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Where do you find Dr. Goodall's research? (Image generated using ChatGPT)

Let's say you need to write a college-level paper about Dr. Jane Goodall's research contributions to her field. Google can tell you that Dr. Goodall is a world-renowned researcher and activist who has studied chimpanzees and animal behavior since the 1950s and that she holds a Ph.D. in etiology (animal behavior) from Cambridge University.

And while Google can tell you that Dr. Goodall has published at least 15 books and over 100 scholarly articles, you might not have access to the actual content of the books and articles themselves. That's because these works were written primarily for fellow researchers and are not available on the open web.

Try it! Take the search challenge

See if you can beat the following search challenge. Once you've gone through the challenge, read the following sections. See if your new knowledge can help you beat your original score.

Search Challenge

Googling Dr. Goodall

Google search results for Jane Goodall. On the right is a section about her, and on the left are website links. — Google search results for Jane Goodall.

Google and other search engines ( DuckDuckGo, Yahoo, Bing, etc.) are like Amazon in that they will bring up all kinds of search results with a basic search.

When you Google Jane Goodall, you'll find websites related to her organizations, a Wikipedia entry, her social media profiles, photos and videos, links to buy her books, news articles, and so on.

This is great for general searching, but if you have specific assignment parameters in mind, you'll need to get a little more advanced with your searches to get more focused results.

If your professor requires you to use only peer-reviewed sources, you must go beyond internet search engines to find this information since these types of materials are behind paywalls these search engines can't get through.

Advanced searches

Did you know that most search engines have an advanced search option? The advanced search (and the search strategies you'll learn in module 3) can provide more focused and relevant information than the default basic search.

Here's how you access the advanced search page on Google:

Go to the Google landing page.
Click on "Settings" in the bottom right.
Select "Advanced search"
Alternatively, you can go directly to https://www.google.com/advanced_search
Notice how you can limit your results by limiting the language, region, or domain.

Advanced search using other search engines

To find advanced search features on other search engines, such as DuckDuckGo, go to the search engine page.

In the search bar, type "Advanced search for ___" with the search engine's name in the blank.
If the search engine has advanced search capabilities, you will find it in the search results.
DuckDuckGo does not have an advanced search page like Google. Instead, the page will show you how to use search operators to refine your searches.

Searching by domain or file type

Depending on your needs, this can be a useful way of filtering your results. You can search for PDF files, GIF files, and by domain (.edu, .org, .gov, etc) using the advanced search functions.

Search engine strengths and weaknesses

Every search tool has its strengths and weaknesses. This table will help you decide when to use a search engine for your research or when another search tool would be more appropriate.

Comparison of the strengths and weaknesses of search engines.
Strengths	Weaknesses
Simple to search with and mobile-friendly Available to anyone with internet access Easier to find videos and images than other search tools	Difficult to focus or refine your search to scholarly materials The number of search results may be overwhelming and not tailored to what you are looking for The quality may not be appropriate for academic research

Key takeaways

You can't find everything you need for academic research on Google.

However, web search engines do have advanced search functions that can help refine your search results to relevant items.