Discovering sources

Finding relevant and reliable information is a key skill that you will need at University and after. Follow the three steps below when searching for information and you could save yourself effort and get better results.

Step 1. Starting out

First, consider what you already know about the topic:

  • Look at any scholarly literature you already have, as this may lead to further information. Most journal articles and books will provide you with references to earlier work. You can also find more recent work by seeing which journal articles have cited the scholarly literature you already have - Web of Science, Scopus and Google Scholar are useful tools for doing this.
  • If you are researching a topic new to you, or need some specific information, you could consult a textbook covering the topic, or try quick reference tools. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, and data books can provide definitions, summaries or specific information.

Step 2. Quick Search

If you only need a limited amount of information about the topic, use Library Search to find books, journal articles and other scholarly material.

Consider what search terms you could use to find relevant literature on your topic. Then try using the filters in the left hand menu to focus your results - for example, try limiting your search results to journal articles only.

Step 3. Advanced search

If you need to make a comprehensive and quality-assured search of the literature on a topic, use a bibliographic database.

A database allows you to search across hundreds of academic publications at once. The most common type of information you will find in a database is a journal article, but some databases also include book chapters, reports and other less common types of information.

Each subject has its own range of databases: have a look at the Subject guides page to see which databases are recommended for your subject. 

To focus your results use advanced search techniques such as:

  • synonyms and related terms to expand your search
  • Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to connect your terms
  • double quotation marks " " to search for a phrase (e.g. "University of Bristol")
  • asterisk * to search for multiple endings (e.g. explor* finds explore, exploration, exploratory, exploring)

To learn more and see examples, have a look at the Effective Research with Databases tutorial.