This document aims to offer some guidelines, advices, that may be useful for those who are faced with the difficult task of searching through the Internet during the elaboration of scientific projects.

Searching involves a deliberate action to find something. It is in this sense that we position ourselves, together with Carles Monereo (2009): the search as an activity to find information from a intentional, aware, strategic mode, in contrast with finding information without intention, by chance or by accident.

However, make an active, critical and reflexive search is not a given habit or automatism. It implies a training that, in most cases, we have not learned throughout our education.

Hence, this section focuses on offering guidelines that seek to cover deficits in this regard. Bear in mind that it is only a resource, not a comprehensive and valid guide for any circumstance. It corresponds to each of us to train ourselves in a deliberate, reflexive and critical practice.

1. What type of researcher am I?

The fact of acquiring new skills, for them to be personal resources, and strategies for searching through the Internet, involves perceiving the place in which we are, of the type of researcher that we are today. More than swelling a classification, or than putting ourselves a label, this selfassessment allows us to know the path we must follow to be a strategic researcher.

According to previous research cited by Monereo (2008), there are basically four profiles of behavior at the time of performing a search:

• Passive Researcher
• Active Researcher
• Selective Researcher
• Strategic Researcher

A passive researcher finds the information accidentally, without implementing a plan or using specific guidelines to find it. Through a sort of zapping, this researcher visits different points of information and collects data, casually, for the performing task at the time. He/she performs the most common search, by a word or phrase linked to the topic, or by an author or title, and from there ‘is carried along by’ the results or flows between the displayed information, without applying discriminating filters intentionally.

An active researcher, in contrast, really seeks information, but makes it in a rigid way, starting from well-known search routines and informative points which he/she usually consults (for example: Wikipedia¹). To say an example, a behavior related to this researcher profile would be a person that when he/she is starting the research on a new topic, uses Wikipedia as a first reference to be informed about the topic. In there, he/she reads about authors, approaches, related topics, contexts in which there has been more work done. With this first exploration, searches that are more related to a selective or strategic profile can be made afterwards.

The selective researcher is also proactive in the research, and considers certain known quality elements to choose the data that will be finally collected. This means that, to make the research, he/she develops first certain criteria about where to find the information so that it is of a certain quality, what sources can be useful, and which would provide information to ‘be taken with a pinch of salt’, or questionable. With these criteria, he/she directs the research to be more focused, specific or selective. For example, a selective researcher would document himself/ herself initially about the subject, with various sources; one of them might be Wikipedia. From there, he/she would design criteria to find the information, such as: web sites of universities in contexts where the theme has been more studied, congresses or conferences that have talked about the linked theme or themes, initiators and contemporary authors, etc.

Unlike the previous ones, the strategic researcher is characterized by the flexibility with which he/ she runs the searching process, on the basis of few preset items, and trying to devise strategies tailored to the uniqueness of each search context. This person can operate in a similar way to what has been described as a selective researcher; the particularity of his/her behavior lies in the flexibility with which he/she assumes each search process. For each case, he/she focuses on developing strategies that can offer access to materials which comply with quality criteria, as the selective, but does not follow the same guidelines for each case, he/she thinks first, for the particular case, what might be the sources that are sensitive to give relevant information. So it takes a while to design a route to perform the search, which is evaluated while he/she starts it, and re elaborates, or modifies it while surfing the web.

According to these profiles… which one best describes you? How could you intend more effective searches or related to a profile of the selective or strategic researcher? The following paragraphs give some tips that may be useful for such purposes.

1. It is an encyclopedia on the Internet in which any of its visitors can make contributions or introduce new terms and develop the information thereon. This way of design and shared collaborative management is a powerful tool, but also capable of questioning when it comes to using it as a rigorous academic source. Today, however, many authors consider it a starting point, or they take it into account during the development of the topics to work.

2. Learning to search through the internet: some guidelines

While the previous paragraph gives us clues to make more effective searches on the web, in this one the focus is on offering some tips or guidelines that may be useful. These are not magical recipes, or unique ways. Just as explained above, the particularity of the strategic researcher, is precisely the flexibility with which he/she assumes each new search. Hence, it is unfortunate to claim a standardization of the best ways to search on the Internet.

However, between a passive researcher and a strategic researcher, there are a set of possibilities. The focus will be on this spectrum of alternatives, to offer some guidelines or advice to errant researchers.

According to a study conducted by search experts, from Psychology of Virtual Education, they all agree that there are five classic phases (Monereo, 2009):

1. Active search through a chain of links.
2. Exploration and reviewing of the found documents.
3. Differentiation and labeling of key information.
4. Provision of signals to detect new relevant information.
5. Extraction and using of the collected data.

As can be seen, the search process is not due to a linear logic, rather, once progress is made, it can lead to restart new searches, more individualized, marked by the relevancy of the previously found information. This makes it a complex process. It could be said that it means a mental exercise to maintain multiple windows open at once, to go connecting information extracted from many sources, and at the same time, opening new windows, derived from emerging issues. This implies a training. Several studies and proposals have been developed on these pedagogical processes. To develop these recommendations, the model of Carles Monereo (2009)² as well as the guidelines offered by David Molero (2009)³, have served as a basic documentary source.

2. See: Monereo, C. (2009) “Learn how to find and select information: From Google to taking notes” in: Psychology of university learning: training in skills. Juan Ignacio Pozo Municio, Mary Puy Pérez Echeverría (coords.), 2009, ISBN 978-84-7112-598-9, pp. 89 – 105. 3. See: Molero, D. (2009) “Documentation and search for information”. In: Basic manual for the realization of dissertations, theses and research work. Pantoja Vallejo, Antonio (Coord.). Editorial EOS: Madrid, 2009. pp. 101-125.

Moment 1: planning of the search

Searching on the Internet is a process that does not start with powering the computer, opening a search engine, and placing a term. To success with the search, it is important to plan it first. Otherwise, we can be surfing for a  long time, switching web pages and collecting information that is possibly of no use afterwards.

Sometimes we think that planning is a waste of time. Understand the planning as an investment: investing time to gain time.

At the time of planning we must consider:

• Purpose of the information: Why and what for do we need to locate specific information?

Our purposes with the search can have different degrees of complexity. We can go from the simple definition of a term to the understanding of an approach, which involves elaborating definitions, contexts, tree diagram, etc.

That is why our search can be reduced to a word or phrase, or involve one or more connector strings, and can even make us consider different itineraries of search on the basis of various parameters.

• Prior knowledge: on the topic and on the search process

In parallel to wondering about the purpose of the search, we must ask ourselves about: What do we know about the topic that we want to find? What are our experiences in processes of similar searches and in relation to the different search systems on the Internet?

The answer to these questions will guide us about how to organize the search process.

• Where to search

Obviously the source documents to consult can be diverse. In this text there is a focus on those available through the Internet. Even when the Internet is just one of the sources, the possibilities are endless. Hence the importance of planning where to search.

For example, we can use some generic search engine (Google), or specific, depending on the discipline or area for which we are looking. We can find in a specialized database (TESEO), or in one created by network users as the Wikipedia; as well as in specialized directories or directly in a thematic web site.

But to make a decision about these variants, it is necessary that we know beforehand their features and options, so that, according to our purposes, we can organize the search using resources, one itinerary or other. In this section, we will not give an exhaustive description of each one of them, we just mention some, as an incentive for more detailed reading on the part of those who intend to make more effective and strategic searches.

The dealing of this subject in this document is due to the frequent use and hence the utility that document-oriented data bases tend to have in the postgraduate projects, because of the validity and credibility of their contents, as well as the prestige of their authors. Although the access to some of them may be restricted, they allow us to obtain basic data of documents that may be consulted in university libraries. As we have already expressed, Internet is a possible source, but not the only one. We have to bear this in mind in order not to make a heavy use of it, as well as not to underestimate or ignore the potential of other sources of documentary resources as libraries, statistical centers, institutions specializing in topics.

Document-oriented Data Bases

The document-oriented data bases are a kind of virtual libraries, although they do not always contain the full texts but a brief reference to them. Many of them are specialized, depending on the discipline, so it is important to inform us about which databases relate to the field of our studies. On top of that, they are not always freely accessible, and in some cases, neither are without any cost. Aspects of this nature are also taken into account when planning where to search. There can also exist databases in different languages, and according to our reading comprehension, we can evaluate if we search in one of them.

As an annex to this text, there is a guide on how to search in the TESEO database, that belongs to the Ministry of Science and Innovation of Spain (Annex 1). This database hosts completed doctoral thesis from the year 1976, it is freely accessible and so it may be a valid source for our searches.

There is also a guide to search in Dialnet, the dissemination portal of scientific production in Spanish (Annex 2). Its access is free and it was created by the University of La Rioja. According to Molero (2009), “it contains the indexes of the greater part of the humanistic and scientific journals from Spain and Latin America, including books, doctoral theses and another type of documents” (University of La Rioja, 2008, cited by Molero, 2009). In February 2009, 1.927.463 documents were available, 5.266 different magazines and more than 17.300 doctoral theses of 36 Spanish universities; many of these documents are available with full text.

• Quality Criteria

Performing a search on the Internet for a research project involves considering criteria that serve as quality filters about the information. Not all we find is valid, therefore, we have to learn to discriminate the information, on the basis of their quality for scientific research.

In this sense, we have to address:

a) the validity and credibility of a document,
b) if the document is up to date or the updating rate of the source in which it is included,
c) the prestige or the recognition of authors,
d) the adequacy of its contents in relation to our desired content and objectives

Being able to distinguish in terms of quality is equal to experience in the field or thematic for which we are searching. However, for junior researchers, there are some resources that may be useful.

One of them is the impact index of magazines. Its calculation helps us to know which are the more recognized magazines according to the topics, authors with the greatest number of citations and the most present educational institutions in the scientific production, through the publication of studies in scientific journals (Molero, 2009). This information is of great value to guide our searches, and in turn to filter what was found on the basis of the criteria of quality. As an annex to this material (Annex 3), some examples are shown on how to calculate the impact rate in social sciences journals and education fields⁴.

As well as we have criteria for evaluating the quality of certain sources, there are unreliable sources, or of doubtful value for a study or scientific research. Without believing possible to list in detail URLs or web sites that have this feature (the list could very extensive), we will add to the criteria mentioned above other issues to consider when we evaluate what can be valid information or not on the web.

In this regard, something that we can do is check the source: check that the information that we are reading comes from an original source orthat we know its origin. In this sense, we can rely, if it comes from specialized sites in certain subjects, even when it is not an original source. Mail chains, public forums, blogs or other spaces in which we can read information on the Internet, even when they can suggest good reflections, do not constitute sources of reliable documentation for scientific approaches.

4. Although the example is restricted to these fields of knowledge, it may be useful for other disciplines, since, operationally, the calculation works in a similar way

Moment 2: performing the search actions

This moment is distinguished by performing the search actions. Once we have developed search strategies, we have surfed through the Internet to identify relevant authors within the researched topic, or institutions or contexts where our study field is most worked, we proceed to undertake searches of primary sources (original texts) or secondary, related to our search purposes.

In regard to the search procedures, authors such as Marchionini, cited by Monereo (2009), described three categories: movements, tactics, and strategies.

As pointed out by the author: the movements are discrete behavioral actions such as typing an address in an URL box, or return to a previous page; the tactics are making punctual decisions on the search, such as modifying the initial keyword, or copy and paste a data; while strategies involve the conscious and deliberate use of an organized set of tactics, such as choosing a specific system for the search, or refine the keyword.

The table below illustrates with greater precision and comprehensiveness the description above.

Moment 3: supervision and evaluation of the search

This moment distinguishes a strategic finder, and although for many it could be seen as a posterior time in the search process, we include it as part of it since it is a significant moment of the process.

When we supervise and evaluate the found materials, we conduct a valuation that in the majority of cases, takes us back to moment 2, or even redirects us to moment 1, if we note that planning was not as successful as we would like it to be, according to the purposes with which we started the search.

Now, the person who performs the search chooses the documents to definitely use and begins to identify the specific information to be extracted in order to record it. It is important to mention that some times the content of a document may not be a relevant source for our research, however, its literature can be of great utility to find valuable information that allows us to continue the search.

Authors like Monereo and Fuentes (2005, cited by Monereo 2009) suggest some criteria for reliability or credibility we must consider in this moment 3. These criteria represent a sort of filter, which makes it easier for us to supervise and evaluate the search:

a) In relation to the adjustment to the topic of search:

• the order the document occupies in the generated listing
• the index of affinity shown by the search engine (in case that utility exists)
• the similarity of the topic with the document index
• the semantics proximity (in meanings) with the summary or abstract of the document, or with the first paragraphs of it, or with the key words
• the extent and level of in-depth in the topic

b) regarding the relative quality of the document:

• the level of objectivity of the information
• the adequacy of the tone, the syntax, vocabulary and the style of communication to the subject and the recipients
• the design aspects, aesthetics and originality of the format
• the relevance and effectiveness in the included links
• the balanced and adequate advertising
• the search options included
• the use of appropriate technology for the management of document

c) regarding the rigor of the information:

• the reputation of the authors or producers of the information and possibility to access the electronic address
• how that document is cited in other sites of renowned quality
• possibilities of contrasting the content
• topicality
• consistency and quality of the links
• updating frequency of the document or information point
• number of receiving views

The information corresponding to these reliability criteria can be classified into one or more folders, or registered in a same document. This discrimination of the raw material is essential, because if this is faulty, the synthesis of results also will also be.

Moment 4: evaluation of the search process

As noted by Monereo (2009), this is an often forgotten stage, and it is precisely the one that must ensure that the finder learns from the mistakes, to use that knowledge in future searches.

To do this, we contrast the itineraries or search routes initially planned and the changes that they suffered, value the correctness of the made decisions, and evaluate the effectiveness of the used search procedures. These actions will allow us to train ourselves to search better in the future.

The evaluation of the search process means that we are able to represent mentally the followed process, and that we can take distance from the execution, in order to review it better.

If we review this text, it should be noted that search in the Internet of valid information for scientific work is not a simple task. In principle, these guidelines or advice will look to us more as an obstacle than a tool, because this certainly involves a process of learning and training. However, once we acquire the competence to carry out strategic searches, the lived learning moment is positively valued. Without turning the practice into a routine- something that would be inconsistent with a strategic act – we are certain habits and acquire a series of personal resources that makes us look differently at the immense field of information of Internet.

We invite you to convert these pages into a guiding reference of our search practices. At the beginning, it is possible that we have to return to them again and again, but with time, they will be archival material.

3. TESEO Database

[paragraph taken from: Molero, D. (2009) “Documentation and search for information”. In: Basic manual for the realization of dissertations, theses and research work. Pantoja Vallejo, Antonio (Coord.). Editorial EOS: Madrid, 2009. pp. 101-125. All rights transferred to FUNIBER, 2010]

This database belongs to the Ministry of Science and Innovation, consists in a procedure for the search and management of files of completed Doctoral Theses since the year 1976, in it you can query or register as a doctoral student to enter the data of the own thesis in the system; access is done on-line (Ministry of Science and Innovation, 2008). The electronic address to access it is https://www.micinn.es/teseo/login.jsp. This address has recently been amended with the change of university competencies to the Ministry of Science and Innovation, still being active the previous address with a redirect to the actual application.

As said before, it is freely accessible and you only need to register if you want to access as a doctoral student and be able to maintain contact with the administrators, not being necessary to register to perform queries. Its use is very simple, once we have accessed it, we can perform queries through the option ”Access to the query of TESEO” (see figure 1).

Once we are in the search option, we can opt for the alternative of doing a simple search, where we can see the thesis by author, title, university or even by academic courses. There is also the possibility of making advanced searches, which, in addition to the searching criteria for the simple alternative, has other criteria such as keywords, phrases or search with a thesaurus or combining several of them (see figure 2).

The great advantage of this alternative advanced search is that, for those who want to locate doctoral theses without knowing its identifying data, in a very concrete manner, they can search with one or several descriptors or keywords, or through the use of one or several thesaurus: a compilation of terms used in these kind of topics. In these cases, people who might be interested would have to select some thesaurus within the key words menu in the advanced search, including them if they know any or asking for the computer application to make a suggestion in the case of not knowing any, as shown in figure 3. In this short and concise way, but at the same time specific, searches may be more restrictive.

Once you have made or selected all the search alternatives, we order the application to perform the search in TESEO. Depending on the specifications or requested limitations, we will find a greater or lesser number of search results, which are shown from ten to ten records per page. You can mark or select the records that you want and then mark the alternative “view selection“, that allows to access the Doctoral Thesis selected file or, in the case of multiple selection, be able to move on to the following. In the Thesis File there is the information on the title, author, university, reading date, address, court, descriptors, a hyperlink with the link to it if the text is available and finally a summary of the thesis (see figure 4).

It is important to remember the possibility of a loan by librarian exchange in the Spanish Network of University Libraries (REBIUN) of the thesis that are of your interest through the university or research center. Despite that, many of the cited works end up being published on paper, electronic format (see the Dialnet database), book, CD, etc.; so its access is affordable.

4. Dialnet Database

[paragraph taken from: Molero, D. (2009) “Documentation and search for information”. In: Basic manual for the realization of dissertations, theses and research work. Pantoja Vallejo, Antonio (Coord.). Editorial EOS: Madrid, 2009. pp. 101-125. All rights transferred to FUNIBER, 2010]

Dialnet is a portal for the dissemination of scientific production in Spanish language. Its access is free and it was created by the University of La Rioja. “It contains the indexes of the greater part of the humanistic and scientific journals from Spain and Latin America, including books, doctoral theses and other types of documents” (University of La Rioja, 2008). In February 2009, 1.927.463 documents were available, 5.266 different magazines and more than 17.300 doctoral theses of 36 Spanish universities; many of these documents are available with full text. The number of registered users is 355.589 on the date when this publication is sent to printing.

This database is one of the most used search services in the Hispanic cultural world. Furthermore, it facilitates the access to numerous content to full text and offers an alerts service, to receive via email summaries of the magazines or topics of interest.

Dialnet is also available in other languages and official languages through the option “Language” at the top of the home page to the database (see figure 5). The available languages in addition to Spanish are English, French, Portuguese, Galician, Catalan and Basque. Recently, Dialnet in German has launched, through a collaboration with the Library of the Instituto Cervantes of Munich.

If we access the home page of Dialnet (http://dialnet.unirioja.es/) we can perform different types of searches by any word, by title or by the author (see figure 5). At the same time, we can ask for documents of any type, magazine articles, collective works, theses or books. We can also do searches of magazines, since the web has a specific option for this, we can search by title, by the ISSN code or by the code of the Dialnet journal, searching in any subject or only in the selected one, in our case Psychology and Education.

We are going to illustrate the process with a search by author. In the various search options we are going to select the name of the desired person, recalling that the more we specify it, the more delimited the results will be. Once we have indicated in the section author the person that we seek, select the button “Search“, obtaining as a result all related records (see figure 6).

On numerous occasions, at the time of searching for information, we do not know the full details of the authorship of the work (we only recall a surname or we do not remember the name, etc.), causing a broader result output of the expected. Dialnet offers solutions to it, we can select it by clicking on the personal data of those responsible for the articles, chapters of books, found monographs, etc. and the system gives us all the records associated with that person. In the same way, you can select other coauthors of the person that we seek, magazines, books, etc. In this way the computer application, through different links, leads us to the different documents or authors

If we decided to make a search of doctoral theses (see Figure 4.7), we can facilitate it by using and combining the different search criteria in the nearly 17.300 thesis available in the 36 universities referred to in this alternative search. The available criteria are keywords or descriptors, authorship, university, titles, language, year of start and end of the thesis, as well as the alternative that selects only the records that are available in full text, which in February 2009 was 11.774 doctoral theses available. Once submitted the various search options of this simple, useful and dynamic, but at the same time wide database maintained by the University of La Rioja, we recommend to the readers of this publication to use this database, given the richness of documents that it gathers and the variety fo languages.

5. Impact indexes of journals

[synthesis of paragraph taken from: Molero, D. (2009) “Documentation and search for information”. In: Basic manual for the realization of dissertations, theses and research work. Pantoja Vallejo, Antonio (Coord.). Editorial EOS: Madrid, 2009. pp. 101-125. All rights transferred to FUNIBER, 2010]

Now we are going to introduce two resources to calculate the impact index of magazines, particularly of educational magazines, although the procedure may be valid to calculate the index of other journals of social sciences. These resources are sources of secondary documentation. They help to know which are the most recognized magazines, the authors with the greatest number of citations and the most present educational institutions in the scientific production, through the publication of studies in scientific journals.

5.1 Impact Index of Spanish magazines of Social Sciences -IN-RECS

The author of this resource is the Research Group Evaluation of Science and Scientific Communication of the University of Granada (2008); it has received funds from the Ministry of Education and Science and it is now financed by the Ministry of Science and Innovation. The electronic address is: http://ec3.ugr.es/in-recs/.

IN-RECS is a bibliometric index in Spanish that gives statistical information from the count of the bibliographic citations in order to determine the relevance, influence and scientific impact of the Spanish magazines of social sciences, the publishing authors and the institutions to which they belong. It also allows to know in an individualized manner the bibliographic citations that the published projects in Spanish scientific journals receive, so it is possible to know the real impact they have had on the scientific community to which they are addressed.

IN-RECS publishes annually, in the last quarter of the year, lists of magazines, authors and institutions sorted according to their impact. The IN-RECS database (see figure 8) feeds from the systematic indexing of the bibliographical references cited in the articles published in Spanish journals of the main disciplines that make up the domain of the Social Sciences (Anthropology, Library and Information Science, Economics, Education, Geography, Sociology, Psychology and Urban Planning).

We are going to focus on the use of the section relating to Education, although the process would be the same for any other area. If we access to the website (see figure 8) into the contents of the education area we can appreciate the classification of the educational magazines according to its impact index and its distribution in quartiles depending on the obtained classification, an option that appears by default, as can be seen in figure 9.

It is convenient to indicate that the impact indexes of journals vary depending on the consulted years; annual indexes from 1996 to 2007 remain available and two accumulated indexes from 1994 to 2007 and from 2003 to 2007. These details should be taken into account, since the results may be different depending on the selected interval. We can also request, in accordance with our needs, for it to classify the magazines taking into account the total number of projects, total citations both national and international or to sort them alphabetically; but the information of the quartile in which are located the magazines is always indicated.

At the same time, we may request that the documentary source classifies or searches the most cited articles, the most cited authors, the most reflected institutions in the different reviews and perform a search by authorship, magazines, institutions, etc. These searches are achieved by selecting at the top of the application the various options (articles, author, institutions, searches, etc.) as can be seen in figure 10, as an example, we select the most cited articles, following a similar process for the rest of the actions.

The IN-RECS database has many other applications related to the studied magazines, such as the evolution of the magazines, a statistic, the views of the journals that serve as a source and a help menu. Without any doubt, this application usefulness is high, even more at the present time, when there is a concern of the researchers to know which are the most important magazines in each of our work fields.

5.2 Impact Index of Magazines -LATINDEX

Latindex is a regional system of information on-line for scientific journals in Latin America, the Caribbean, Spain and Portugal, as stated in its own website (http://www.latindex.unam.mx/). It is a product of the cooperation of institutions which work in a coordinated manner to collect and disseminate bibliographic information on the scientific publications series produced in the Latin American world.

Users and potential users of Latindex work with, exchange and generate scientific information among researchers, teachers, students, administrators and planners of the scientific activity, publishers, librarians and information specialists. The Latindex serves also to the international community (organizations and individuals) interested in the content, themes and actions related to science and scientific information in the region.

This Database (Latindex, 2008) verifies if the research journals meet some criteria, so that the journals that comply with the greatest number of criteria or indicators are those that have more relevance. That is to say, publishers and authors expect that the journals have the largest number of criteria so as to consider that the publications are best valued and most prestigious (see figure 11).

If you select the option to search for magazines of social sciences and, within them, for the education ones in the advanced search option (see figure 12), you can perform searches based on different criteria, authorship, name of the journals, themes, ISSN, publishing country, etc. It is advisable to perform the searches with the largest number of criteria, given the high volume of magazines that appear in the above database: there are 1.023 indexed journals only in education.

Once the magazine is selected, recall the importance to indicate specific search criteria to reduce the number of results, and get the information related with the same in a data file. We can access their webs or articles that are available on-line, but one of the most important aspects is the number of met criteria, being the highest rating 33 criteria or characteristics (see figure 13).