EDUC 369: Action Research

There’s a lot of relevant material out there about education topics that’s not published in scholarly articles or books. This literature is often called "gray literature."

Information might be collected by:

• government agencies
• non-profits
• think tanks
• professional associations
• private research organizations

The types of information they produce might be published as:

• online articles or blog posts
• reports
• white papers (a type of report)
• fact sheets
• press release
• or other documents.

Two library databases through offer this types of content, and the Harvard Think Tank Search - an open resource on the web -- is also a good source.

Using a search engine like Google is another way discover these materials. Google’s advanced search menu has a number of tricks you can use to refine your results: https://www.google.com/advanced_search

• Put exact phrases you want to search in quotes
  • “ ” works like glue to keep words and phrases together in your search. This trick works in library databases too!
  • Examples: “Upward Bound”
     

• Put a minus sign before words you don’t want in your results
  • Example: -math (if you’re not interested in results about meth)
  • Example: -oregon (if you’re getting overwhelmed by results focusing on this state)
     
• Limit your results to a specific domain, like .edu, .org, or .gov
  • Example: college preparation programs site:.gov (will give you results from government agency websites only at both the state and national levels)
     
• Restrict your search to .pdf or .doc files (these file types are often used to distribute reports)
  • Example: curriculum mapping filetype:pdf (will give you just results that are PDFs)
     

• Use “Boolean logic” to build your searches
  • You can use Boolean logic to build searches in both search engines and in library databases.

• Add keywords related to the type of information you're interested in
  • Example: ("high school" OR secondary) AND arts funding AND site:.gov
  • Example: ("high school" OR secondary) AND "food insecurity" AND (report OR "white paper" OR "fact sheet")

You might also consider trying other search engines beyond Google, as they often give different results. Many search engines change the results you see based on your previous search and browsing history. To avoid this, you can try a search engine like DuckDuckGo, which doesn't track your history.

The APA has help and examples for citing websites, government reports, and other information you find online through their website, APA Style.

Citing webpages and websites:
•   Webpage on a Website
•   Whole Website

Citing reports:

• Report by a Government Agency
• Report with Individual Authors
• Brochure
• Fact Sheet
• Press Release
• White Paper