Use of Internet for
Research
Yogendra Singh
yogi@iitr.ernet.in
Internet is an excellent
tool for1. Conducting Literature Survey
2. Data Collection
3. Finding Data Analysis Tools
4. Technical Writing Guide
5. Disseminate Your Work
Literature Survey
The Internet provides
- access to a wealth of information on countless
topics contributed by people throughout the
world.
- a user has access to a wide variety of
services: vast information sources, electronic
mail, file transfer, interest group membership,
interactive collaboration, multimedia displays,
and more.
Literature Survey
- The Internet is not a library in which all its
available items are identified and can be
retrieved by a single catalog.
- In fact, no one knows how many individual files
reside on the Internet.
- The number runs into a few billion and is
growing at a rapid pace.
Literature Survey
•The Internet is
–a self-publishing medium
–anyone with little or no technical skills
and access to a host computer can
publish on the Internet.
– Internet sites change over time
according to the commitment and
inclination of the creator.
Literature Survey
– Some sites demonstrate an expert's
knowledge, while others are amateur
efforts.
–Some may be updated daily, while others
may be outdated.
–As with any information resource,
evaluation of what you find on the Internet
is important
Internet Vs Books/Text
•Anyone can publish a
Web page
•No one checks to see
if the information is
true or false
•There are millions of
places to look for
information
Internet
•Using the Internet is
much quicker
•You can narrow down
what you’re looking for
more easily
•The Internet uses
search engines
•A book has to be
published by a
publishing company
•Both provide
•Editors check and verify
• sources
of information the information
•Both are
•viewed by
millions of
people each
day
•Looking for a book can
be more time consuming
Books/Text
•You have to visit a
library
•The library uses a
classification system
FIND INFORMATION
ON THE INTERNET ?
-Go directly to a site if you have the address
- Browse
- Explore a subject directory
- Conduct a search using a Web search engine
- Query a service devoted to digitized - scholarly materials or books
- Join an e-mail discussion group or Usenet
newsgroup / Subscribe to RSS feeds
Browsing
-Haphazard but interesting way of finding desired
material on the Internet.
- The creator of a home page programs each link,
you never know where these links might
lead.
- High quality starting pages will contain high
quality links.
SUBJECT DIRECTORY
•Subject directories are created by universities,
libraries, companies, organizations, and even
volunteers to catalog portions of the Internet.
• Organized by subject and consist of links to
Internet resources relating to these subjects.
• The major subject directories available on the
Web tend to have overlapping but different
databases.
•Most directories provide a search capability that
allows you to query the database on your topic of
interest.
When to use Directories?
Directories are useful for
- general topics,
- for topics that need exploring,
- for in-depth research, and for browsing
.
Academic & Professional
Directories
•If you want to explore a large number and
variety of sources, try ipl2 ( Internet Public
Library and Librarians Internet Index.)
• Supported by a federal grant, a large number of
Californian librarians select and annotate Web
resources across a broad range of topics.
•New sites are added continually, so the
directory is up-to-date. With its extensive but
careful selection, objective and useful
annotations, and hierarchical organization, ipl2
is an excellent choice.
Academic & Professional
Directories
Intute is searchable interface to major metasites in academic disciplines maintained in
Great Britain, including Science,
Engineering and Technology, Arts and
Humanities, Social Sciences, and Health and
Life Sciences.
INFOMINE is a large directory of Web sites
of scholarly interest compiled by the
University of California. The directory may
be browsed or searched by subject,
keyword, or title. Each site listed is
accompanied by a description.
WEB SEARCH ENGINE
- An Internet search engine allows the user to
enter keywords relating to a topic and retrieve
information about Internet sites containing those
keywords.
- Search engines located on the Web have
become quite popular as the Web itself has
become the Internet's environment of choice
THREE STEPS TO
FORMULATE QUERIES
1 Identify your concepts
When conducting any database search, you
to break down your topic into its component
concepts.
need
2. List keywords for each concept
Once you have identified your concepts, you need to
list keywords which describe each concept. Some
concepts may have only one keyword, while others
may have many.
THREE STEPS TO
FORMULATE QUERIES
3. Specify the logical relationships among your
keywords
Once you know the keywords you want to search,
you need to establish the logical relationships among
them. The formal name for this is Boolean logic.
Boolean logic allows you to specify the relationships
among search terms by using any of three logical
operators: AND, OR, NOT.
OR Operator
AND Operator
The Not Operator
TIPS ON CONDUCTING
SEARCHES
•Read the directions at each search site.
•The technique for formulating a search
depends on the search engine you are using.
•There is a wide variety of options available
among the different search engines
•If you have a multi-term search, be sure to
determine which type of Boolean logic you
should use.
TIPS ON CONDUCTING
SEARCHES
For example a search query
Use of Balanced Scorecard in Higher
Education (exclude use in industry) may be
formulated as
Balanced Scorecard +((Higher education OR
Universit*) NOT (Industr*))
TIPS ON CONDUCTING
SEARCHES
-Include synonyms or alternate spellings in your search
statements and connect these terms with OR logic.
-Check your spelling
-Take advantage of capitalization if the search engine is
case sensitive
-Try different sources to diversify your results. Sources
can include other search engines and large directories
-Experiment with different search engines. No two
search engines work from the same index.
Too many results or
non-relevant results
•Go to Field search
•Add concept words to your original search.
•Use vocabulary that is specific to your topic; avoid
words with large concepts unless you intend to field
search.
•Link appropriate terms with the Boolean AND ( + )
so that each term is required to appear in the record.
While many search engines do not require this, it
doesn't hurt to be on the safe side.
Too Few Results
Drop off the least important concept(s) to broaden
your subject
Use more general vocabulary
Add alternate terms or spellings for individual
concepts and connect with the Boolean OR
Try the option available on some engines to find
similar or related documents to one or more of your
relevant hits.
Information SourcesPrimary Sources
-Such as Journals, Theses, Patents,
standards etc.
Secondary Sources
- Such as Books, Encyclopaedia,
Handbooks, Abstracts, Indexes etc.
Starting your search from
Library Sources
Always start from a secondary sources
From Encyclopedia to gain broad knowledge
From abstracting/indexing sources such as
Ebsco , ABI Inform , Inspec, etc go the primary
sources
Citation Indexes such as Web of Science
(Science Citation Index) OR Scopus could be
better choice
Let us go to our Library
http://mgcl.iitr.ac.in/
http://192.168.125.5/
http://192.168.125.3