Computer Science

A successful search often begins with effective search terms. Where do you find terms?

Choosing your search terms and combining them into a logical query is a critical step. If you do this poorly, you'll get poor results. Databases are only as good as the questions you ask them!  While search engines like Google do best with strings of words, other more structured databases can offer you more refinement.

The first thing to do is separate your question into its component concepts. Say you're wondering how the data you input can affect the outcome of machine learning and artificial intelligence.  You will want to break your search into a few key concepts:

1. machine learning
2. artificial intelligene
3. machine learning algorithms

Since machine learning algorithms are generally divided into three categories you may even need to search on each of those categories:

1. Supervised Machine Learning Algorithms
2. Unsupervised Machine Learning Algorithms
3. Reinforcement Learning Algorithms 

Google Scholar is a great way to find scholarly articles or book citations.  After searching, look for features in your results that can help you find related articles:

• The Cited By feature will show you who cited an article so you can follow the citation trail. 
• Click Related Articles to find other articles on topic. 

Linking Google Scholar to the Library's collection can help you find your results more efficiently. The PDF below shows you how to link Google Scholar to the Wheaton College Library so you can check if we have access to a resource. Also, use the Cited By feature to follow the scholarly conversation.