The following are search and research tips prepared for my students, but available for all.
Level up your Google skills[edit | edit source]
- use quotes for exact matches: "search term"
- use around(2) for words close to each other: search around(2) term
- use - to prevent results: "search term" -semester
- use specific units: kWh
- search a specific domain: search term site:gov
- search a specific site: search term site:lifehacker.com
- search by file type: search term filetype:pdf
- search in a range of numbers: number..number search term
- only find in title: intitle:search term
- see lifehacker and this cheat sheet for more.
- Find in Wikipedia or Appropedia and then follow their references
Journals and Books[edit | edit source]
- The library is your friend.
- If you are at Cal Poly Humboldt, check out their library and the the CCAT library!
- Google Scholar works.
- If you are at Cal Poly Humboldt, check out these discipline based guides - https://libguides.humboldt.edu/.
- Academia.org and Researchgate.net are great resources.
- Also see http://www.doaj.org/ for a directory of open access journals!
- If there is a journal article you can't access due to a paywall, consider sending a nice (and short) request to the authors. They often can and will share it with you directly!