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FNDT Design Core

Search Techniques

The following techniques can be used in most search engines to narrow, broaden or eliminate results. 

Boolean Logic

Boolean logic can be used in search engines to narrow or broaden search results, using the words AND, OR and NOT

  • AND - will narrow results
    • Example: design obsolescence AND environmental impact will only show articles with both phrases
  • OR - will broaden results
    • Example: design obsolescence OR planned obsolescence will show articles with either phrase
  • NOT - will eliminate results
    • Example: design obsolescence NOT health will show articles about design obsolescence in fields other than health

Wildcard

  • The wildcard is represented by a question mark ? or a pound sign #.
  • To use the ? wildcard, enter your search terms and replace each unknown character with a ?. This search finds all citations of that word with the ? replaced by a letter. 
  • For example, type ne?t to find all citations containing neat, nest or next. This search does not find net because the wildcard replaces a single character.  
  • To use the # wildcard, enter your search terms, adding the # in places where an alternate spelling may contain an extra character. This search finds all citations of the word that appear with or without the extra character.
  • For example, type colo#r to find all citations containing color or colour.

Truncation

  • Truncation is represented by an asterisk (*). To use truncation, enter the root of a search term and replace the ending with an *. ​
  • For example, type art* to find the words art, arts, artist, artists.
  • Note: The Truncation symbol (*) may also be used between words to match any word.
  • For example, a midsummer * dream will return results that contain the exact phrase, a midsummer night’s dream.
  • Note: Wildcards and Truncation can not be combined for a term in a search. For example, a search for p#ediatric* would be the same as a search for P*

Quotations

  • Quotations can be used to search phrases
  • Example: planned obsolescence will search for both words anywhere in the field. “Planned obsolescence” will search for the two words together

Subject vs. Keyword Searches

If you don't know the specific title or author of an item, or if you are searching for literature on a topic, you will probably rely on keyword or subject searches.

Keyword Searches

Keyword searches use natural language, similar to Google. Using the keyword search will look for you search terms in multiple fields, including title, author name, abstract or summary, and full-text.

Subject Searches

Subject searches, use controlled language and only return results in which the term being used appears in the subject field. Databases have different interfaces and use different terms, but most will provide these two options for searching.

Citation Searching

What citation searching is good for:

  • Gathering relevant literature quickly
  • Identifying good and appropriate keywords for future searches
  • Using the knowledge and research of the original author, through citation, to save time
  • Mapping out a scholarly conversation in a particular area

Limitations of citation searching:

  • Skews heavily towards scholarly articles and may not capture the full conversation (e.g., it will exclude most sources outside academia).
  • Depends on the citation practices in a discipline
  • Results may be skewed by a small group of people with who only cite themselves or one other
Your search strategy should combine keyword searching and citation searching, especially for cross-disciplinary or interdisciplinary information on related or different topics from the starting article.

Citation Searching in Google Scholar

Starting Citation

Assume you have found an article that is very relevant to your research explorations.

Example:

Li, Pengfei, et al. "Making ai less" thirsty": Uncovering and addressing the secret water footprint of ai models." arXiv preprint arXiv:2304.03271 (2023).

 

Citation Chaining

  1. Enter the title into Google Scholar
  2. Under the correct search result, look for the "Cited by __" link
  3. Click on the "Cited by __" link

Click on the cited by link underneath the article record.

This will show you all indexed articles that cite your starting article.

Next, you can combine with keyword searching.

  1. Check off the box next to "Search within citing articles"
  2. Enter your keyword(s) into the search bar
  3. Hit "Enter"

See all citations by an author

The author may also have written other articles relevant to your research topic(s).

To find these in Google Scholar, you can:

  • Click on an author's name to see a list of articles indexed
  • Search by author by typing author: with no space before the author's name, e.g. author:safiya noble

 

The information in this box is adapted from Brown University's Citation Searching guide.

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