Research Using the Internet

7 tips for effective research online

1. Have a question in mind. It might sound strange but the most effective way to research online is to know the answer you’re looking for.
2. Keep to a schedule.
3. Organize, organize, organize.
4. Follow where the research takes you.
5. Gather info as you go.
6. Evaluate your sources.
7. Don’t limit what you look for.

Five Tips to Improve Your Internet Research Skills

1. Know your sources. It’s easy to find pretty much any information you want on the World Wide Web.
2. Use your web browser properly.
3. Organise your bookmarks.
4. Learn to use advanced search techniques.
5. Follow the web.

1. Don’t rely exclusively on Net resources.
2. Narrow your research topic before logging on.
3. Know your subject directories and search engines.
4. Keep a detailed record of sites you visit and the sites you use.
5. Double-check all URLs that you put in your paper.

6 ways to do research at home

1. Write up papers. A lot of researchers build up work that needs turning into papers but they never get time thanks to grant writing/meetings/emergency evacuations/training (delete as appropriate).
2. Organise your data.
3. Improve your lab notes.
4. Learn how to code.
5. Write a Wikipedia article.
6. Have virtual tea.

Get organized. Being organized is an essential part of effective research strategy. You should create a record of your strategy and your searches. This will prevent you from repeating searches in the same resources and from continuing to use ineffective terms.

Steps to developing a research question:

1. Choose an interesting general topic. Most professional researchers focus on topics they are genuinely interested in studying.
2. Do some preliminary research on your general topic.
3. Consider your audience.
4. Start asking questions.
5. Evaluate your question.
6. Begin your research.

Avoid roman numerals (e.g., III, IX, etc.) Obvious or non-specific openings with a conjunction: e.g., “Report on”, “A Study of”, “Results of”, “An Experimental Investigation of”, etc. (these don’t contribute meaning!)

Your research resources can come from your experiences; print media, such as books, brochures, journals, magazines, newspapers, and books; and CD-ROMs and other electronic sources, such as the Internet and the World Wide Web. They may also come from interviews and surveys you or someone else designs.

Yes. If a title ends with a punctuation mark, include the mark: For examples of titles ending in punctuation marks other than a period, see our previous post.

This process consists of the following five steps.

1. Determine What Information You Want to Collect.
2. Set a Timeframe for Data Collection.
3. Determine Your Data Collection Method.
4. Collect the Data.
5. Analyze the Data and Implement Your Findings.
6. Surveys.
7. Online Tracking.
8. Transactional Data Tracking.