How to do Research on the Internet?

by Prof. Yahya Sadowski

AUB- PSPA Dept.

Spring 2003

USE A REAL SEARCH ENGINE

Don't us~ simple query-response engines such as "Ask Jeeves" or card catalogues such as "Yahoo." Stick to the genuine search engines, such as AltaVista, Lycos, and Northern Light. For the moment, the leader in the field is Google ( ww.google.com). It doesn't look fancy, but it generates more hits of genuine relevance than any other search engine.

USE THE MOST OBSCURE OR SPECIFIC SEARCH CRITERIA

If you want to learn how the Islamists are doing in Turkish politics, don't use "Turkey" as one of the keywords in your search. Two thirds of the hits it generates will be Thanksgiving recipes. Instead, use keywords like "Fazilet" or "Erdogan" that will generate only hits that are specific to your interest.

LOOK OVER THE FIRST FIVE PAGES OF HITS

Even the best search engines generate a surprising number of irrelevant hits: links to electronic bookstores, discussion groups, and other fluff. You have to be prepared to scroll through a list of fifty or sixty hits and explore the ones that seem most likely to be relevant. Some of these too will be duds-but many will link to serendipitous discoveries that you never even suspected might exist.

SEARCH WITHIN RELEVANT PAGES USING CTRL-F

Many web sites are now huge, listing links to hundreds of other pages or titles of dozens of different articles. Zero in on the information you want by using the "universal" Windows search command: Ctrl-F. This will open a box that allows you to search within the page for the specific keywords you want to find. .

TRACK DOWN THE GURU PAGES AND MEGA-SITES

In every imaginable field of inquiry there are now "guru sites" or expert sites, put together by people who have already done much of the research needed to locate information on the web. There are guru sites for political science and for Middle East studies and for Lebanon. Many of these are listed on my Web Pathfinder (http://webfacu1ty.aub.edu.1b/~ys03/favorites.htm). When in doubt, start with on ofthe mega-sites that link hundreds of guru pages, such as www.about.com or the WWW Virtual Library (http://www.vlib.orgiHome.html).

SEARCH FOR SYLLABI

If you are looking for the latest and most valuable readings on some subject, you can, of course, start by searching a university card catalog or www.amazon.com. However.to get a far more refined and pertinent list of the most recent trends in the literature, add the keyword "syllabus" to your search. This will generate a dozen syllabi that usually include rich bibliographies.