Title. After searching, ask yourself “Do the titles match what I’m looking for?”
Sometimes, a title may not necessarily show all of the relevant information. Sometimes, you could see a list of topics under each source, and clicking on a source may lead you to the page where you can view the abstract, which will give you more in-depth information about the result than what the title could ever portray. Reading the abstracts of sources could be really important.
Truncation
This seems like it could be a useful tool and I believe that I might use it in the future to find sources with the same topic that has related words in the title (for example: truncate vs truncation are related words that start the same way).
Starting simple is often a useful strategy, especially when you have a broad topic or don’t have a specific source in mind. The easiest way to get started in most finding tools is to type a few keywords into the search box. In the following examples we will use the “All Resources” search, but these strategies will work in almost any search tool.
Sometimes, starting to work on researching a broad topic can help you farm ideas for how to narrow your research (if needed). Ideas are harder to get if you do not start to put in much effort.
Some of this information may not be accurate, as it includes inferences based on your activity. For example, Google might infer that a user is attending college due to repeated visits to the NKU website. Users can choose which information is used to personalize their ads or turn off all personalized ads entirely.
I don't know how much this is related, but Youtube (owned by Google) recently introduced a system that would use AI to determine if a user is 18+ or younger, possibly based on their watch history. It would then restrict the accounts of people that it believes to be under 18, and in order to get full access to the site, they would have to do an ID age verification with the website in order to prove that they're 18+. So many people, including me, really dislike this update. Also, almost all of my accounts on YouTube have been flagged for being under 18 (even the ones where I haven't even watched anything for a while). Many people, including me, believe that YouTube only made this update so that they could collect more user information.
Sponsored links are advertisements that often appear at the top of your search results. This means that someone has paid to have their website appear at the top of a specific web search. Depending on the search engine you’re using, it may not always be easy to identify these ads from your real search results. Some are clearly labeled, others are not. Be sure you know the difference between these paid advertisements and more authoritative content. Advertisements are a chief source of revenue for Google and other web search engines, and they are placed prominently in your search results to generate income from advertisers.
I believe that this somewhat compromises the integrity of the search engine, as its business model prioritizes money over showing the best search results.
When you create a free account with a site to get more access, you are providing information about yourself and your online activity. So, while access to a resource may be free, you are still trading something in exchange for this access. Companies collect information about you so they can target ads to your interests based on your activities or sell your information.
I really do not like this model, because it's very creepy when they collect that information and I don't like having to sign over some of my rights to privacy just to access the types of information that should be publicly available. It's a horrible model.
The Open Access movement seeks to remove that barrier, making information freely available while promoting knowledge equality.
This is good, because paywalls seem like they're just enabling more inequality and I believe that it shouldn't be a pay to win system.
Most colleges and universities pay to provide access to this information.
I think that it would be better for society for the access to information to NOT be behind a paywall, especially in cases when the information is reached because of publicly funded research.
Edit: I may have worded this weirdly. I meant to talk about when publicly-funded research is published, and how I believe that that is a case when access to information should definitely not be behind a paywall.
You can keep organized in a variety of ways. There are citation managers like Zotero and EndNote which can help generate citations and attach notes directly to the citation information and sources.
I like using mybib.com.
Wikipedia itself suggests it be used as a starting point and not an end.
I don't use it, but I've heard that Wikipedia pages often have a lot of sources at the bottom that are useful pointers for research.
The process of developing a research question is seldom a linear journey but instead developing a research question often involves multiple rounds of refining based on feedback, findings, and a growing understanding of your topic.
Often, when I get into research, my research questions and focus change a lot. Sometimes, I'd find an abundance or lack of information on certain specific topics and then I'd realize new information and then I would change my main focus of the research.
Or maybe you narrowed your topic too much, and you aren’t able to find enough information for your project. Based on what you learn along the way while searching, you may need to modify your research question or search strategy.
I believe that I've had to adjust my research questions a few times before why researching because of not being able to find enough information after narrowing it a bit much. I cannot think of any specific examples, but I do agree that research questions may need multiple adjustments.
News reports can provide information on an event or perspectives from a given point in time.
While it is very important to get a retrospective report, sometimes, it could be very helpful to receive sources that are from specific points of time in order to see the evolution of ideas at those specific times. Getting information from different times could be very important for analysis.
Information that is appropriate for one research project may not be appropriate or relevant for another. For example, if you need to give a five minute class presentation on the pros or cons of an issue, you probably need a few sources that cover the key aspects of the issue and not every paper that’s ever been written on the topic. If you were writing a lengthy class paper, you would want more comprehensive coverage of your topic.
Yes, the relevance is basically the most important thing when it comes to research. Reasoning and information needs to make sense with what your point is, or else it defeats the whole purpose. People will not as likely take your points very seriously if you just throw around things that are unrelated and try to spin them as proving your point.
When you read the word research, you might think of the quick web searches we all do every day when we need basic information:
Honestly, I kind of think more about libraries when I think of the word "research". I cannot recall ever doing research in a physical library setting with physical books though, but it's still what I think about.
Despite their rapid improvement, content generated by AI is considered untrustworthy and should not be used as a source for information.
I've heard of public figures in the past few years who have been posting AI slop videos online and passing them as "the truth". It is easy for many of us to tell whether something is AI much of the time, but then other people seriously struggle with realizing that something is AI, especially if the AI slop that they're shown just "confirms" their previously held beliefs. AI's unchecked advancement has and will continue to lead to many negative outcomes, including the confusion of information and the increased spread of disinformation / misinformation.
To check if an author is an authority on their topic, search for them on Google or Wikipedia to determine whether they have a degree or job related to the topic they are writing about.
This is very important. I usually research authors and websites on the internet to collect more information on them in order to make a judgement on whether or not they seem trustworthy or relevant on the topic.
Stop is also a reminder to stay on task. It is easy to get lost exploring interesting tangents while researching. As soon as you find yourself getting distracted, stop and remember your original goal. For a paper or project, this means focusing on your research question and sources that are directly related to it.
It is sometimes very hard for me to stay on task. Being able to control this is very important, however, very difficult.
For example, you may have a preconceived notion of what you think the research should show, but this may not be what the research actually shows.
It is very important for the research process for people to have the capacity to challenge their previously held ideas and beliefs. People often disregard sources and information if it doesn't confirm their biases, which is not good.
Does it meet the requirements for your assignment? Does it address your research question directly? Does it add something new to your project beyond what your other sources already state?
I think that these are very important, because people may occasionally use unrelated evidence to support their claim, and it doesn't help their argument in any way. It is important to use relevant sources, because your research makes no sense without them.
“Bullshit involves language, statistical figures, data graphics, and other forms of presentation intended to persuade by impressing and overwhelming a reader or listener, with a blatant disregard for truth and logical coherence.” [1]
This reminds me about how, in the past, I've learned about how sometimes, people fall for disinformation just because of the "professional" looking graphics or charts, even though those can be misleading or completely false as well.
Information literacy is a life skill that will help you apply critical thinking and reflection to locate, evaluate, and use quality information.
It's always good to have information literacy, because information is EVERYWHERE, and it is very important to know how to analyze and/or use it. It's also good to not fall for everything that you see and/or hear.
Find ways to reduce distractions. Some things that can help include muting phone notifications, using time management apps, and finding quiet places to study.
I have a big problem with doomscrolling on my phone, even when I have a lot of assignments due. I've been able to get a lot more productive on some days by putting my phone on the opposite end of the room that I am in, in order to resist using it when I'm not supposed to. Putting it out of reach is a much better practice than leaving it near me, because I'm so bad at defeating my temptations to use it whenever it's near me at home.
Time management is frequently a problem for most individuals at one point or another. For students, feeling overwhelmed with college studies, illness, and/or personal issues are all common factors that may lead to missing deadlines.
I relate so much to this, as I've been very overwhelmed with other classes in the past few weeks, which is why I'm doing this assignment on the last night possible, three weeks after it was due.
The Institute for Student Research and Creative Activity (ISRCA) coordinates research, scholarship & creative activity opportunities for students. The institute facilitates programming to support faculty-student collaborative scholarly work and funds students’ research opportunities.
I'm not sure whether I've heard of this before. If I have, then I just didn't pay as much attention or I just forgot. Anyways, it is nice to read about this. It sounds like a cool program / resource.
Turn the cards over for a set of questions that will help you apply these concepts.
The first card did bring up a good question: "is this information authoritative or was it just easy to find". This is a good question, because many people prefer to use sources that are easier to find, however, they may not necessarily be as good as other sources. Sources being boosted by the algorithm are not necessarily better.
Outside of class, you consume and create content for social media, seek answers to questions, and read about issues that impact you directly.
This is a good way to connect this topic to the real world. Basically, information is everywhere, and there is always a need to collect and analyze it.