U2A1 & U2D1 – Advanced Searching Techniques

Two Strategies for Increasing the References in Your Literature Review

Strategy 1: Mining Bibliographies & Reference Lists

It is likely you have already been using bibliography mining in your research to find additional resources.

Bibliography mining is the technique of looking at the reference list of an article and “mining” it for references that may be relevant to your research. When you use bibliography mining, you will be finding articles older than the original article that you have in hand.

The hands-on version of bibliography mining involves:

1. Taking an article from your search.

2. Reading the literature review section.

3. Highlighting in-text references that you want to track down.

4. Grabbing the full citations from the reference list.

5. Checking to see whether the article is available in the library.

Strategy 2: Cited Reference Searching: Who Has Advanced the Research?

Cited reference searching works in the reverse direction. This technique involves looking at which other authors or publications have been citing your article for their research. When you use cited reference searching, you will be finding articles more current than your article.

Assignment Preparation

At this point, you should have gathered several articles related to your research through library database searching. Now, it is time to expand your pool of articles even further by casting a wider net. Tap into the scholarly conversation surrounding the articles you have found. To do this, you will need to piece the

conversations back together. Using the techniques described above and the tutorials in the resources, locate 10 new articles for your literature review.

• Bibliography Mining: Find five older sources from the articles that you already have.

• Practice Cited Reference Searching: Find five more recent articles that cite your original articles.

Note: If you do not have a large assortment of relevant articles gathered already, please contact the library for recommended search strategies. You can also refresh your basic search techniques by specialization, by viewing our Program of Research Library Guides or using our Search Builder tool.

Assignment Instructions

In a Word document titled “Firstname_Lastname_Reference_List” (for example, John_Doe_Reference_List), report on the results of your searching with the advanced techniques. Report a minimum of ten articles:

• Be sure to use both strategies when procuring your articles.

• Be sure to cite all of your articles using APA format.

• For each article discovered, describe the method used to find it and write a brief description of what it adds to your literature review on the capstone topic. As always, provide correct in-text citations.  

• Create a properly formatted APA Style reference list for all the articles found.

• Submit your work to Turnitin and the assignment area (remember, use the TII drafts area to check your work and change any significant matches before you submit your final the TII assignment area).

• Submit the Turnitin submission report with your assignment. Assignments will not be graded until they are submitted to Turnitin.

Resources

Advanced Searching Techniques Scoring Guide.

APA Style and Format.

Interlibrary Loan Guide.

Turnitin.

Journal and Book Locator Guide.

Public Service Leadership Ph.D. Research Guide.

Google Scholar – Bibliography Mining and Cited Reference Searching.

Bibliography Mining and Cited Reference Searching Library Guide.

Unit 2 Discussion 1 

SMART Form

Please complete sections 1 and 2 of the dissertation or capstone research plan (SMART form, linked in the Resources) based on the research design you have been working on throughout your coursework. Be sure to read the instructions found in the left-hand column.

When you have completed sections 1 and 2 of the SMART form, post the SMART form as a word document for your discussion response.

Resources

Scientific Merit Action Research Template (SMART) Form – PSL [DOC].