Researching tips

Research Requirements and Source Evaluation

  • Google and Search Engine Usage Guidelines:

    • Standard Google searches should generally be avoided for academic history research, with the minor exception of initial exploratory searches for the family history project.

    • AI Overviews generated by search engines must never be used or cited as sources. These overviews pull information from unvetted platforms such as Reddit and Facebook, which are not reputable academic sources.

    • Google Scholar serves as an acceptable open database option to find peer-reviewed sources using advanced search techniques.

  • Tertiary Sources vs. Primary and Secondary Sources:

    • Tertiary sources (e.g., history.com, biography.com) combine multiple secondary sources into general overviews and should not be cited directly in academic research.

    • Tertiary websites and Wikipedia can be utilized as starting points solely to locate credited primary and secondary sources listed in their reference or footnotes sections.

    • Domain Credibility: Web addresses ending in .gov or .edu represent reliable, peer-reviewed, and high-quality sources (e.g., materials from the White House or PBS).

Institutional Databases and Support Resources

  • Accessing Academic Databases:

    • Library databases are essential for locating peer-reviewed, scholarly articles (e.g., JSTOR, America: History and Life with Full Text).

    • Students can access these resources via University of Nevada, Reno (UNR / UNRF) accounts on WebCampus or through Clark County School District (CCSD) Chromebook logins and district library databases (e.g., EBSCO databases).

  • Course and Support Personnel:

    • Course: History 102C: Family History in US History.

    • Roz (History Department Librarian): Manages the specialized History 102C library page. Available for 3030-minute consultation appointments (via Zoom or in-person) to assist with topic selection, research questions, and database navigation.

    • Additional Support Staff: Dr. Rigo, Kurt, and Miss Delayo.

Boolean Operators and Search Modifiers

  • Boolean Operators Overview:

    • Boolean operators are logical words used to combine or exclude search terms, allowing precision when querying databases.

    • AND Operator:

    • Narrows search results by requiring both terms to be present in every retrieved source.

    • Example: Searching Vietnam War AND protest retrieves only sources containing both terms.

    • Impact Example: Searching Civil War yields approximately 52,00052,000 results; modifying the query to Civil War AND abolition narrows the yield to approximately 600600 results.

    • OR Operator:

    • Broadens search results by retrieving items containing either or both terms.

    • Example: Searching Vietnam War OR Cold War returns all material covering either event.

    • NOT Operator:

    • Excludes specific terms from the search results.

    • Example: Searching Vietnam War NOT protest removes all protest-related material from the search.

    • Example: Searching Civil War NOT Reconstruction eliminates articles discussing Reconstruction alongside the Civil War (reducing results by roughly 3,0003,000 entries).

  • Search Modifiers:

    • **Quotation Marks (`