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Internet searching

Searching

Google Scholar

Search Google Scholar from the library homepage and get direct access to full text journal articles from the library.

To do this off campus, you must set up your preferences:

  1. Go to Google Scholar
  2. Select Scholar Preferences
  3. In Library Links, enter Swinburne
  4. Select Swinburne University of Technology - Full Text?
  5. Save Preferences
  6. Search results will now display a Full Text? link

Search tips

A search engine works by matching the words you enter to pages on the web. So using words that are most likely to appear on pages will yield the best results. Here are a few tips to improve your search results:

  • Start simple
    Simple, one or two word search terms will usually give you the broadest results. Start with short search terms, then refine your results by adding more words.
  • Use descriptive words
    The more unique the word, the more likely you are to get relevant results.
  • Exclude certain words
    You can also use the minus − sign to specify particular items you don't want in your results.
  • Search for an exact phrase
    Put quotation marks around words "any word" to search for an exact phrase in an exact order. Keep in mind that searching with quotes might exclude relevant results.
  • Find related pages
    Use the related: operator to find pages that have similar content by typing related: followed by the website address.
  • Search similar terms
    Get results that include synonyms by placing the ∼ sign immediately in front of your search term.

 

Evaluating

Anyone can publish on the internet. Information on the web may be poor quality, misleading or biased. At university level you need to use good quality information and to do that you need to evaluate the information you find. Use this checklist to evaluate the information you find online:

Checklist
tick Audience Is the site aimed at school children or university level?
tick Reliability Is the author identified? Do they have relevant qualifications? Can you identify an institution or organisation? Look at the URL (web address) for information: is the page hosted by an educational institution or government department? Is it a commercial site, or a personal web page?
tick Currency Has the article been dated? When has it last updated? Does it cover recent news?
tick Accuracy Can you check the information? Sites that quote statistics should have a bibliography. What kind of references have been used? Are all aspects of the subject covered? Does the text use graphs, images and photographs where appropriate?
tick Objectivity Does the material cover all viewpoints? Are they trying to sell a product or idea? Is the information biased, controversial or misleading? Extreme or emotional language is a warning sign.

 

Referencing

Always check with your teacher first to find out which referencing style you should use.

Referencing help

Go to Referencing for Harvard and APA style guides and more.

Swinburne Harvard Style

See the Harvard Quick Guide (PDF) for examples of referencing online sources.