Finding research

Nilusha Kapugama 28 March 2015, Nargarkot, Nepal This work was carried out with the aid of a grant from the International Development Research Centre, Canada and UKaid from the Department for International Development, UK.

Why do we look for evidence (or research)?

• Scanning or looking through the literature – To know what has been already been done in your area (or subject) of interest – To strengthen your arguments or substantiate your point of view – To learn about opposing view points • A systematic Review of the literature – To understand what works best – To provide an exhaustive summary of literature relevant to a research question – To find gaps in the literature to identify future areas of research

Types of research/evidence out there

• • • • • • • • Policy papers Case studies Reports Review papers Peer-reviewed papers Working papers Newspaper reports Etc

Where can you find research?

• Electronic Bibliographic databases • Peer reviewed journals • Search Engines • Institutional websites • Reference lists • Conference proceedings • Personal contacts

Electronic Bibliographic databases

• an organized digital collection of references to published literature – journal and newspaper articles, conference proceedings, reports, government and legal publications, patents, books, etc • Plenty to choose from but access might be an issue – Mostly paid: Econ Lit, Academic Search Complete, Business Source Premier (EBSCO) – Free includes: IDEAS, SSRN

More on free…

More on free…

Not to ignore the not so free ones…

Contd…

Peer reviewed journals

• Think about relevance and access

Peer reviewed journals…

• •

Search Engine

Most famous…. GOOGLE or scholar.google

Make use of advance search function

Searches engines contd…

What about the institutional websites…

• • • • • INGOs (World Bank, ADB etc) Regulatory agencies Think tanks Research institutes Consultancy firms Searching through one site may be different from another – Reading through the FAQ will actually save you time

INGOs are consolidating their outputs

Regulatory agencies?

Think Tanks…contd

Think Tanks???

More on Think Tanks

Don’t ignore the consultancy firms…

Other sources…

• • • Reference lists Conference proceedings/programmes Personal communication with experts in the subject area

When searching…

• Too many search results? – Identify the key words in your research question or policy issue – narrow it down further • Geographic area • Time • Language • Any other criteria – Maintain a record of keywords and sources used

More on searches

• Too few results? – Take some time to read through search instructions if available • Use of “and” “or” “+” differs from site to site – Use truncated words where applicable – Don’t forget synonyms

Keeping track of what you use…

• • Use a referencing system, eg. Mendeley, zotero, etc Make use of functions in MS Word