General Searching Techniques
When using scholarly databases, you should apply the following general search techniques for locating relevant and high-quality academic literature.
Use Keywords Effectively
Identify Key Terms: Start by identifying key terms relevant to your research topic. Consider alternative terms or synonyms.
Truncate Keywords: Use an asterisk (*) to truncate words to search for all variations (e.g., comput* will search for computer, computation, etc.). Other symbols are also used and information about what symbol is used can be found in the help text of the respective database.
Boolean Operators (AND, OR, NOT)
AND: Narrows the search by including all specified terms (e.g., artificial intelligence AND machine learning retrieves documents with both terms).
OR: Broadens the search by including either term (e.g., AI OR artificial intelligence retrieves documents with either term).
NOT: Excludes specific terms from your search (e.g., machine learning NOT neural networks).
Use Phrase Searching
Enclose a phrase in quotation marks to search for the exact phrase (e.g., “deep learning algorithms”).
Limit by Date: Many databases allow you to limit your search to articles published within a specific date range, helping you focus on the most recent research.
Filter by Document Type: Narrow your search by limiting it to specific types of documents, such as peer-reviewed articles, conference papers, theses, or reviews.
Use Wildcards: Use wildcard symbols like the question mark (?) to replace one character in a word. This helps find variations in spelling (e.g., “wom?n” will find both “woman” and “women”).
Subject-Specific Databases
Use databases specific to your field of study for more targeted results (e.g., PubMed for biomedical sciences, IEEE Xplore for engineering, and ACM Digital Library for computer science).
Use Citations for Further Research
Once you find a relevant article, explore its references to discover more related studies. Tools like Google Scholar provide a “Cited By” feature that lists all papers citing the article you’re viewing.
Advanced Search: Use the advanced search options available in many databases to combine various search terms, filter by authors, journals, and other criteria.
Free On-line Dictionary of Computing: A comprehensive dictionary focused on computer science, software engineering, hardware, and networking terms.
TechTerms: A technology-focused dictionary that explains common and technical terms in computer science, web development, and IT.
Computer Desktop Encyclopedia: Provides detailed definitions for thousands of terms in computing, from software development to networking.
Offers open-access articles from the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) publications focused exclusively on computing.
Provides access to some open-access articles in electrical engineering, computer science, and electronics.
Provides researchers in computing and IT with open access to books and journal articles.
MDPI (Multidisciplinary Digital Publishing Institute) – (https://www.mdpi.com/Semantic Scholar)
Publishes open-access journals across various fields, including computing and IT.
A repository of electronic preprints (known as e-prints) approved for publication after moderation. arXiv.org hosts more than two million scholarly articles in eight subject areas: physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
An online directory that indexes and provides access to high-quality, open-access, peer-reviewed journals covering all subject areas.
Publishes journals across various academic fields including Computing. You can access research articles indexed in Wiley
Semantic Scholar is a free and AI-powered scientific literature search tool that has indexed over 200 million academic papers in all fields, including computing.
Provides access to a wide range of scholarly articles, including open-access ones published in all fields of studies.
A research and publishing network offering open-access content.
A professional network for scientists and researchers to share papers and results.
Publishes open-access journals in various disciplines, including biomedical sciences.
Aggregates open-access research outputs from repositories and journals.
Open-access repository for research outputs from all fields.
Publishes peer-reviewed, open-access journals across various disciplines.
Offers access to peer-reviewed journals and papers in science and engineering, including many open-access papers in computer science.
Open Bibliography
