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Ekstrom Library

GEOG 641: Research Design

Searching in Web of Science

Try searching using keywords related to your topic in a basic search.

Use the Add row button to include additional keywords. You can choose the connectors AND, OR, NOT to include, expand, or limit your search. You can also add a date range. 

Web of Science basic search with the keywords "climate justice" in the first search box and ecology in the second search box with the Boolean operator and.

Use the drop down menu next to each search box to change the search query to topic, title, author, publication date, abstract, and more.

You can also build and structure your query using the advanced search option. 

Advanced Searching

In many library databases, you can use advanced search features such as quotation marks and Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to refine your search. 

Diagrams of Boolean operators. AND shows only results that contain both keywords, the middle section only is highlighted. OR shows results containing keywords A or B with all sections highlighted. NOT shows results containing keyword A, excluding any with keyword B with only the left side highlighted.

Image created by Cecelia Vetter. 

Example search: 

  • ("climate change" OR "global warming") AND ("tropical storm" OR "hurricane") NOT "Katrina"

Citation Tracking

A paper icon article, B paper icon references, C paper icon cited by.

  1. Start with a relevant/important article on the topic that has been published at least a few years ago.
  2. Look at the references and citations for more relevant articles that are important to the topic. Find those articles in the library's catalog. 
  3. Go to Google Scholar and find how many times article A has been cited. You can click on this number, see a list of all the citing articles, and "search within" the list to find more recent, relevant studies. 

 

Google Scholar result for article The emerging geographies of climate justice with cited by 136 highlighted.

Access the Full Text

If you're looking for a particular article and have the citation, search for the title of the article in the library's catalog on the homepage. 

Usually you can find the linked HTML full text or a PDF in a database. If the full text is not available in the database you're searching in, click on the Find It at UofL button to search for it in our catalog.

Find It at UofL button 

If we don't have immediate access to an article, you can request it through a free service called Interlibrary Loan. You'll receive a PDF of the article in a few business days. 

When saving your links from a library database, you won't be able to get back to an article with the URL at the top of your browser. Look for links to save a permanent link, permalink, or stable URL, or generate your own stable link with the DOI.