Would a meta-analysis relating to the issue be relevant? Perhaps there is a recent empirical or review paper, or a paper which details a different perspective on the issue? This can be especially valuable if the topic of your essay has a well-trodden debate (the nature–nurture debate being the most obvious example of this).
This active–engagement approach is so different from the 20 or so Google searches we might do each day, which can be unthinking, almost automatic responses, like scratching, simply performed to relieve the inconvenient sense of not knowing. Here we are being strategic: we are thinking and planning before searching. Doing it this way means that we approach sources proactively, strategically – that is, with a sense of how we might use them. Yes, they will suggest modifications to our plans, they will offer something that differs from what we expected, but we have approached them as mind meets mind – not mind meets photocopier. Adopting this proactive engagement approach is a massive step towards making whatever we find our own.
Finding relevant sources
We all probably develop a default preference for one or two databases. Like our preferred smartphone, we get used to the way it feels, how it works and we feel we are somehow in tune with it. However, this approach could be limiting us far more than we realise. If we visit the same café, order the same snack, drink the same drink, we are at least dimly aware of the alternatives – with databases we tend to almost forget that other options exist.
There are a couple of snags with giving advice of this nature to readers who are associated with different institutions. For one, my ESP is really rather limited, so I don’t know the provision at your university. The only compensation here is that you do, or at least you can do. The second is that even if I did have such incredible knowledge, I couldn’t keep up with your institution’s changing subscriptions, and if I did, this book would be so long and boring that it might become a major intervention for most forms of insomnia. Given these limitations, you need to become familiar with your institution’s online and hard-copy resources, and make use of your information professionals’ expertise in terms of identifying relevant information and accessing it. Here I will sketch out some key databases, but it is not a complete list (see also Table 2.4). The bespoke information concerning your specific institution will vary and it is really worth investing 45 or even 60 minutes of your life to find out about it. In the meantime, investing just a few minutes right here, right now could help you to avoid simply defaulting to whatever you are most familiar with.
Some recurring terms
Abstracts
Often your search will yield results that include abstracts of publications. These are typically summaries of around 200–300 words which provide the main details of the articles, chapters or books that you have come across to a search. Abstracts are super-helpful in working out how relevant the source might be to your essay, but beware of being sucked into paying for articles unless this has been highlighted as an expectation of your course. Your institution may well have free access to the source and, if not, the source may not be as relevant as it seems. Try to avoid staying with the abstract alone – an abstract provides insufficient information for all but the most passing citation within the body of your essay. An essay populated with information from abstracts will look a little vague and superficial. Usually if an article is worth citing, it is worth reading.
Abstracting and indexing databases
You will notice that some of these databases are primarily for identifying the articles that you want. These will typically provide full citation details (that is, all of the information identifying the article – author, title of article, book, journal or conference proceedings details, etc.) and will often include an abstract, if available. You may – partly depending on your institution’s subscription arrangements – be able to access the full text. While abstracting and indexing databases can lead to a two-stage article access process, they mainly help you to identify relevant material rather than necessarily to access it. They often utilise sophisticated and flexible search parameters, giving you a lot of freedom in terms of how you search. Abstracting and indexing databases often draw on a wider pool of journals and may be less limited to particular publishers or organisations than full-text databases.
Full-text databases
Some of the databases do include full-text access, offering you the opportunity not only to identify relevant articles but to access the full text (rather than just an abstract) of them as well. It is worth noting that full-text databases, while convenient, may draw on a narrower range of sources, and in some cases relying on just one full-text database could mean that important perspectives are underrepresented.
Peer-reviewed sources
This is often used as a benchmark of academic quality. When a journal states that it is ‘peer reviewed’, it refers to the fact that the articles which it publishes go through a process in which fellow experts (peers) read and review submissions to ensure the quality of all articles that are selected for publication in the journal. The databases listed in Table 2.4 focus on peer-reviewed journals, although more generic platforms, such as Google Scholar, will often include both peer-reviewed and non-peer-reviewed sources. With academic books, the review system is more varied and it can make sense initially to use texts which are recommended, or which are published by reputable publishers. These will be the sorts of publishers which typically pop up in your reading lists and which populate the reference lists of other publications.
Ace your assignment Search terms and search parameters
The importance of indexes in academic texts was mentioned earlier (see ‘i is for index’ above), but it is really important to use search terms and search parameters wisely to both identify your articles and to search within them. ‘Search terms’ include all of the specifying words that you use to locate relevant articles, while ‘search parameters’ act as a filter, specifying, for example, the date, name or type of publication from which you want your results to be drawn. Practise using different search terms and search parameters not just when an assignment is due – perhaps choose a topic that especially interests you, or one that you know well. Honing this skill will really help when it comes to the task of locating items for your assignments.
Table 2.4
Searching effectively
Let’s assume that Sophie and Olivia have to tackle the following essay title:
‘Critically evaluate the Elaboration Likelihood Model of persuasion.’
Search strategy one: Hope for the best
Sophie sees straight away that the topic concerns persuasion. She gets onto Google Scholar and in 0.03 seconds 904,000 results are identified. Towards the top of the search are some of the most important and highly cited papers, including Hovland et al.’s research into attitudes and one of Petty and Cacioppo’s influential papers outlining the Elaboration Likelihood model (Hovland, Janis & Kelley, 1953; Petty & Cacioppo, 1986). There are then disparate papers covering diverse topics, such as persuasion and healing and coercive persuasion. Sophie wasn’t expecting to cover coercive persuasion or persuasion
