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3.4: Explore Searches

  • Page ID
    275281
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    Quick scan in Google Scholar to refine topic

    At this step, use your searches to help you refine your interests. Since your topic is not fully solidified, you're not yet looking for sources for your literature review. Instead, scanning to see:

    • Terms that come up in the literature
    • What excites you
    • What doesn't interest you
    • What's missing that you expected to see

    This is a scoping step - you're exploring, not committing.

    Why Google Scholar?

    You can use Google Scholar or a library database. For this step, I find Google Scholar simplest because:

    • It's easy to use
    • It searches across articles, books, theses, and dissertations, like a database

    It's not great for narrowing effectively, but we're not trying to narrow our search results, just refine our topic.

    However, if you're more comfortable with a library database, you can do this step in a database instead.

    Put it in practice:

    Let's put that in practice.

    Example: Explore searches \(\PageIndex{1}\)

    My sample topic is How do graduate students research?

    Searching this in Google Scholar in 2025 gave me these results:

    google scholar search.png

    (The above screenshot has a list of 4 citations and depicts part of the titles, authors, journals, dates, and a snippet of the abstract. These are written as bullet points in the Appendix: ADA Accommodations.)

    Right away I can see some additional terms emerge and start to assess if any of them are interesting to me, such as: selecting, GPA, financial support, preparing, success.

    From a quick scan, I notice:

    • My interests: I am not interested in selecting grad students, nor in test scores
    • New terms:
      • From 'financial cost', I think cost, tuition
      • From 'preparing', I think 'training'
    • Related interests:
      • From 'financial cost', I might think 'barriers', and then think about other barriers, such as child care, transportation, working full time
    • What do I not see that I'd expected to see?
      • I don't see anything about the experience of students, nor about their emotions.

    I could do a few more specific searches in Google Scholar, adding more terms and playing around with the first page or two of results.

    Then I'll take a few quick notes:

    Search terms used Number of results What are you seeing that you do NOT want? What aren't you seeing that you DO want? Any new circles to add to my Venn diagram?
    how do graduate students research 11,200,000

    selecting

    test scores

    emotions

    emotions

    Activity: Explore searches \(\PageIndex{1}\)

    Try it yourself!

    1. Use the terms from your Venn diagram in the last activity and type them into Google Scholar (or a database).
    2. Scan only the first ~20 titles.
    3. Fill out the table below as you go.
    Table

    You can use this table or create a simple one in MS Word or Google Docs, or just jot it down on paper.

    Search terms used Number of results What are you seeing that you do NOT want? What aren't you seeing that you DO want? Any new circles to add to my Venn diagram?
             
             
             
    Check-in - Positionality

    Consider the titles in the results.

    • How do they resonate (or not) with your identity?
    • Which populations are addressed (or not)?
    • What are the results focused on?
    • What or who is missing that you expect to see in the results?
    Check in - Emotions

    As you glance through the results

    • What emotions arise?
    • Are you excited by anything you’re finding? Surprised? Frustrated?

    Your emotions are valuable clues for where to focus next.

    Again, consider using smiley faces or 1-5 stars or a color to depict your current emotions.

    Reflection and next steps \(\PageIndex{1}\)

    Jot down:

    • A couple phrases about what you’re finding
    • Your reactions to that.

    In the next chapter we'll use those notes to refine your topic further.

     

    This page titled 3.4: Explore Searches is shared under a CC BY-SA 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Frances Brady.