. . STEPS TO START OFF WITH YOUR RESEARCH TOPIC . It is hoped the following guidelines can help MUST Library community to start off their research topic in a more effective and would efficiently minimize the time spent for information searching and to make best use of library resources and facilities (physical and services available) . 1. DEVELOP RESEARCH TOPIC To start off the research topic, try to get as much background of information by using all the available background information resources. From there on, you may consider to narrowing or broadening your research topic .  a. Finding background information Background information of particular research topic can be derived from resources under reference collection such as encyclopedia, bibliography, index, handbook, statistics and etc. These sources can give useful basic information about research topic or subject of area before looking into a more specific sources such as journals, articles and books Background information may include the definition, meaning, history, the biography, all relevant terms or subject trees. These kinds of introduction can give better understanding of particular research topic and also of unfamiliar relevant concepts. In addition, such information helps to define a clearer idea and hence to consider on how to stay focus or broaden the research area Best suggestion to start off for background information is to use encyclopedia. Encyclopedias are useful resource for general or special overview of particular subject. Subject encyclopedia provides more in-depth, highly good of its comprehensiveness on particular subject. MUST Library provides both the printed and online versions of Encyclopedia Britannica . b. Narrowing and broadening of topic i. Narrowing Based on the background information gathered, at least could give idea whether the available research topic is general or specific. If the research topic is general, you may focus the search by limiting the coverage of your research topic. Try to use some limitations when do searching. For instance, restrict a search that cover on particular person or group, certain aspect or discipline from the main idea, selected geographical area, within a range of time period or span and on the relevancy of topic to certain industry, etc In doing so, several search keywords can be combined by using Boolean operators such as AND and NOT. This, will potentially get a short list of hits/results with a better precision ii. Broadening Sometimes, based on the information gathered, you will get confused and difficult to understand on how to develop the research topic. This could be happened when the topic is too specific or when new terms or concepts have not yet been established. In this situation, you may consider to broaden the topic by finding of any particulars, interests, terms, concepts that can be associated to, or carry similar attribute and weight to the research topic The use of Boolean operator, OR and truncation symbols such as asterisks (*), pound sign (#), question mark (??) will potentially get more hits/results and might be less of precision . c. Using subject vs keyword search There are two search methods commonly used for information searching in OPAC, online database and the Internet. These methods also can help to limit or expand the results to be retrieved i. Subject Search Subject search is based on subject headings which have been established as standard classification for a wide range of general subjects. The standard classification were done and decided by certain authority. Therefore, subject headings are controlled terms Hence, a search using subject headings must be accurate or exactly the same in the available subject heading schemes or systems such as Library of Congress Subject Heading, Medical Subject Heading, Dewey Decimal Scheme, etc. As such, no guessing is allowed in using this method. The search will find matching terms at the subject column only. Special systems such as MeSH contain specific technical terms to cater more in depth or comprehensiveness of Medical field A single information institution/library usually adopts one from a varies of subject heading schemes or systems and to remain the consistency in classifying their collection. In classifying collection, subject headings are given and decided by cataloguers, indexers upon viewing the context of records. They choose the most best suited subject headings to the content of materials being catalogued. This classification process involves human understanding, thus the results to be retrieved will carry high relevancy as compared to keyword search. Each item is then being assigned with unique code, or known as call number. All the collection, especially the physical type are catalogued and arranged on the shelves based on the sequent call number. In MUST Library, we refer to LCSH (Library of Congress Subject Headings) and cutter number table in cataloguing process Using this subject search method would eliminate a lot of irrelevant results. In OPAC, results may contain of variety of items format that bring the same topic or subject discussion. The subject headings are highlighted in italic form and linkable to other format of records which carry the same subjects ii. Keyword Search Keyword search is done using keyword or words that may associate to a search topic The search will retrieve information that contains the exact keywords used anywhere in a record or document such as in the title, the author, the abstract, the subject headings and in the full text or content columns. Some databases later arrange the results/hits based on the relevancy or the highest occurrences of the keywords found in an article. Therefore, there is possibility to get nothing or abundance of results with least precision, or lots of irrelevant documents will be retrieved along Keyword search method is more suitable when the exact subject headings are unknown, or for new terms or concepts. Initially, try to use a single keyword for each search. Also try to search using several keywords that synonym simultaneously and combine those keywords using Boolean operators to focus or broad the search. In fact, some keywords or terms found in the hits or results can be used back to refine your search. In some databases, they may suggest other keywords that synonym or associate with the search keywords being used When do searching, exclude stop words such as the, of, an, a as these words may appear too frequent in all records fields Try this in OPAC: Type “Nanotechnology” as Subject and “Nanotechnology” as Keyword Other source: http://www.jsr.vccs.edu/jsr_lrc/tutorial/sub&key.htm . d. Using Boolean operators, truncation i. Boolean There are three Boolean operators that help for a more effective search in huge databases : AND, NOT, OR Help to limit or narrow the results of search. Helps to broaden the results of search. Prone to get more results as they may contain any of keywords in the column of title, abstract, content, author, subject, URL and etc ii. Truncation Truncation in a search is done by using symbols, characters to retrieve several words that begins with the same word or words that have the same root This method is effective when the words have different spelling, to find words in both singular and plural, or words with different suffixes. In other words, truncation helps to retrieve more results or broaden of a search. Selection of symbols to truncate words are varies among electronic databases and Internet. Electronic databases usually provide tutorial on this subject Example: Type : Organi* will retrieve documents contain words organic, organism, organization, organize Do not truncate too short as the search could retrieve abundance results that are much irrelevant to the intended search Example to search “promotion” Type : Prom* will retrieve documents contain promenade, prominent, promiscuous, promise, promontory, promotion, promote, prompt Instead, try to type “promot* will retrieve documents contain words promotion, promote, promotions, promotes Search for a phrase, which consists of more than two words, try to use inverted coma (“ …”). This will help to get results that contain the exact adjacent words, that come after another   2. SEARCH INFORMATION DATABASE After recognizing the search topic or after getting the information background, proceed to find the sources using the available tools in the library Sources A good quality research should provide supports from good quality articles and reliable sources. Following are types of sources that available in MUST Library Book MUST Library holds books that mainly focus on subjects with high relativeness to the University academic programs. The book collection also includes general, light titles as we recognize the importance of thinking and progress of the whole University community and to support their long life learning process Journals There two types of journal; scholar and popular. Both types are useful for research purpose and journal collection is placed in journal area There are characteristics that can differentiate between these two types of journals. Sometimes the difference can be identified through its title. The popular type usually written by their journalist, or no subject specialization. The presentation of articles are more informal, personal view with easy reading style, more common language for easy understanding read by public. The coverage also more comprehensive with shallow discussion and sometimes likely reporting of particular current issue or interest that closes to the heart of public On the other hand, generally scholarly journals are affiliate/associate to particular institution or university, hence the presentation is more academically mode, or scientific which based on facts. This journal type plays role as communication means to particular groups, thus uses more technical, special terms or academic language in particular subject areas. Indirectly, the presentation is formal and not easy reading type for public. The coverage is to make informed the latest developments, findings, discoveries of research and finally could encourage peers to give points of view on the research topics   . .