A simple yet effective Google search tool is the domain search.
Using this search string allows you to cut through the bias of .com websites and go straight to the three most credible web domains:
Want to learn how your librarians evaluate websites? We start with key criteria, outlined by the experts at Issues and Controversies. Then check out the Spectrum of Credibility and Credibility clock Powerpoints to learn more about online resource evaluation.
We can think of other online databases, like Google Scholar, as being useful too! Google has partnered with participating universities and publishers to make research, books, and articles available online.
Your search results are normally sorted by relevance, not by date. To find newer articles, try the following options in the left sidebar:
Abstracts are freely available for most of the articles. Alas, reading the entire article may require a subscription. Here're a few things to try:
If you're affiliated with a university, but don't see links such as "FindIt@Harvard", please check with your local library about the best way to access their online subscriptions. You may need to do search from a computer on campus, or to configure your browser to use a library proxy.
If you're new to the subject, it may be helpful to pick up the terminology from secondary sources. E.g., a Wikipedia article for "overweight" might suggest a Scholar search for "pediatric hyperalimentation".
If the search results are too specific for your needs, check out what they're citing in their "References" sections. Referenced works are often more general in nature.
Similarly, if the search results are too basic for you, click "Cited by" to see newer papers that referenced them. These newer papers will often be more specific.
Explore! There's rarely a single answer to a research question. Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" to see closely related work, or search for author's name and see what else they have written.
The following is pulled from Google Scholar Search Tips.
The following is pulled from Google Search Help. Learn more about advanced searches, like finding images, videos, and more.
On your computer, go to Advanced Book Search: Explore these limiters and search techniques:
Important: Your search must include a search word, title, author, publisher, subject, ISBN, or ISSN.
Outlines basic search techniques and examples.
Describes symbols used for phrase searching, fill-in-the-blank searching, excluding terms, and searching a specific site.
Describes how to narrow and adjust your search results. It also includes the "Verbatim" limiter, which is helpful when Google returns results with unwanted synonyms for your search terms, or when Google does not include all of your search terms in your results.
Start your journey on the homepage (it changes daily!) or search by topic area from the search bar. Subjects include physics, geography, art, music, and natural history. Be warned: you can get stuck here for hours - visit museums, view works of art, take part in interactive experiments, oh my!
Google has more than 10 million free books available to read and download. Search on the title or subject area. Results provide access or information about books including where you can find it in a library! If you are only interested in magazines, search by title or scroll through this link of the magazines available. To view all available issues of a magazine, click on the title of interest and then Browse All Issues on the left sidebar.
A search engine for data. Like other Google options you can use a simple keyword search to discover datasets on the Web.
Search the news from local to international on a variety of news worthy topics.
Search newspapers at this title list. Dates of available editions are shown. Great for seeking out news stories about a historical event!
See what the world is searching for, understand cultural trends and searches by topics and keywords.
