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Information Skills Toolbox

Assessing search results

In the previous steps you learnt how to orientate on your topic and how to search for information. The next step is assessing the information you found. In order to do so, you will need to be able to understand texts properly and be able to read critically. You can use several reading strategies to help you understand texts:

Reading strategies
Understanding texts is a complex process: you have to predict what the text is about, draw conclusions from what you have read and be able to recognize the writer's point of view. You can use reading strategies before, while and after reading: 

Before reading:

  • Think about the topic by activating prior knowledge.
  • Make predictions about the meaning of the text.
  • View the text to get a general idea by skimming and scanning.

During reading:

  • Ask questions to understand the text.
  • Reread if necessary.
  • Consider the views and information in the text.

After reading:

  • Reflect upon the ideas and information in the text.
  • Establish a link between the information from the text and your own experiences and knowledge.
  • Fully understand the meaning of the text.

Which reading strategies are you goin to use?
Are you reading for fun? Are you reading because you are looking for details? Or do you only want to get an overview of the text and want to know the main conclusions of the author? You need different strategies for each reading goal. You may, for example, need to read the entire text for specific details, but you don't have to read the entire text if you want to get an idea about the conclusions of a text.
Below, you will find some examples of reading strategies:

  • Skimming and scanning: Reading rapidly for the main points - Reading rapidly to find a specific piece of information.
    • Skimming means reading quickly- horizontally- through the text to get a general understanding of the content and its usefulness.
    • Scanning means to read quickly- vertically or diagonally- locate single words, facts, dates, names, or details.

      Skimming helps you find the basic structure of where you can find certain information and scanning then helps you find a particular fact within that piece of text. You use skimming when you are previewing a text (determining whether you want to read the text), reviewing a text (reading after you read) or when you are determining the main idea from a long paper. Use scanning in research to find specific facts. When scanning a text, you also use keywords, but in contrast to skimming, you zoom in on specific words or information you need. You can also combine these two techniques. When you've skimmed a text and when you think the information is useful or important, you can scan the surrounding information in that particular part of the text. Or the other way around: once you have located a certain word by scanning the text, you can skim the whole paragraph or section for a quick idea of the information it contains.
       
  • Reading summaries and abstracts
    • Abstract: the abstract is a summary of the entire article. It names the purpose, methods, main results and conclusions of the study.
    • Summary: an academic summary is a concise representation of an academic text. The summary’s purpose is to enable the reader to determine, in a limited amount of time, if and why a paper, chapter or book is worth reading.
      Please note: An academic summary is different from an abstract. An abstract is a brief representation of the main results and conclusions of the study. An academic summary characteristically shows the (argumentation) structure of the text; the skeleton of the argument skeleton.
       
  • Extensive and intensive reading: Reading a longer text with emphasis on overall meaning - reading a short text for detailed information.
    • Intensive reading
      If you must understand the text in detail, you can use the strategy of intensive reading. With that strategy, you read the text with full concentration for certain learning objectives. When you, for example, are reading a report for work you can just skim it to understand it. But if you would like to get a deeper understanding of what’s written, assess the purpose and evaluate the results, you must dive deeper into the text. In an academic context, for example, you may have to fully understand an author’s argumentation and reasoning in order to analyze this for an assignment for a course you are taking, which you can't do simply by skimming a text. You may well need to look up unfamiliar words and concepts, because the aim is to extract the exact meaning of particular pieces of text as much as possible. Other goals include understanding the core of the text, improving grammar and vocabulary, develop critical thinking and making inferences and identifying main ideas.

    • Extensive reading
      In extensive reading, you read a longer piece of text with the goal of improving reading fluency and speed. That is why readers look for easy and interesting texts, with only a few unfamiliar words. It’s not important to understand every single word, but it’s more important to get the basic concept. This extensive reading method will give you the opportunity to read lots of material and that will also influence your reading speed and reading fluency.
       

What is critical reading?
The word ‘critical’ means that you do not simply take ideas in a text for granted, but that you evaluate the evidence and arguments. Your critical reading process could start with the assumption that texts are not neutral but try to influence the reader in some way and are themselves influenced by the writer’s beliefs, attitudes, and culture. This process often involves identifying the author’s beliefs and opinions as they are expressed in the text and understanding how these influence the message. When you decide which parts of the text are most important, which are more or less persuasive for your purposes, or which parts are most controversial, you are engaging critically with the text. A further step would be to relate the text to your own existing knowledge and beliefs.

In short, critical reading involves taking an extra (mental) step after comprehension, so that you are able to evaluate the text, draw conclusions and make inferences. Critical reading is effectively using analysis and combining your own knowledge and beliefs with the ideas in the text in order to learn from the passage.

It is important to develop critical reading skills. Many texts are more persuasive than you might initially think. In the case of an advertisement or a newspaper column, it is obvious that these are aimed at convincing the reader of a certain viewpoint. But also a news report aims to persuade us that the story presented is true, a literary text wants us to accept that its characters and places are real and that they mirror our own experiences. Even academic research reports are persuasive in that their writers attempt to convince us that the report’s conclusions are valid.


Sources: 
Module 1 - Introduction - Academic reading - LibGuides at Tilburg University (uvt.nl)
Academic Summary - Writer's Manual - LibGuides at Utrecht University (uu.nl)
Scientific information - All Disciplines - Research Skills - Basic - LibGuides at VU Amsterdam

 

If your search succeeded and you found a sufficient number of relevant sources, you are not going to need to evaluate your search. But what if your search did not result in relevant information sources? In this case, you will have to evaluate your previous search action and modify it. You can modify your search by either narrowing or broadening it:

To narrow your search:

  • use other/more specific search terms; 
  • limiting terms to particular fields (e.g. Title instead of All fields);
  • reduce the terms linked by OR;
  • add another key concept, linked by AND; 
  • add limiters. 

To widen your search:

  • use other/broader search terms;
  • limiting terms to particular fields (e.g. Abstract instead of Title); 
  • increase the terms linked by OR; 
  • remove a key concept;
  • remove limiters.


There is no such thing as a perfect search! It may take a lot of searches to retrieve all the necessary sources. Approach your topic using as many search statements as you can think of.

Source: https://libguides.uvt.nl/tip-tutorial/effective-searches

Information is relevant when it helps you answering your research question. You assess the information on the basis of format, content and degree of up-to-dateness.

Content and level of information
Ask yourself the following questions:

  • Does the information answer my research question?
  •  Are the quality and the level of the information appropriate to my research question and the aim of the research?

If you are conducting academic research into sustainable tourism, an article from National Geographic will not provide information of the standard you require. Articles from academic journals are more appropriate.
Which publications are most suitable depends on your information requirement. I.e. if you need current, in-depth information on a topic it is better to consult recent journal articles in stead of a handbook.

Currency
The term ‘current’ usually refers to recent events or developments. In order to determine whether information is current, check whether it still reflects the present situation. A book or article that was not written recently may still be current.
Usually current information is required, but not always. The importance of this criterion depends on your research question.

Completeness
Are you sure you haven‘t overlooked any relevant information? Have you considered all points of view? Although being comprehensive is usually not possible and at this stage in your academic career not strictly necessary, you should always try to be as complete as possible in the literature you are using for your research.

How credible and objective is the information you found? There are several aspects to take into consideration when you are assessing how reliable your information is. These aspects relate to the origin of the information as well as its quality.

Authority

  • What do you know about the author? Is he an authority on the subject? Is he a recognized author in his subject area? Has he been cited by others? Which organization does he work for?
  •  What do you know about the organization? Publications by well-known and respected organizations are generally more reliable than material published by vague charitable foundations with dubious or unclear objectives.
  • Does the author or organization receive funding from sponsors? Sponsorship is not necessarily a problem, but be aware of any commercial interests that may be involved.
  • Is the quality of the publication assessed? If so, is this done by editors? Are articles peer reviewed?  Peer-reviewed articles are very reliable because they have been critically assessed by more than one expert/academic.
     

Check the content of the information you found on:

Accuracy

  • Are the supposedly factual descriptions correct? Check whether they are backed up by information in other sources.
  • Are opinions supported by facts?

Objectivity

  • Is informing the reader the author's primary goal, or is he rather trying to persuade his audience? (Opinion-forming, propaganda, etc.)
  • Is the information based on hard facts or on opinions?
  •  Is the subject explored from different perspectives?

Verifiability

  • Are source references provided?
  • What is the quality of the cited sources?
  •  Is it possible to verify whether the information is correct and complete?

The CRAAP test is a useful checklist for evaluating information and information sources.

  • CRAAP test
    The original test designer's site from the Meriam Library, California State University-Chico. September 17, 2010.

At step 1: Value of information you already received information about fake news. Read this section again. Would you like to know more about this topic? BUas Library holds several titles on fake news. Below, you will find some recommended titles:

 

Assessing search process

You can use a ‘search log’ (Word/Excel document)  to keep track of you search process and to assess your literature search. This will come in handy later on, as you will know why you made certain decisions. You will need these details to justify your search strategy. The logbook can for example contain the following elements: 

  • research question
  • search date
  • database(s)
  • number of hits/number of records found
  • search strategy for each element of your research question
  • copy of the search history from the databases