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Education Research Guide

A research guide to help students in Education

Navigating your Search Results

Navigating your Search Results

After you hit the search button and get to the search results page. Take a moment to review the number of results you retrieved. While you might have the perfect number of results, it is far more common to have either too few or too many results. This is normal and expected. Remember, research is a process. You will almost always need to return to previous steps in the process and attempt new search strategies.

  • Not enough results? Try going back and adjusting your search terms (try new terms, make your topic broader, or search in broader fields)
  • Too many results? This is the most common. When this happens, you will often need to go back and adjust your search terms (search more specific fields, narrow your topic, or add more search terms). But you can also use the limiters (or filters) to focus your search. The interactive image below goes over how to use these limiters and other helpful tools on this page.

 

Interactive Image of the Search Results webpage (Academic Search Premier)

Navigating the Search Results Page: Filtering your Results

After you hit the search button and get to the search results page, take a moment to review the number of results you retrieved. While you might have the perfect number of results, it is far more common to have either too few or too many results. This is normal and expected. Research is a process and you will need to go back and try new search strategies often. The information below lists many common features of Search Results pages. These features are listed below and the screenshot underneath provides a visual of Academic Search Premiere's search results page.

  • Links: Do you need help? Head back to Broome Library with the links under the Links header located on the bottom left of the screen. The OneSearch link will bring you back to the library catalog search and the Ask a Librarian link takes you back to the library's homepage where you can contact a librarian 24/7.
  • Filters (limiters): Do you have too many results? Narrow your search results by selecting filters located underneath the search bar at the top of the screen. The most popular filters (full text, peer reviewed, all time, and source type) are visible. If you need additional filters, select "All filters" to see additional options such as limiting to a custom date range or by subject headings. Subject headings are great ways to gather future search terms and learn the vocabulary of your research field. 
  • Search Results: Take a moment to review how many results your search returned. Sometimes your search is too broad or too specific and this can lead to having too many or too few search results. When this happens you should try adjusting your search terms and/or apply limiters (described below). You will almost always need to return to previous steps in the process and attempt new search strategies.
  • Identifying the Type of Source: Located above each source is an identifier that tells you what type of source. This is helpful if you need specific types of sources for your assignment.
  • Accessing the Full Text: Select the Access Options drop-down menu to access your source in the web browser. However, sometimes databases show you a source that while helpful, they don't have the full text. When this happens the drop-down menu will show Other. Selecting Other will search the rest of the library for this source or take you to our Interlibrary Loan page to request the library borrow it for you .Accessing materials the library does not own will be covered in more depth in elsewhere in this module.
  • Saving a Result: Did you find a great source but don't have time to review it? Select the three vertical dots to the right of your source. Then select cite for a computer generated citation, this will allow you to search for this cite again. Or select share to email the source information to yourself. Or select download to download the source.

 

Screenshot of the Search Results Webpage (Academic Search Premier)