The Use of Internet in Academic Research: Importance and Procedure By Dr. Muhammad Sajid Mirza Principal Librarian I Dr. M. Hamidullah Library Islamic Research Institute, IIUI

What is Internet  International Network of Computers since 1994 Universities Government Business Organizations Individuals  December, millions users June, 2014 (est.) 3,035 millions users  In Pakistan: users ,128,970 users

The Internet The Web and the Internet  The two are sometimes used interchangeably but there is a difference. The Internet connects computers  File transfer, involving a variety of protocols (e.g. ftp) The web connects pages  Hyperlinks: the http at the beginning of the URL of every web page

Importance A study of student research behavior (ProQuest, 2007), found that more than 60 percent of students consider Google to be the easiest place to start research, compared to less than 20 percent who find library databases the easiest starting point.

What can we do Using the Internet?  Locate information sources  Library catalogues (worldcat, LOC, NLP, IIU, AIOU), publishers etc.worldcat  Access online journals, e-books, thesis and databases  e.g. HEC Digital Library, PRR, JSTOR, Open Access Journals, etc.  Import references and citations  Endnote, Mendeley, Zotero, RefWorks  Check similarity / plagiarism  Turnitin  Attend a webinar or online meeting  Attend a massive open online course (mooc)  Submit a research paper for publication/conference  Share your research using social media e.g. Linkedin, academia.edu, etc.  Monitor impact of your research e.g. Google scholar  Search for fellowships/grants  Join a mailing list

Using Internet Browser: It is a software application used to locate and display Web pages.software application The most popular browsers are Google Chrome, Internet Explorer and Mozilla FirefoxGoogle ChromeInternet ExplorerMozilla Firefox URL’s Uniform Resource Locator The web “address” that connects you with a website Goes in the address bar at the top of the screen Gives you information about the website

Parts of a URL transfer protocol : the language computers use to “talk” to one another www—world wide web: the body of information connected by the cables and computers of the Internet. iiu—domain name: the structured, alphabetic-based, unique name for a computer on a network. edu—top level domain: gives an idea of where the document is stored

Why Effective Internet Searching Un-organized information Well-prepared searches will eliminate useless hits and wasted time.

Internet Search Tools Search engines (Google, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) Are like the index in the back of a book Let you search for specific words and topics Meta-search engines (webcrawler, ixquick, Mamma, etc.) Sends your search terms to several other search engines at once. Gives an overview of a topic across the Internet. Subject guides (www virtual library, IPL2, An Online Library of Literature etc.) Let you search for concepts or subject categories Go from general to specific Specialized search tools (databases, reference sites, newsgroups etc.) Source of invisible information, usually called deep web

Please remember Common-Word Exclusion Google ignores some common words called “stop words” e.g., the, on, of. Stop words tend to slow down searches without improving results 32-Word Limit Google limits queries to 32 words Case Insensitivity Google is case-insensitive; it shows both upper- and lowercase results Ignoring Punctuation Google ignores most punctuation and special characters including,. ; ? [ ] ( /

Internet Research Strategy Define your topic and note initial keywords Locate background information and identify additional keywords Choose the proper search tools Perform your search Basic Search, Phrase search, Complex Search Evaluate your search results Refine your search, if needed

Basic Search All search engines offer basic searching Read search engine’s help page Use “trial and error approach”

Phrase Searching When you construct a search with more than one keyword, you often need two or more words to be in a sentence one right after the other. For such searching, we use phrase search Use “quotation marks” around the phrase

Complex Search A complex search uses special connecting words and symbols called Boolean operators to define the relationships between keywords and phrases. Boolean operators are: AND, OR AND NOT Use of advance search and filters

Using Punctuation, symbols and Voice Asterisk (*) Add an asterisk within a search as a placeholder for any unknown terms Two periods (--) Separate numbers by two periods without spaces (..) to see results that contain numbers in a given range of things like dates, prices, and measurements. Example: camera $50..$100 Voice Searching

Remember…. The best results will appear on the first page or two of hits No two search engines are alike. Try another search engine, or rephrase your terms if you don’t get good results.

Evaluating Websites Book publishers weed out inaccurate information. No one checks the Internet for accuracy.

Evaluating Websites Before you start using the information EVALUATE!

Evaluating Websites Who is the author? Is he/she an authority on the subject? Does she/he have an address? Is the information accurate? Can it be verified in an encyclopedia? Is it relevant to your topic? Does the author indicate where he found the information? Is the information prejudiced? Is it trying to persuade you to another point of view? Is it trying to persuade you to buy a product?

Evaluating Websites Is the information current? When was the last time the website was updated? Are the links broken?

Evaluating Websites Is the information current? When was the last time the website was updated? Are the links broken?

Evaluating Websites Is the information current? When was the last time the website was updated? Are the links broken?

Thanks

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