Research skills

When you are set an assignment or developing your dissertation question, make sure you fully understand what you are being asked to do or what you are aiming to achieve. This will help you choose the right research approach and tools.

If you are unsure, try the following:

• Break the question into smaller parts
• Identify and remove instruction and process words such as 'analyse', 'compare', 'impact of', etc.
• Highlight the key topics and concepts
• Rephrase the question in your own words and think of related terms or synonyms.

If you are writing a dissertation, take the following into consideration before finalising your question:

• Writing well requires a lot of reading, so make sure you find plenty of high-quality research material on your topic that you can read before you start writing
• Do not select a topic just because you like it or have a particular affiliation to it
• Always carry out a preliminary investigation on the topic you have in mind before taking it to your supervisor, so you can avoid having to change it later if necessary
• If you cannot find much written about your initial topic idea, discard it and select something different.

If you are completing a systematic review for your dissertation, make sure you know how to differentiate between an original research article you can use and a systematic review article you cannot use.

Once you have mastered the basics of searching, advanced search strategies can help you find more focused, relevant academic sources in less time. These techniques allow you to control how databases interpret your keywords and narrow results by date, subject, or resource type. Learning to use these tools effectively will help you search with confidence, reduce irrelevant results, and uncover high-quality research for your assignments.

• Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) – in any system with an advanced search facility, you will find Boolean operators. These help you combine your keywords and limit, expand, or specify your search.

• Wildcards (*, ?, "") – wildcards such as asterisk (to find variations of a word), question mark (to find variant spellings of a word), and quotation marks (to find multiple words and phrases) also help you to carry out advanced searches.

• Filters/limits – once you identify your keywords, you can use search filters to limit your search (for example, to title or subject). Once you carry out your search, you can then refine your results further by using other filters, such as material type, language, or date.

Do not expect to find everything in a single search – keep revising your search strategy until you find sufficient material to help you with your work.

If you are also using the internet for your research, you will need to evaluate the information before using it in your work as you are required to use high-quality, trusted sources. Here are some considerations:

• Authority – who is the author of the website? Are they qualified? Who are they employed by?
• Objectivity – what is the purpose of the website? Is there any bias? Is there marketing material on the page?
• Timeliness – when was the website last updated? Is it regularly maintained? Are there any broken links?
• Supporting evidence – what evidence is there to support the author's ideas? Are there accurate references? Are there links to other sources? Is there any data or statistics?
• Relevance – what is the level of information? Is there emphasis on the topic? Is it related to what you are looking for?
• Domain names – what is the web address extension (for example, commercial (.co/.com), non-commercial (.org), academic (.ac/.edu), governmental (.gov))?

Visit our Subject specific resources section to explore high-quality sources from the internet for your own subject area.

You might want to use other academic institutions' resources for your research to show that you are able to find high-quality information using your investigative skills.

These may include SCONUL, Electronic Theses Online Services (EThOS), Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ), Directory of Open Access Books (DOAB), and Directory of Open Access Repositories (OpenDOAR). Visit our External and Open Access resources section to find out more information.

Research and referencing assistants can help you effectively organise and reference your research data. Some of these include Zotero, Mendeley, and EndNote. Find out more about them by visiting our Referencing skills section.