Finding Information Online

When you use a public search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo, the following techniques can help you find the most relevant information.

Use key terms

Like library databases, search engines tend to work best when you enter key terms and phrases for your topic. But unlike in library databases, you don’t need to use “AND” to connect your search terms. For example, if you’re researching tuberculosis and antibiotic resistance, this would be a good Google search to start with:

tuberculosis antibiotic resistance

Use quotation marks to search for phrases

If any of your key terms has multiple words, you can use quotation marks to search for it as an exact phrase. This will narrow your search. For example:

“mycobacterium tuberculosis” antibiotic resistance

Keep it simple

In a search engine like Google, it usually works best to keep your search fairly simple instead of using multiple synonyms for each of your key terms.

Be persistent

If your first search doesn’t work the way you expect, try using different terms. For example, you could try using a more specific term to narrow your search, like streptomycin instead of antibiotics.

Evaluating Online Information

When you search for information in library databases, much of what you find will be peer-reviewed journal articles. Peer review helps ensure the quality of the information published in journals. But when you use a public search engine like Google, you’ll find a wide variety of types of information of varying quality. It’s really important to evaluate what you find before you decide to use it or share it! Watch the following video to learn some techniques for evaluating information you find online.

Here is a summary of the techniques described in the video:

Identify the type of source

Use clues like the publication details to try to figure out what kind of information source you found. For example, does it include volume and issue information like a journal article? Does it appear to be a lab manual, or a blog post?

Identifying the type of source can help you decide whether it might be useful.

Find out about the author

See if you can determine who is responsible for the information; it could be an individual or an organization. If you can’t find an author directly within the page or document, try going to the website’s homepage to see who the publisher is. If you want to learn more about the author or organization, do a Google search for their name. Wikipedia pages can be particularly useful for getting background information.

Identifying the author and learning more about them can help you determine whether you can trust them.

Check the evidence

Verify that any factual information is supported by evidence. Depending on the type of source, there could be formal references or there could be links to other sources. Try clicking on some of them to check whether the information there matches claims being made in the source you’re evaluating.

Completing this step can help you ensure that the sources you use are based on solid evidence.

Other factors to consider

You can also consider whether the source goes into enough detail to be useful for your research, and whether it was published or updated recently enough for your needs.