This document provides guidance on conducting effective online research. It explains that online research involves using internet resources, especially information on the world wide web, to systematically investigate and study materials to establish facts and reach new conclusions. It recommends starting with a focused question and keywords, then using advanced search techniques like Boolean operators and quotation marks to filter results. It also advises evaluating sources based on criteria like authority, affiliation, audience level, currency, and reliability to find the most credible information from sources like scientific journals and established news sites.

2. ONLINE
•DONE OVER THE INTERNET

3. RESEARCH
•THE SYSTEMATIC INVESTIGATION INTO AND STUDY OF
MATERIALS AND SOURCES IN ORDER TO ESTABLISH FACTS
AND REACH NEW CONCLUSIONS.

4. ONLINE RESEARCH
•INTERNET RESEARCH IS THE PRACTICE OF USING
INTERNET INFORMATION, ESPECIALLY FREE
INFORMATION ON THE WORLD WIDE WEB.

6. HAVE A QUESTION IN MIND

7. NARROW IT DOWN
Result
keyword
search
history
location

8. ADVANCE SEARCH
•THIS WILL ALLOW YOU TO FILTER OUT
INFORMATION YOU DO NOT NEED.

10. +
•FIND WEB PAGES THAT CERTAIN ALL THE TERMS
THAT ARE PRECEDED BY THE + SYMBOLS; ALLOWS
YOU TO INCLUDE TERMS THAT ARE USUALLY
IGNORED.

11. “”
•FINDS THE EXACT WORDS IN A
PHRASE

12. (PARENTHESIS)
•FINDS WEB PAGES THAT CONTAIN ALL THE
TERMS OR PHRASE

13. BOOLEAN OPERATORS
•ARE SIMPLE WORDS (AND, OR, & NOT) USED AS
CONJUNCTIONS TO COMBINE OR EXCLUDE KEYWORDS IN
A SEARCH, RESULTING IN MORE FOCUSED AND
PRODUCTIVE RESULTS.

14. AND OR &
•TELL THE DATABASE THAT ALL SEARCH TERMS MUST BE
PRESENT IN THE RESULTING RECORDS
•EXAMPLE: CLONING AND HUMANS AND ETHICS

15. OR OR |
•CONNECT TWO OR MORE SIMILAR CONCEPTS (SYNONYMS)
•BROADEN YOUR RESULTS, TELLING THE DATABASE THAT ANY OF
YOUR SEARCH TERMS CAN BE PRESENT IN THE RESULTING
RECORDS
•EXAMPLE: CLONING OR GENETICS OR REPRODUCTION

16. NOT OR -
•EXCLUDE WORDS FROM YOUR SEARCH
•NARROW YOUR SEARCH, TELLING THE DATABASE TO IGNORE
CONCEPTS THAT MAY BE IMPLIED BY YOUR SEARCH TERMS
•EXAMPLE: CLONING NOT SHEEP

17. LOOK FOR CREDIBLE SOURCE
THE MORE CREDIBLE SOURCE ARE
•SCIENTIFIC JOURNALS
•ESTABLISHED NEWS
•MAGAZINE WEBSITES
•ONLINE ENCYCLOPEDIAS &
•SCHOLARLY DATABASES.

18. GUIDELINES FOR EVALUATING SPECIFIC
RESOURCES
• AUTHORITY
• WHO IS THE AUTHOR?
• AFFILIATION
• IS THE AUTHOR AFFILIATED WITH A REPUTABLE INSTITUTION OR ORGANIZATION?
• AUDIENCE LEVEL
• WHAT AUDIENCE IS THE WEB SITE DESIGNED FORCURRENCY
•CONTENT RELIABILITY/ACCURACY
• IS THE INFORMATION FACTUAL, NOT OPINION?

19. GIVE CREDIT
Name of the person or organization (the author of the information). Title of the home page in italics
(title is shown in title bar but it sometimes missing or unrelated), URL. Date last seen.
Lapiz, Adrian Harold L. “Oleander’s fun facts about bananas.”
http://orleander.penz.com/random/bananalove.htm. Viewed on
September 7, 2015.