Literature searching techniques and free online resources for scholars by Nadeem Sohail

1. Presented by:
Nadeem Sohail
Deputy Manager
Learning Resource Center
University of Management and Technology, Sialkot Campus

2. Information Overflow on Internet

3. Purpose of a Literature Searching
Increasing
Knowledge
Find relevant
information
Explore solutions
of the problems
Review Literature
for analysis
Find full text
Academic
Literature
Explore
Entertaining
Literature

4. How to Handle Information overlord?

5. Searching Techniques?
Searching techniques are the methods use to:
Article Databases
Search Catalogs
Web search engines
to find your required information

6. Searching Methods
Traditional Searching method
Efficient Advance Searching Strategies

7. Traditional Searching Method
Just Google it!"
In this approach you just put your whole title and press
search
Many people start with a few words in the Google search
box and then find themselves scrolling through page after
page of results - that is, if they even go past the first page!

8. Efficient Advance Searching Strategies
it is important to
go "beyond the
Google" and
create a
structured
approach
- A strategy for
searching in
library databases.
In this session we
try to learn how
to:
Effectively use
Google searching
techniques
Successfully locate
relevant citations
and full-text
articles in Google
by using efficient
strategies.

9. Significance of Searching Techniques
The volume of
publication is
increasing.
Your research
topic has
already been
addressed
Research
papers
rejection by
journals
Supervisors
reject study
due to
duplication
keep up with
published
works in your
field
Structured
search
strategy helps
to overlook
similar
publications.

10. Benefits of Searching Techniques
It will prevent
you from
duplicating
Save your time
Essay to access
your
Information
By
synthesizing
information
from pervious
studies you
will be able to
provide a
stronger back
ground,
justification of
your study.
Relevant
studies can
provide
valuable
insights and
tips to make
your own
study better.
You will be
able to find
the gaps and
weaknesses in
the existing
research and
so come up
with useful
and significant
questions.
You will be
familiar with
terminologies
in your field by
using and
finding
appropriate
keywords.

11. Basic Literature Searching Strategies
Use targeted keywords
Break up the topic
Search only main concepts and avoid the adverb words
Define keywords for each concept
Use synonyms and alternative phrases for each keyword
Broader to specific approach
Use Reference Mangers (EndNote, Zotero, Mendeley) to save literature and mange reference

12. Keywords vs. Subject Terms
Keywords Subject Terms
Natural language Controlled vocabulary
Originate by users Assigned by Subject experts
Unfamiliar with technical terminology of subject Knowledgeable in the terminology of a subject
Expands your search Narrows your search
Many keywords represents the same concept More Clear and brief results
Required too many keywords for In-depth search Can include sub-headings for in-depth search
Can appear in several areas of source Typically appear in the subject heading field

13. Literature Searching Sources

14. Educational Search Engines
Google Scholar Google Books Microsoft Academic
WorldWideScience Science.gov Wolfram Alpha
Refseek
Educational Resources
Information Center
ResearchGate
Bielefeld Academic
Search Engine
PubMed Central

15. Need to Understand the Google Indexing

16. Search for an Exact Match
By using quotations marks, you are telling the computer
to only bring back pages with the terms you typed in the
exact order you typed them.
We use Quotation marks “ around phrases:
“pharse”
Example:“health care reforms in Pakistan”
instead of
health AND care AND reforms AND in AND Pakistan

17. health care reforms in Pakistan

19. “health care reforms in Pakistan”

21. When you want to search only the title of a document or website
We use:
To Search each words in title: Intitle:your term
To search all the words: allintitle:your term
Example 1: intitle:health care reforms in Pakistan
Example 1: allintitle:health care reforms in Pakistan
Searching for title

22. Intitle:health care reforms in Pakistan

24. allintitle:healt care reforms in Pakistan 2020

26. Its helpful when we want to search any required information within the
website
We use:
Site (term What we want to search on that site)
Example: umt.edu.pk:corona
Searching Within Websites

27. umt.edu.pk:corona

29. Some time we don’t remember that what we want to
search
We use :
Or
|
To search the both terms at once
Example1: Buy an Android or iPhone
Example 2: Buy a cheap Android | iPhone
Either this or that

30. Buy an Android or iPhone

31. Buy a cheap Android | iPhone

33. Its helpful when we want to search alternative terms
for maximum results at once
We use:
tilde ~ symbol
Example: Healthy ~ food
Searching Synonyms

34. Healthy ~ food

36. – (Negative Symbol): adding ‘-‘ before a word in a query will tell a search
engine to ignore pages that use that word prominently. This can be
especially helpful when you’re trying to find a specific piece of
information, but the word that you’re using has multiple meanings.
We use:
minus sign −
For example, the phrase ‘steel drum’ can refer either to a Michael Scott’s
favorite musical instrument, or to a barrel used to transport liquids.
Example 1: steel drum –barrels
Example 2: LG –tv
Example 3: free ebooks –site:ebay.com
Exclude Words From Your Search

37. steel drum -barrels

39. When you are not sure what will be the correct terms or phrase then put
asterisk * to know
We use:
asterisk * Symbol
Example: election * Imran khan boycott
Power of asterisk *

40. election * Imran khan boycott

42. When you don’t know what terms is inside and you just place first and last
word
We use:
AROUND(3) in center
Example: Our AROUND(3) Bhatti
When lots of Words are Missing

43. Our AROUND(3) Bhatti

45. you want to know some thing in a number range then
We use:
… 3 Dot signs
between the numbers we want to know about
Example: scientific discoveries 2000...2021
Using a Number Range

46. scientific discoveries 2000...2021

48. When you want to know about some other sites related to a specific
topic
We use:
Put "related:" in front of a web address you already know.
Example: related:www.fiverr.com
Searching Similar Websites

49. related:www.fiverr.com

51. When we have some old image but don’t know the name we may
search by inserting image Google will search related image
Google Image: Upload image from your computer
Searching Images using Images

55. Defining Words
Defining Words and Learn Where they Come From
Put Define & : and the search term without space
Example: Define:management

56. define:management

58. You may search your necessary document in your required format as
PPT, PDF, DOC, XLS,
1- Conceptual Pharmacy filetype:ppt
2- Experience Letter filetype:doc
3- Essentials of Pharmacy Management, 2nd filetype:pdf
4- Balance sheet filetype:xls
Search with File Format

60. pakistan health reforms 2019 filetype:ppt

62. Using Google as Spell Check
You may use google searching bar for spell check. When we write
wrong spelling of any word in to google search bar it suggest correct
spelling of a word

63. envirmnment

65. Truncation
Truncation means to chop off.
When you truncate you chop off
the end of the word, so the
computer can search for multiple
endings.
For example, your research
question includes the keyword
education. Or management You
can truncate education, so that the
computer will find all of the word
ending variations.
Educat* will find:
Education
Educate
Educated
Educating
Educator
Educators
Educational
Manage* will find:
Management
Manager
Managerial
Mange
Managements

66. Examples of Truncation

67. Educat* reforms Pakistan

69. Free Online Resources For
Scholars

70. Free E-Books Download Sites
https://b-ok.asia/ https://libgen.is/

71. Free Dissertation/Thesis Search Sites
http://search.ndltd.org/ http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/search.html

72. Download Research Articles of any
Database in World
https://sci-hub.do/ https://booksc.org/

73. Free HEC Databases

74. Free E-contents at Google Scholar

75. Contact For Any Help
Nadeem Sohail
Email: nadeemsohail4u@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +923014236817
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/nadeem.sohail
YouTube Chanel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR7WB_RTOAYs7d02xQp8BiA

77. Hands-on Practice
Session

78. Contact For Any Help
Nadeem Sohail
Email: nadeemsohail4u@gmail.com
WhatsApp: +923014236817
Facebook: https://web.facebook.com/nadeem.sohail
YouTube Chanel: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCR7WB_RTOAYs7d02xQp8BiA