ERIC Number: EJ1447363
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2024-Nov
Pages: 14
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1759-2879
EISSN: EISSN-1759-2887
Searchsmart.org: Guiding Researchers to the Best Databases and Search Systems for Systematic Reviews and Beyond
Research Synthesis Methods, v15 n6 p1200-1213 2024
When searching for scholarly documents, researchers often stick with the same familiar handful of databases. Yet, just beyond these limited horizons lie dozens of alternatives with which they could search more effectively, whether for quick lookups or thorough searches in systematic reviews or meta-analyses. Searchsmart.org is a free website that guides researchers to particularly suitable search options for their particular disciplines, offering a wide array of resources, including search engines, aggregators, journal platforms, repositories, clinical trials databases, bibliographic databases, and digital libraries. Search Smart currently evaluates the coverage and functionality of more than a hundred leading scholarly databases, including most major multidisciplinary databases and many that are discipline-specific. Search Smart's primary use cases involve database-selection decisions as part of systematic reviews, meta-analyses, or bibliometric analyses. Researchers can use up to 583 criteria to filter and sort recommendations of databases and the interfaces through which they can be accessed for user-friendliness, search rigor, or relevance. With specific pre-defined filter settings, researchers can quickly identify particularly suitable databases for Boolean keyword searching and forward or backward citation searching. Overall, Search Smart's recommendations help researchers to discover knowledge more effectively and efficiently by selecting the more suitable databases for their tasks.
Descriptors: Researchers, Research Methodology, Research Skills, Research Tools, Databases, Information Retrieval, Search Strategies, Open Educational Resources, Open Source Technology, Search Engines, Computer Software Reviews
Wiley. Available from: John Wiley & Sons, Inc. 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030. Tel: 800-835-6770; e-mail: cs-journals@wiley.com; Web site: https://bibliotheek.ehb.be:2191/en-us
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: Researchers
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A