Information Strategy

The steps below comprise a commonsense approach that can help you find relevant, quality information–for answering a question, writing a paper, preparing a presentation, working on a lab experiment, etc.

This Information Strategy consists of the following four parts:

*Evaluatequestions to ask; how appropriate, valid, and useful is the information that you have? This is the most important step in any search for information!

Evaluating information/source evaluation (video) — https://youtu.be/-fFx5T5kTh8

*Research Question/Define a topic … what is the question(s) you are trying to answer? Sources here can help you —

  • find topic ideas
  • understand concepts
  • answer fact questions
  • discover search terms, phrases, and names
  • focus a research question

Keyword searching: finding and identifying search terms (video) — https://youtu.be/DDwtGRlPEW8

Remember, true research is rarely a straight path.

*Identify … these sources can help you find evidence to answer your question or validate/invalidate an answer.

Choosing Sources (video) — https://youtu.be/V27SUpScQKc

Science Matrix

Science Matrix overview (video) — https://youtu.be/NbQ-KedRM9c

Science Matrix #2: unpacking primary literature (video) — https://youtu.be/ecwX-jez4lE

*Locate … if the full text is not directly available above, these are the quickest ways to check if you have access to a source —

Google Scholar

PubMed Central

Strategian Science – Full Text Articles

Strategian Science – Full Text Books

Science Primary Literature (external database)

… plus, check local resources.

*And then, evaluate again!

Questions? Please let me know (engelk@grinnell.edu).