EECS coursework thesis

Plan a strategy before you commence searching.

Develop a robust search strategy to help reduce irrelevant results.

As your searching progresses you will refine your search.

5 steps for searching effectively

1.    Create a focused, clearly defined topic (and sub topics if necessary)
2.    Identify key words and phrases within your topic/s
3.    Think of alternative terms including synonyms and spelling differences 
4.    For more complex searches you can link all the terms using Boolean operators such as AND & OR 
5.    Run the search in UQ Library Search, or an appropriate database and evaluate the results.

Too many results?

• Limit your search by adding more keywords linked by AND se more specific keywords, or search specific fields (e.g. keywords in title)
• Use quotation marks to keep terms together as a phrase: “natural language processing”
• Limit your search by year, article type, peer-reviewed, language

Too few relevant results?

• Include more alternative keywords linked by OR
• Look at the subject terms for a relevant item and the links to similar resources
• Use the asterisk symbol to truncate a word to retrieve all possible terms: network* = network, networks, networking

Explanation of Creating a database search strategy (YouTube, 6m29s)

“data visualization” 

Add another term/s to make your search more specific: "data visualization" platforms AND "interactive data exploration"

Add synonyms to ensure you find all relevant results: "data visualization" platforms AND ("interactive data exploration" OR IDE)

OR use the asterisk symbol:

data visuali* platforms AND ("interactive data exploration" OR IDE)

Note: Use parentheses around search terms so the terms are searched for in a logical way (similar to solving a maths problem).

Explanation of peer reviewed articles and journals (YouTube, 1m51s)

For help with planning your search you can consult the Library guides or speak to the Librarian team.