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How To Research Using the Internet For A College Students Academic Success

The Internet is a huge resource of academic and non-academic web resources that a college student can benefit from. 

Knowing how to research using the internet is a very crucial skill for a college student.

This article discusses 4 crucial tips for researching using the internet, such as doing the internet search using search engines, getting good sources, evaluating the authority of the sources, and saving the sources locally on your hard disk.

Use A Specialized Search Engine

Use a specialized Search Engine designed for searching through academic resources in your field, such as PubMed for medical research and ERIC for educational research. 

Consider the following tips to choose the specialized Search Engine.

  • Choose an online database that is specific to your subject. For instance, PubMed is specific for medical or scientific publications.
  • Ask your librarians if they know about any helpful Search engines in your field.
  • Use usual Search Engines like Google or Bing as they are automated and easily manipulated by SEOs. It becomes hard to find credible sources using them.

Collect Good And Relevant Sources

Collect good and relevant sources by searching specific keywords or phrases to narrow down your search activity. Use correct boolean operators, such as AND, OR, and NOT, in your search phrases. 

Consider the following tips for collecting good and relevant sources.

  • Note down credible sources, such as government websites, academics, national news websites, and other renowned publication websites in your field.
  • Wikipedia is an excellent starting point for research. Wikipedia pages have original sources cited at the bottom of the page.
  • Trace the original source from the web pages you are reading for researching the content. Usually, webpages link out to original and official sources in the content or at the end of the page.

Evaluate The Credibility

Evaluate the credibility of the source by finding the owner or sponsor of the website author of the webpage, checking accuracy, and if it is up-to-date.

  • Find the owner or sponsor by visiting web pages such as Contact Us, About Us, and Our Team. Websites like the Mayo Clinic, a non-profit medical organization, are more credible than an unknown medical blog.
  • Look for the author’s information on the webpage and validate the author’s credentials and reputation by visiting his profiles on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter, and other profiles in his bio.
  • Validate the accuracy of the web page by verifying the facts and stats it is citing.

Save The Source Webpage locally.

Save the source webpage locally on your hard disk. The web page can be moved or deleted, so save it locally as a PDF document or HTML document.

Final Words

Researching using the Internet is important for College Students. College students need to find academic resources such as research papers, medical research, analytical studies done by academic institutes in their field, and theses. They need to use specialized search engines and find these sources for citing them in their assignments and academic papers.

References:

  • Research Using the Internet | Writing Advice. (n.d.). https://advice.writing.utoronto.ca/researching/research-using-internet/
  • Morgan, M. (2023, February 12). How to Do Internet Research (with Pictures) – wikiHow. wikiHow. https://www.wikihow.com/Do-Internet-Research
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