Developing good research skills will allow you to find information and use it effectively. This section contains some hints and tips on finding and using information.
More detailed information about finding information and searching techniques can be found on the Research Skills page.
For further assistance use our Ask a Librarian service or email libraries@nptcgroup.ac.uk to book a session with a Library Advisor.
This will save time and effort in the long run. Spend time clarifying your task and developing your search strategy before attempting any research or writing.
Be clear about what you want to find out. Break down your title and pick out concepts to use as keywords in your search
When starting your research it is useful to use subject encyclopaedias and dictionaries to help you get a basic understanding for your topic. This background reading will give you ideas for concepts and keywords. Consider other possible words or phrases that might be used to describe your subject and produce a list of keywords. This may include synonyms and related terms, American terms or spellings, plurals, acronyms and abbreviation.
Place an asterisk at the end of the word stem * e.g.
Not all databases use an asterisk* as the truncation symbol. Use the database help section to check which symbol to use.
Replace a letter with a question mark e.g.
Not all databases use a question mark ? as the wildcard symbol. Use the database help section to check which symbol to use.
Enclose your phrase in quotation marks:
e.g. "financial impact"
Your results will be more specific and relevant to your search.
The Advanced search page is an easier way for you to use all the advanced search techniques we looked at earlier, without having to remember any of them!
You will get a better set of results if you connect your keywords using Boolean operators. We use them to focus a search, particularly when the topic contains several search terms. They:
Remember to capitalise your Boolean operators because most search engines will ignore common (stop) words, such as ‘and’, ‘or’.Linking words using AND tells the search engine to look for results that contain both.
The darker area represents the information that you want, with both the word puppy and the word kitten in them.
Linking words using OR tells the search engine to look for results that contain either of the keywords
Your search will return results containing either or both words
Linking words using NOT tells the search engine to look for results that contain one of your keywords but not the other.
Google uses the minus sign for NOT
This subject guide brings together resources specific to your subject. For more resources, explore our Online Library, a collection of resources giving you access to up-to-date online articles, e-books and other e-resources.