewerken - te remixen, te veranderen en afgeleide werken te maken
voor alle doeleinden, inclusief commerciële doeleinden.
We work to enhance our courses continually. Do you have suggestions on Searchlight Advanced?
Contact the Library's informatiespecialist of your field or send a mail to Harrie van der Meer, coördinator Information Literacy/Educational materials, e-mail: h.a.l.van.der.meer@hva.nl
Literature
Association of College and Research Libraries. (2015). Framework for information literacy for higher education. Retrieved from http://www.ala.org/acrl/ standards/ilframework
Gruwel, S., & Wopereis, I. (2014). Word informatievaardig : Digitale informatie selecteren, beoordelen en verwerken. Groningen etc.: Noordhoff.
LOOWI werkgroep Normering Informatievaardigheden (n.d.). Informatievaardigheid: normen voor het hoger onderwijs. n.p.: LOOWI
Poelmans, P., & Severijnen, O. (2013). De APA-richtlijnen: Over literatuurverwijzing en onderzoeksrapportage. Bussum: Coutinho.
Sieverts, E. (2011). De informatie vinden die je zoekt. Retrieved jan 16, 2012 from http://www.library.uu.nl/medew/it/eric/zoeken-en-vinden-2011.pdf
Veen, M. J. P., & Westerkamp, K. (2010). Deskresearch. Amsterdam: Pearson Education.
Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Webcursus informatievaardigheden : Algemeen - niveau A. Retrieved jan 16, 2017, from http://libguides.vu.nl/a-algemeen
Used images:
Altmann, Gerd [Geralt].(n.d.) [ keyboard with privacy on it] [Photograph]. Retrieved from: https://pixabay.com/en/keyboard-computer-empty-private-895556/
Alvarez, Guido [ Guido "random" Alvarez]. (2008) Summer fountain children body composition. [Photograph]. Retrieved from: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Summer_fountain_children_body_composition.jpg
alxpin. (n.d.). Helicopter in dusk [photograph]. Retrieved from: http://www.gettyimages.nl/license/157650246
Exel, Martijn van (n.d.) [ I amsterdam sign with people] [Phototgraph]. Retrieved from: https://www.iamsterdam.com/en/see-and-do/things-to-do/top-20-things-to-do-in-amsterdam
Globaloraria. (n.d.) [ Girl with laptop] [Photograph]. Retrieved from https://www.flickr.com/photos/globaloria/8450545513/sizes/m/in/photostream/
Journal of applied Developmental Psychology (2016). [Cover of Journal of Applied Developmental Psychology] [Photograph]. Retrieved from: https://www.elsevier.com/journals/personal/journal-of-applied-developmental-psychology/0193-3973
Mark, David van der. (2016). [I amsterdam sign with girl on it] [Photograph]. Retrieved from: http://flickriver.com/photos/d_vdm/30913048540/
Mark, David van der. (2016) [I amsterdam sign with feet in it] [ Photograph]. Retrieved from: https://www.flickr.com/photos/d_vdm/10928713594/in/photostream/
Management Team (2016) [Cover MT Magazine] [Photograph]. Retrieved from: https://www.mt.nl/
Psychologie Magazine (2017) [Cover Psychologie Magazine maart 2017) [Photograph]. Gekregen van uitgeverij WPG Media.
Wij hebben ons uiterste best gedaan om de rechthebbenden van de door ons gebruikte afbeeldingen te achterhalen. Dat is helaas niet in alle gevallen gelukt. U kunt contact met ons opnemen wanneer wij een foto hebben gebruikt waarvan u de eigenaar bent.
We did our utmost to identify the rightful claimants of the images used by us. Unfortunately, we were unsuccessful in doing so in a number of cases. Please contact us should you be the owner of an image we have used.
Aanvullende informatie over dit lesmateriaal
Van dit lesmateriaal is de volgende aanvullende informatie beschikbaar:
Download handout
