Using the Internet in Research

Rowan E Wagner

Westminster International University in Tashkent

Strategy

• Thinking

• Framing

• Finding

• Selecting

• Using

Thinking – What do you want or need to know?

Think with purpose

• I would spend 55 minutes to understand and formulate the problem, and 5 minutes to come up with ideas/execute the solution.

Framing Make a key

question about what you looking to find before you actually are on the Internet with several key words written down on a piece of paper.

Finding

• Using either your whole question or key words: Search using appropriate search engines or data bases such as:

- Goggle Scholar

- www.webcrawler.com

- EBScoHost

- Emerald

- J-Stor

- or Yahoo and Goggle as a last resort

Selecting 1

• Read briefly the description line and only if it has elements of your question or key words open it.

• Once opened read the abstract or if a wikipedia the overview section.

• The if you believe it fits your research query; download if you can as a pdf and save to either to the computer or flash

Selecting 2

• If you are using a public computer download to the computer if is in pdf and email to yourself or put in Dropbox

• Remember Wikipedi is a start not a final point of research – so review it only to get a clear idea of the concept but remember to continue to look for academic or peer-reviewed research material

Selecting 3

• If you find an article that only has an abstract but the full article requires payment; write down the author’s email or name – and send them a request for a re-print of that work.

Using

• Remember plagiarism kills • Use the right referencing system required

by your university or by the publication you want to publish in.

• There are many good sites available with free material on referencing - just Google it