Searching for Information

Scirus

Scirus is a database for anything science related.  It searches web content as well as journal articles.

www.scirus.com

Science Databases to search

"NSDL is the nation's online portal for education and research on learning in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics."

Search from reliable sources here

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Science.gov

Searching for information

When you begin a search there are many things you need to take into consideration.  First thing is to think of the keywords you want to search with.  Identifying keywords and synonyms of those words will allow you to find the information you are looking for more quickly. 

 

If you have a phrase that you are searching you should be searching for those terms using AND to connect the terms.  This is a Boolean search strategy. 

 

If you want to get all forms/tenses of a word, you should truncate your search by using * at the end of the word.  For instance, if I am looking up “biology” but I also want it to find “biological,” etc. I would type “biolog*” in for my search. (Note that some databases and search engines use a “?” in place of the “*” to complete this type of search.)

 

After you know the keywords you need to decide where to look for information.  For example, on this page to the left are lists of specific search engines and databases that are specific to the sciences.  The list to the middle and right are more general search engines.  If I’m interested in finding information published in journals or that I know have been reviewed and approved by those in science fields I would search the sources on the left.  If I just want some general information to see where that takes me I would conduct my search in the other search engines to begin with.


Don’t forget that most search engines and databases offer an “Advanced Search” link.  This will help you get more specific results in your search.

Google is not the only great search engine out there! Try these out:

Carrot 2 Search Engine

WebClust.com - clusters your search results into meaningful groups

World Cat Search

Use this to search for books and find out where they are available in your area.

Search for an item in libraries near you:
WorldCat.org >>

Sweet Search

Google Scholar

Google Scholar Search

Poll

Try out a variety of search engines on this page.  What search engine did you find most helpful?

Poll
Carrot 2: 0 votes (0%)
WebClust: 0 votes (0%)
Internet Public Library: 0 votes (0%)
Dogpile: 0 votes (0%)
Sweet Search: 0 votes (0%)
Google Scholar: 0 votes (0%)
Scirus: 0 votes (0%)
NSDL: 0 votes (0%)
Science.gov: 0 votes (0%)
Total Votes: 0