Considering Multiple Perspectives when Developing Search Strategies
Our own biases can often unintentionally lead us to find and use sources that reflect our own experiences. Below are a few search strategies to consider when looking for sources from a variety of perspectives and experiences.
- Read the author information in database records and journal articles to learn more about the author. If you can’t find much information about the author, go outside the source and search for university profile pages, blogs, social media, and other online projects the author may be involved in.
- Change the order of your search results in databases and search engines. “Relevance" is often the default setting for displaying search results, but you can change it to “Date Newest” to find the most current research available.
- Consider geography/location in your searching.
- Find out where scholars in your field share ideas less formally (such as blogs, Twitter, etc), to find conversations happening outside of traditional forms of scholarly communication.
- Scroll beyond the first few resources.
Various Identities
- Gender Identity
- Class
- Education
- (Dis)ability
- Sexuality
- Religion
- Nationality
- Political Views
- Age
- Race & Ethnicity
