Searching like a pro. Online course on literature searching.
Citation searching (5/8)
In contrast to researching a topic, citation searching is much simpler: this is a way of finding literature by looking at the sources cited in further reading suggestions or bibliographies. Such citations will provide you with the details you can apply in your search, such as title, author’s name, publisher, publication year etc.
Here are some tips for an effective citation search in a catalogue or a database.
Make sure you spell the title and the author’s name correctly. Unlike Google or other search engines, catalogues and databases do not correct spelling mistakes automatically. If your search matches no results, check your search query: perhaps there is a typo in the reference.
The “advanced search” option enables limiting the scope of your search. You can type in your search words in respective search fields, e.g. keywords from the title in the field marked “title”.
In most library catalogues and databases the input of the author’s name should be as follows: Last Name, First Name – divided by a comma, e.g. Crystal, David.
More information on these tips is provided in chapter 4 (“How do I search effectively?”).