GEOG 140, Human Geography (Rachel Chapman)

If you want to voluntarily test your UFV Library skills, try out our Online Library Assignment!

What search terms to use:

• Don’t search by using a long sentence. Instead, identify the main concepts related to your research question. For example, search for the highlighted words in the following topic: “what impact has globalization had on agriculture and the end of geography”
• Use AND to combine different concepts
  • globalization AND agriculture AND canada (note: you don’t need to capitalize proper nouns)
• Generate synonyms (which can be equal, broader, narrower, or opposite) for each concept:
  • agriculture: farming OR farms OR crops OR cultivation OR husbandry
• Use OR to combine similar concepts (some of which can be broader or narrower)
  • quinoa OR ancient grains OR quinua

How to finesse results:

• Use truncation symbols ( * OR $) to retrieve results with variant endings.
  • Most databases: “global*” would search for variant endings, including globalize, globalization, globalisation, etc.
  • UFV Classic Library Catalogue: “farm$” will search for variant endings, including farm, farms, farmer, farmers, farming
• Force a phrase search by using quotation marks, e.g.:  “language proficiency”  AND globalization (double quotes in most databases but single quotes in library catalog)
• Sort results by “date” or “relevance”
• Search using subject headings, descriptors, or author supplied keywords

Other tips:

• Search for respected or recommended authors
• Search for items listed in works cited.

With the research databases, you will have an option to filter the search results. There are four generally interchangeable terms for peer-reviewed articles: scholarly, academic, refereed, and peer-reviewed. To find peer-reviewed sources, look for one of those terms to limit or filter your search results.