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PPOL 5770 - Public Policy Postgraduate Development : Research Strategy & Techniques

This guide was developed for students in PPOL Postgraduate courses

Research Strategies

These strategies are not "do it once in this order & be done". Instead, they are recommendations for approaches that are often done several times  at different points in your research .

  1. Start with what you have been given - Class Readings & Lectures
    1. Ideas, information, data,  themes, methods of analysis from  lectures
    2. Ideas, information, data, themes, arguments, from readings
  2. Look for clues in your readings (syllabus)
    1. Main argument, findings  (in abstract? in conclusion?)
    2. Theory or theories used?
    3. Keywords, special terms?
    4. Important authors?
    5. References to other articles, books, statistics  in assigned readings (for your follow-up)  = Classic Scholarly Method
  3. Use References from things you & find  & read = The Classic Scholarly Method - Known Item
    1. When you do research, you will find things cited in papers & books you read. You can then look those up and read them.
  4. Think about the arguments & evidence from the readings and lectures and other info
    1. See if/how they apply to your topic
    2. What questions do they give you?   Start to search for answers or evidence that might lead you to your answer, your theory, your argument.
  5. Use smart search techniques in those search tools

Known or Unknown Item?

There are two classic ways to search for articles, book chapters,etc.

1. Known Item search

  • You have the title of the article, or the name of the author. For example, in your reading you find this reference:
  • In-text : (Plüss 2006)  |  End-of paper:  Plüss, Caroline. "Becoming Different While Becoming the Same: Re-territorializing Islamic Identities with Multi-ethnic Practices in Hong Kong." Ethnic and Racial Studies 29, no. 4 (2006): 656-75.
  • You want this specific item.

2. Unknown Item search

  • You have an idea of what sort of thing you  would like to find - but no specific title or author in mind. 
    • Try topic key words
    • Try words to do with theories or methodologies

Citation Chaining - Modern Addition to Classic Method

The "classic method" allows you to search backwards.

Now modern tools also allow you to search forwards! You can learn more about Citation chaining in the Citation Chaining Guide & by watching the videos below

Citation chaining helps you quickly find related articles through citations. It is an essential technique to support your literature review process.

You can do backward and forward searching based on an article in hand.

◀◀  Backward searching

A "perfect" article you have in hand

 Forward searching  ▶▶
  • finds articles the author used. These articles are usually called: 

"References", "Cited Articles", "Cited Documents"

  • helps you track classical and foundational studies
  • finds articles who used this article. These articles are usually called:

"Citing Articles", "Citing Documents"

  • helps you track latest development on your topic

"What is Citation Chaining" - Claremont Colleges Library (2 min 3 sec)

Citation Chaining - GoogleScholar - Seattle U

Citation Chaining - Web of Science - UNSW Canberra

Search Smart - Short videos on Search Techniques

Most databases do not support "natural language" searching. But, if you learn some |smart search" techniques, you will be able to target your searching better.. The image below is linked to several short videos to help you learn new and different search techniques.

thumbnails of several short HKUST Library made videos. clicking on this image will bring to the tags "search smart" on the e-learning server

Use Search Fields

Using Search  fields (e.g. title)  can help you focus your search  

When using a search engine (database),

  • Be aware of what field you are searching (title only? full-text? subject?)
  • Use search fields to modify your searching & get results you like better
  • You will often find search fields under "Adcanced Search" and with drop down menus

Example: Search fields in Proquest

Search field

Code

Example

Abstract

ab

ab (“ethnic minorities”)

Title

ti

ti (ethnic minorities in hong kong)

Publication title

Pub

pub (“migration”)

 

Author

 

au

 

au( Pluss, Caroline)

 

Year

 

yr

yr (2008)

 

subject

 

su

su( racial discrimination)

 

location

 

loc

 loc ("Hong Kong")

Example - Search Technique 3 - Boolean Searching

Combining Keywords into search statements using Boolean Operators

Boolean Operators  Examples of Using Boolean Operators

AND

 - All keywords must appear in the results
– Narrows a search, find less numbers of record

   e-waste  AND  Japan

OR

–Any one or all of the keywords should appear
–Broadens a search, find more

 "e-waste" OR "electronic waste"

(  )

Brackets combine keywords of similar concept

 

("e-waste" OR "electronic waste" ) 

AND

(Japan OR  Japanese)

 

Tips:

Don't make your search too long and complicated.

Begin by combining only TWO aspects (focus areas) at a time.

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