Search Tips - MKT 500: Marketing Management - Gonsalves - Guides at Worcester Polytechnic Institute

Types of Information and Their Sources

Type of Information Needed
Use this chart to identify various types of information and the sources in which you'll find the information
Types of Information Sources
Use this chart to see where you can find various types of Information sources.

Here is a printable version of the two Search Tips tables on this page.

Google Advanced Search

Search by domain (.edu, .gov, .uk, etc.)
Google Images Advanced Search

Filter by usage rights and more.
Google Scholar Search Tips
Google Scholar Settings

Are you using a citation manager, such as Endnote or RefWorks? You can set up GoogleScholar to provide you with a direct export link.
Google Books

Some public domain full text, some eBook snippets

Ask a librarian: Searching and researching is what we do. Let us work with you to make your searching more productive.
Use search filters on the search results page. Some of the most common filters are:
1. Date
2. Source Format – book, journal, video
3. Source Type – Academic Journals, Magazines, Newspapers
4. Subject – Keywords and phrases found prominently in your search results. Add these as additional search terms.
Identify your topic’s key concepts and their synonyms: Add synonyms for your keywords and concepts to increase the number of relevant search results.
Use the FullTextFinder icon on the search results page. If you only have the summary/abstract of an article, click on the FullTextFinder to search all 200+ library databases for the full-text.
Use Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Submit an ILL request to get full-text journal articles, books and book chapters.
Check bibliographies for additional relevant sources.
Check “cited by” links on search results page.
Check “related articles” links on search results page.
Use Google search features to focus on one website type (e.g. .edu, .gov, .org, .au).
1. Examples:
  1. Community garden site:.gov
  2. Fauna site:.nz
Ask a librarian!

Term	Example	Result
AND	media AND bias	Narrows the search to entries containing both terms.
OR	beer OR wine	Broadens the search to entries containing either term.
NOT	bat NOT baseball	Excludes entries containing the second term.
“ ”	“social work”	Retrieves results containing the exact phrase in quotes.
?	globali?ation	Wildcard: Retrieves both globalization and globalisation.
*	doctor*	Truncation: Retrieves doctor, doctors, doctored.

Google Search Tips:

Limit your search by domain type (e.g. .edu, .gov, .org).
- Example:
  - To find government websites about affordable housing, search for:
    - low-income housing site:.gov
Add country domain names to your search terms:
- Example:
  - To find Namibian websites about renewable energy, search for:
    - renewable energy site:.na
- Find the website domain name for your country: Database of Top-Level Domains for Countries (World Intellectual Property Organization)
Look for associations and NGOs by adding the word “Association” to your searches
Go to the second page of results – most people don’t!