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Research tips

Research tips

Read your question or briefing carefully and identify key terms or concepts. Think of synonyms or similar words that may be used to describe the same thing. Now consider what type of evidence, information or research you are looking for. This might suggest other terms to add to your search, and where to search.

This approach is more effective than pasting the assessment question into a search box.

Complex searches

In Library Search, both Simple and Advanced searches support Boolean operators, wildcards and parentheses when you want to be very specific. This is the case with many other databases too.

Operators & special characters Action in Library Search See the results
AND includes a word or phrase shakespeare AND tragedies
NOT excludes a word or phrase digits NOT fingers
OR includes alternatives or synonyms diversity OR inclusion
() group search terms

(diversity OR inclusion) NOT biodiversity

(poetry OR sonnet) AND Shakespeare
? single character wildcard finds variation in spelling. For example, to include results containing woman or women forem?n
* multiple character wildcard finds variations in spelling where more than one character varies. For example, to include results containing culture or cultural or culturally cultur*
"" retrieves the words between the quotation marks as an exact phrase. The words are adjacent and in the same order. Do not use a wildcard in a phrase. Use for a more specific set of results. "Mexican walking fish"
& treats this as if you had entered AND. A search for obstetrics & gynecology will retrieve titles such as "Obstetrics and gynecology" "anatomy & physiology"
$, @, etc characters are automatically removed from exact title searches  

If you use multiple operators (AND, OR, NOT), they are treated with left-to-right precedence unless you also use brackets to group search terms.

An appointment with a faculty librarian can help you develop your complex searching skills.

Refine

In academic search engines like Library Search, ProQuest or EBSCO you can refine your results by options such as:

  • Content type or format, e.g. books, peer-reviewed journal articles or newspaper articles
  • Date range
  • Topic/subject

Cite

It is important to acknowledge the work of others in your assignments or research. You do this by citing (or referencing).

Citing shows the reader the quality of resources you used to build and support your arguments. It provides a way for the reader to locate the resources you referred to. Citing also clearly shows the reader how and where you’ve drawn on other people’s words, ideas and research. Clearly citing your resources helps avoid plagiarism.

There are tools to help you cite a resource. In academic databases like Library Search, ProQuest or Google Scholar, look for the quotation marks in the resource's record to generate an automatic citation or reference in a style such as APA. Generally the more academic or scholarly your resource is, the easier it will be to cite.

Reference management software such as RefWorks or Mendeley is recommended to help with your citations, especially when you have a longer list of citations.

The Library produces guides on each of styles used at Bond University. These guides cover:

  • in-text citations and quotations
  • how to cite different types of resources in your reference list or bibliography
  • how to format your reference list or bibliography.

Keep

Librarians recommend that you keep details of good resources somewhere so that you can refer to them again in future. Take a look at this guide page for tips on choosing a reference management tool such as Mendeley or RefWorks, pinning or saving records or searches and setting up alerts for new content

Film, screen and creative media