Skip to Main Content

Research Skills: Searching the web

How to use Wikipedia wisely

Strengths

1. Wikipedia is completely free, providing access to information on millions of topics to anyone with Internet capabilities.

2. Wikipedia is constantly updated by the hour. In comparison, print encylopedias are usually updated annually.

3. Wikipedia is a great place to start your research, giving you background information on your topic and possible keywords to help you conduct more in-depth research elsewhere.

4. Sources used in the articles are cited, allowing further investigation into any topic.

Weaknesses

1. Anyone can create, edit, or delete Wikipedia articles.

2. Wikipedia articles cannot be considered scholarly, because we know nothing about the contributors.

3. Articles are works-in-progress, meaning changes are constantly occuring to the information. When an article is first published, the information might waver back and forth between viewpoints before achieving a neutral tone. Viewing the behind-the-scenes discussion can be a valuable way of learning about those varying perspectives.

4. Sometimes articles are vandalized, whether for fun, as a hoax, or because the subject is controversial.

5. The intended audience can vary-- some articles are written from a insider's view, with highly technical language, while some are written for a more general audience. This can be both frustrating and valuable depending on what one is looking for, and either way is a warning sign that the information can be inconsistent.

Text from University of Pittsburgh

Evaluating sources

When searching the web, make sure you use good quality resources.  ​

Who is the author? ​

Are they an expert? Are their views biased?​

When was the information created?​

Is it regularly updated? ​

Is the information relevant for your topic?​

Is it at the right level? Does it relate to the geographical area you are looking at?

Make the most of google

  • Limit your search to an educational or government domain (site:edu OR site:gov)
  • Search for pages created or updated within a time frame (1960..1964)
  • Limit your search to results of a specific file type (filetype:pdf)
  • Restrict your search to within a specific website (statistics site:www.aihw.gov.au)
  • Use Advanced Search (available through Settings) for more options
  • Use Google Scholar to limit your searches to scholarly information (includes articles, theses, books, abstracts and documents from universities). 

Website domains

Website domains can give you information about who the author is, and the reliability of the content:

.com                          commercial, business - needs to be carefully evaluated

.edu

 educational - usually a good source of information

.gov

 government - usually a good source of information

.org

organisational, non-profit - needs to be carefully evaluated

.au

.uk

.ca

 The two letter abbreviation tells you the country the website is from (e.g. Australia, UK, Canada)

Search tips

  • Search for a phrase “use quotation marks”​
  • Exclude terms: use a minus sign in front of term  ​- E.g. salsa –sauce  (salsa not sauce)​
  • Search for a time period using 2 dots 1960..1964​
  • Answer to a question the parachute was invented by * or ?​
  • Find the definition to a term (E.g. define: plagiarism)​
  • Limit to an educational or organisational website​ .edu OR .org OR .gov

Searching the web