Internet Research: Finding and Evaluating Resources

Introduction | Search Techniques | Google Scholar | Evaluation | Other Resources

I. Introduction

The Internet offers a wide range of academic, public, commercial, and personal information resources. Unlike the scholarly resources available through the electronic journals and article indexes and databases to which SFU Library subscribes, however, many of the resources available through the Web are self-published and unverified. As anyone can publish just about anything on the Web, make sure to always carefully evaluate any online information that you find using Google or other Web search tools.

This guide is designed to help you find and evaluate websites and other freely available Internet resources related to the topic that you are researching. For more help, don't hesitate to Ask Us.

II. Search Techniques

Planning Your Search

Before you begin your search, you will likely want to spend some time thinking about your topic and planning your research strategy. To get started, try to think of your topic as a question and then identify your key concepts. For example:

Could a tax on junk foods help to reduce obesity rates in Canada?

For this question, your keywords can be identified as tax, food, obesity, and Canada. If you find that you're not getting many results searching with these terms, try brainstorming for related words (for example, fat, weight, North America) that you can use instead.

Keyword Searching

• When you enter your keywords, most search tools will automatically search for resources in which combinations of all of these words appear. For example:

tax food obesity

This search will find Web resources in which the words tax AND food AND obesity appear. (Note: Unlike online searching in article databases and indexes, Web searching does not generally require you to enter the term AND to combine keywords in this way.)

• To search for resources in which any of your keywords appear, you can generally use the term OR to combine these words. For example:

obese OR overweight

This search will find Web resources in which the words obese OR overweight appear. Combining your keywords in this way is a good method for increasing your number of results.

Phrase Searching

• To search for exact names, quotes, and other phrases, try placing quotation marks around your search terms. For example:

"fat tax"

This search will find Web resources in which the exact phrase "fat tax" appears.

Combined Searching

• You can also search for combinations of keywords and phrases. For example:

"fat tax" Canada

This search will find resources in which the phrase "fat tax" and the word Canada appear.

Other Tips

• Most Web search tools offer Help and/or FAQ features that provide basic and advanced search tips.
• Many tools also feature options to search the Web for resources available in specific formats or genres (such as images, videos, news, maps, etc.). For more information on locating such materials, see the SFU Library's Publication Type Guides.

III. Google Scholar

Google Scholar enables you to search specifically for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports. Many resources found in Google Scholar are available for free online or through SFU's paid subscriptions. Enter Google Scholar from the link above (or through SFU Library's Databases page) and access articles SFU subscribes to by clicking the link "Where can I get this?", after searching for articles.

Use the search techniques above to expand or refine your search. Here are some common operators Google Scholar uses:

• OR: This operator searches for articles which include either of your search terms, e.g.,equine OR horse
• "  ": This operator searches for articles which contain the exact phrase between the quotation marks. e.g., "life as I know it"
•  - This operator excludes articles which contain the search term following the operator, e.g., death -cell

For information on searching by author or publication, restricting the article by date, and other techniques, see Advanced Scholar Tips. 

IV. Evaluation

Once you've found a Web resource related to your topic, evaluating its reliability is the critically important final step. Make sure to ask the basic questions: Who? What? Where? When? and Why?

Who: Authority

• Who is the author (i.e. the individual or organization who created this resource)?
• What kind of academic or professional credentials do they have?

What: Content

• Is the information provided suitable for your topic?
• What kind of facts and opinions are expressed?

Where: Scope

• Who is the intended audience for this resource?
• What does the URL indicate about the scope and/or purpose of this resource (e.g. .com for commercial resources, .ca for Canadian sites, .edu for educational sites, .gov/gc.ca for government sites, etc.)?

When: Currency

• How recently was this resource published or last updated?
• How current are the sources that the author cites?

Why: Objectivity

• Is the information consistent with other scholarly resources related to this topic?
• Is there any evidence that this resource may be biased (for example, information found on a political party or private company website)?
• Are the author's sources clearly cited? Can they be easily verified?

V. Other Resources

For further information about Web research, take a look through some of the other excellent online guides and tutorials listed here:

General Internet Research Guides

• Internet Tutorials (Laura Cohen, University of Albany Library) - Tutorials on search tools, techniques and more.

Web Resource Evaluation Guides

• Critical Evaluation of Resources on the Internet (University of Alberta Libraries)
• The Internet Detective (Intute/UK University Libraries)- a fun, interactive tutorial to help university students detect suspicious online sources.