PRESS START
What do you do?
Drink some coffee
Go back to sleep
Look at your computer
You wake up in front of your computer.
What do you do?
Look at your computer
The coffee is cold. You nearly spit it out.
What do you do?
Switch to incognito browser
Use different internet search engine
Look for only .edu websites
As you start searching the internet, you consider how you can limit bias.
You know using an anonymous browser is useful to limit bias, but you cannot remove it entirely.
What do you do?
Find background information
Refine your keywords
Switch to Google Scholar
You find some research sources, but not as many as you expected.
You find some research sources, but not as many as you expected.
You were able to curate some useful keywords to use in your search through the scholarly databases.
What do you do?
Check currency of website
Check authority of website
Check for other biases in website
The first result directs you to a website created by two health experts on your topic.
You start noticing that all the information is directing you to purchase products from the website’s store. You realize that the website was not the first result in your search, but rather an advertised website selected by the internet search engine based on your keywords. You switch to Google Scholar to find more reliable literature.
What do you do?
Pay the fee
Request via Interlibrary Loan
You found a relevant article via Google Scholar, but it's behind a paywall. It costs $32.
You put in the ILL request. Because of your affiliation with the College, you should receive the full text soon. You decide to redirect your search to the scholarly databases.
What do you do?
ERIC
GASP Measures Database
PubMed / MEDLINE
You consider which database would be a best bet to start searching your topic.
What do you do?
Begin your literature review
Evaluate your sources / explore other databases
Getting up from the computer, you make a fresh (and hot) cup of coffee and decide what's next.
You know that PubMed is a popular database when it comes to medical and life sciences literature, and you several articles matching closely to your research topic.
You find a great deal of background information to inform your understanding of and approach to the topic.
While you did not find much in the way of research, you were able to curate some useful keywords to use in your search through the scholarly databases.
You find that Google Scholar offers much more focused results relating to the scholarly literature.