Business and Economics

 Operators 

Operators help you build search strings.  A search string is a list of keywords that contain what you want to search in a database.  Using operators help your database search more effectively by finding keywords in relevant research. 

The table below provides examples of using operators to build search strings. 

Tip: Operators are already built into the Advanced Search in SuperSearch.  You can change them and type your keywords into the boxes.

 
Filtering Results

Filtering is an important step in the search process by limiting the number of results to information you want to see.  

Common limiters include:

1. Full Text - provides the full text to a resource.

2. Peer-Reviewed - shows articles that have gone through the peer-review process and have been reviewed by experts in the field.

3. Publication Date - allows you to target research in a specific date range.
4. Result Type - allows you to pick a type of resource, like journal article, book, ebook, newspaper, magazine or trade publication. 
5. Subject - shows you resources on specific subtopics in a field.
    

Tip: Use the these limiters to help you narrow your results and filter out the sources that won't be useful to you.

Evaluate Your Sources

You can evaluate any source using the 5 W's:

• Who: ...wrote it? Are they an expert?
• What: ...is the purpose of this resource?
• Where: ...was this information published? ...does the information come from?
• When: ...was this published or last updated?
• Why: ...is this resource useful? ...is this resource better than other ones?

When you see a claim that may not be 100% true, there are four steps, called "moves," you can take to fact-check the claim. If you successfully confirm a fact at any stage, you can stop - it's not always necessary to complete all four moves.

The Four Fact-Checking Moves

1. Check for previous work: Look to see if someone has already fact-checked the claim or summarized the research.
2. Go "upstream" to the source: Find the original source of the claim to understand the trustworthiness of the information.
3. Read laterally: Read what other people say about the source (publication, author, etc.). The truth is in the network.
4. Circle back: If you get lost or find yourself going down a rabbit hole, back up and start over. Now that you know more, you will probably find a different path with new search terms and more informed decisions.

One Habit

In addition to the fact-checking moves, you should also develop one new habit:

Check your Emotions

The habit is simple. When you feel strong emotion – happiness, anger, pride, vindication – in response to a claim, STOP. Above all, these are the claims that you must fact-check.

Why? Because our emotions tend to override our ability to reason. It's important to learn to recognize when this is happening, so you can approach important issues with a more analytical frame of mind. 

The information above is based on the following work by Michael A. Caulfield:

• 

  Web Literacy for Student Fact Checkers... and other people who care about facts

  A freely-available ebook that takes you step-by-step through the fact-checking process.

Source Tools

Source tools are helpful features that allow you to save, cite, export, and send your sources.  Use these tools to make finding and sharing your research easier.  SuperSearch and Individual Databases do not always look the same but have some of the same tools The top result is from SuperSearch. The bottom is from an Individual Database.

Tip: Use the tools found on the source detailed record page to save your sources, find the permalink, email your source to yourself, and export citations to citation management tools like Zotero, EasyBib, or Mendeley.