2. Department
At the end of this session you should be able to:
develop a search strategy to research your dissertation topic
use a range of search techniques to narrow and broaden your
searches
identify and use a range of databases and resources
manage your references using RefWorks
know where to go to get help/personalised training on finding
information
2
3. Department
Search strategy 101
3
What is your research question?
What information do you need to answer that question?
Where will you find that information?
Chess by Romain Guy CC BY NC SA. Flickr.
4. Department
Thinking about keywords
Think about the ways in which the words you are searching for might
be interpreted.
4
Search engines and databases organise information using a controlled
vocabulary e.g. assigning certain words to certain concepts.
5. Department
How to identify keywords
5
synonyms - these are different words with the same meaning
acronyms - this is where your keywords can be condensed
into a set of capital letters
alternative spellings - remember to try UK and US spellings
alternative and related terms
broader and narrower terms
6. Department
Discuss the role played by women in Japanese theatre, with
reference to a particular adaptation.
6
What are the main concepts?
Role, women, Japanese theatre – specific title/production
Are there any synonyms/alternative terms I could use?
Concept One ConceptTwo ConceptThree Concept Four
Role Women/woman Japan Specific
production/play
Part Actress/performer/
playwright
Japanese Specific playwright
Function Character/type drama
purpose Specific forms of
theatre e.g. Noh,
Kyogen, Kabuki
7. Department
How to find good information
7
So you know the topic you’re searching for…
1. What are the main concepts or keywords for your topic?
2. Are there are alternative terms for these concept?
3. How might you combine these keywords to search effectively?
Lego bicycle by Do-Hyun Kim CC BY-ND. Flickr.
10. Department
Constructing a search strategy
AND - narrows your search by combining words.The results found must contain all the
words which you have joined by usingAND. e.g. women AND film
OR - broadens your search to include resources which contain any or all of the terms
connected by OR. e.g. film OR movie
NOT - narrows your search by excluding a term. e.g. Ireland NOT Great Britain
Use “quotation marks” to search for a phrase e.g. “gone with the wind”
Use * to search for variations on words using the stem
e.g. procrastin* searches for procrastination, procrastinating…
Use ? to search for variations on words
e.g. wom?n searches for woman, women
Use brackets ( ) to link terms
e.g. (women OR gender) AND (film OR movie)
10
11. Department
Discuss the role played by women in Japanese theatre, with
reference to a particular adaptation.
11
What are the main concepts?
Role, women, Japanese theatre – specific title/production
Are there any synonyms/alternative terms I could use?
Role, purpose, woman, women, japan, japanese, etc.
How can these terms be combined?
Role AND wom?n AND (Japan OR Japanese) AND “specific production”
12. Department
Where to find good information?
12
LibrarySearch
Drama Subject Guide
Nexis UK newspaper database
Reports and official publications
Blogs, websites,Twitter…
Other libraries, archives
Original research
Map Cake by Shawn Allen CC BY. Flickr.
14. Department
What does RefWorks do?
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Capture and save references generated form online databases
Automatically generate a bibliography in your document
Access a range of citation styles
Insert citations directly into your research (i.e. word document)
2.2 Locating RefWorks
Here is how to access RefWorks from the Library home page. N.B. on the public PCs, use the Firefox browser, which runs RefWorks more reliably than Internet Explorer.
Go to the Library home page: http://www.rhul.ac.uk/library/home.aspx
Click on the Subject Guides link on the left hand menu
Click on the E-Resources A-Z tab
Click on R and then click on Refworks
2.3 Creating your personal account
You will need to create a personal account in order to set up your own database in RefWorks.
From the RefWorks login page: click on ‘Sign up for a new account’
Enter your email address
Retype your email address
Choose and enter a login name and password. NB – you cannot use just your first name, as nearly all names have already been used.
Retype the password
Click on “Next”
This time you do enter your real name
Answer a couple of easy questions
Enter the security code displayed, and click ‘Create account’.