LibGuides: Advanced Search Strategies: Beyond the Search

Reviewing Search Results

Effective searching is usually an iterative process. One approach is to try a fairly simple search, quickly identify the best sources in your results based on those records and then adjust your search to identify similar results. Things to look for are wording, source type, subject headings, database, etc.

In addition to looking for useful things in your search results, identify the things that are decreasing the relevance of your results. Look for an option in the filters to just search the disciplines or subject databases relevant for your topic, use the boolean operator NOT to exclude words that you do not want in your results.

Quickly scanning your search results is an important skill that you can develop and grow. It's also useful in all information research, not just when you're searching library resources. Practice by scrolling through the first page of your search results before you click on any of your results. Look for the best results, identify alternate search terms and look for problems in your search. Think about how you may want to adjust your search to improve your results.

Citation Tracing

Google Scholar
Most Google Scholar entries include a "Cited by" function under the citation information. Click on this link to see sources that have cited the source since publication.
Web of Science
Index to articles in scholarly journals and conference proceedings from all fields of study, plus the ability to search these articles' bibliographies by cited author or work. Links to full text are included where possible.

Finding Known Items

Thoughout your search process you are likely to want to track down the full text of articles that you saw cited in other sources. Here is my recomendation for locating the full text:

Start by searching the article title in Summon. If we have the full text it should be one of your top results. Access the PDF and you're done! No luck? Move on to step 2.
Search Google Scholar for the full text. If you are off campus make sure you are connected to BGSU in the 'library links" settings in Google Scholar. If full text is available through Google Scholar it will be located in a link to the right of the citation. If not, move on to the next step.
Double check library access by using the Journals by Title search. Process is detailed on this guide in the "Using Journals by Title" box. If we have a subscription to the journal that covers the volume and issue needed you should be able to browse to the PDF. If not, proceed to the next and final step!
Prompt an Interlibary Loan request. In Google Scholar you can use the >> icon under the citation to locate the "Library Search" function. That should take you to a screen where you could submit an InterLibrary Loan request. You can also get to this screen through Summon (try adding the "results beyond your collection" filter to locate the citation) or by searching EBSCO. If need be you can also start an ILL request by scratch at https://www.bgsu.edu/library/services/interlibrary-loan.html