Locating information on the internet is an important step for any researcher seeking to carry out any particular form of study. It is imperative that such individuals take into account the need for having refined information search techniques to facilitative the easy achievement of this objective (Card, 2015). Narrowing and broadening of researches are crucial steps towards achieving this objective.
The commonest methodologies used in the limiting and broadening of searches on databases mainly depend on limiter terms like scholarly journals and peer review. Focusing mainly on the limit strategies to be used on peer reviewed journals, it is essential to understand that these types of studies have undergone a thorough review process from experts in a particular area of interest. Therefore, in seeing to it that the search for these articles is either limited or broadened, the use of synonyms, keywords, language and the year of publication will play an significant role in achieving this objective (EBSCO Support, 2014). Additionally, the use of more specific terms or broader terms can be effective techniques that can be applied to either narrow or broaden a particular search. The benefit associated with employing specific or broader terms in the search refinement process is that they assist in sorting through the research to locate the most relevant information out of the many available options (Büttcher et al., 2016). The disadvantage of this technique, however, is that it may compromise the location of the most important information required in the research process.
The second technique used in either broadening or limiting information search on the internet is through the use of connectors. Connectors refer to the terms which can be used together with the main phrases in a search process to refine the study process. The common connectors used are referred to as the Boolean connectors which are ‘and’ and ‘or’ (Büttcher et al., 2016). The ‘and’ connector is useful in reducing the number of records in a particular search by only listing the first or second terms only. On the other hand, connector ‘or’ assists in increasing the number of results. This is usually so since the search interface lists results which have got either the first or second words in the search catalog. The advantage of using connectors is that they not only help in locating more information but also shows how a particular database has been arranged. The demerit is that it may lock out the critical information required for a particular study.
References
Büttcher, S., Clarke, C. L., & Cormack, G. V. (2016). Information retrieval: Implementing and evaluating search engines. Mit Press.
Card, N. A. (2015). Applied meta-analysis for social science research. Guilford Publications.
EBSCO Support. (2014). EBSCO Support: Using Limiters to Refine Your Search. Retrieved from http://support.ebsco.com/knowledge_base/detail.php?id=7042
