The internet can be your best or worse resource, depending on how you make use of it.
Being a student these days is not as tough as it used to be. With the advent of the internet, we now have access to billions of resources at our disposal.
In tertiary institution, research doesn’t just come in when you want to write your final year project. You need to make research when you doing your assignments.
You will be asked technical/applied questions, to answer intelligently, you need to have knowledge of the subject matter, and this is why you need to know how to use the internet for academic research.
Academic Sites
Using Google or Yahoo to research may not give you adequate information and it may be exhausting for you. Here are top 11 academic sites you should think of exploring
1. Google Scholar – https://scholar.google.com
Google Scholar was created as a tool to congregate scholarly literature on the web. From one place, students have the ability to hunt for peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
2. Researchgate – https://www.researchgate.net
Researchgate is a unique social networking site for scientists and researchers. Over 11 million researchers submit their work, which totals more than 100 million publications, on the site for anyone to access. You can search by publication, data and author, or you can even ask the researchers questions. Though it’s not a search engine that pulls from external sources, ResearchGate’s own collection of publications provides a hearty selection for any inquisitive scholar.
3. Wolfram Alpha – https://www.wolframalpha.com
A self-described “computational knowledge engine,” Wolfram Alpha does not so much provide search results as it does search answers. Simply type in a topic or question you may be interested in, such as, “What is the function of the pancreas?” and the answer will show up without making you scroll through pages of results. This is especially handy for those in need of math help.
4. Refseek – https://www.refseek.com
With its minimalist design, Refseek doesn’t look like much. However, the engine pulls from over one billion web pages, encyclopedias, journals and books. It is similar to Google in its functionality, except that it focuses more on scientific and academic results—meaning more results will come from .edu or .org sites, as well as online encyclopedias. It also has an option to search documents directly—providing easy access to PDFs of academic papers.
5. Microsoft Academic – https://academic.microsoft.com
Operated by the company that brings you Word, PowerPoint and Excel, Microsoft Academic is a reliable, comprehensive research tool. The search engine pulls content from over 120 million publications, including scientific papers, conferences and journals. You can search directly by topic, or you can search by an extensive list of fields of study. For example, if you’re interested in computer science, you can filter through topics such as artificial intelligence, computer security, data science, programming languages and more.
6. Google Books – https://books.google.com
Google Books allows web users to browse an index of thousands of books, from popular titles to old, to find pages that include your search terms. Once you find the book you are looking for, you can look through pages, find online reviews and learn where you can get a hard copy.
7. Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) – https://eric.ed.gov
Populated by the U.S. Department of Education, the Educational Resources Information Center (ERIC) is a great tool for academic research with more than 1.3 million bibliographic records of articles and online materials. ERIC provides access to an extensive body of education-related literature including journal articles, books, research syntheses, conference papers, technical reports, policy papers and more. With more than eight million searches each month, it’s no wonder why this search engine is a great web source for education.
8. World Wide Science – https://worldwidescience.org
WorldWideScience, which refers to itself as “The Global Science Gateway,” is operated by the Office of Scientific and Technical Information—a branch of the Office of Science within the U.S. Department of Energy. The site utilizes databases from over 70 countries. When users type a query, it hits databases from all over the world and will display both English and translated results from related journals and academic resources.
9. Bielefeld Academic Search Engine – https://www.base-search.net
Operated by the Bielefeld University Library, the Bielefeld Academic Search Engine (BASE) draws from over 7,000 sources to provide users access to over 150 million documents. Paid subscriptions provide the greatest value, but open access users can still look to the academic search engine for journals, digital collections, and more.
The BASE approach emphasizes quality over quantity. Yes, you may find more results elsewhere, but with BASE, you can take solace in knowing that all sources are checked by qualified personnel to ensure full accuracy. This should be your go-to resource if you want to feel 100 percent confident in any data you encounter while searching the internet. Elsewhere, you may find it more difficult to verify source validity.
10. Semantic Scholar – https://www.semanticscholar.org
This AI-driven resource pulls information from over 184 million scientific papers. This information is then linked to provide users a comprehensive take on a variety of cutting-edge topics. While many of Semantic Scholar’s features provide clear value for today’s students, the topic pages offer an especially valuable start. There, users can review key definitions and discover trends in coverage for specific subjects.
11. Z-library – https://z-lib.org
Given the sheer scope of scholarly research sites, there is no excuse for relying on your typical sources of information. No matter the topic, you can look to today’s top research search engines to deliver the relevant and reputable data needed to take your paper to the next level.
Remember to read beyond your field of study. No knowledge is wasted. In fact the wider your knowledge, the more exposed and developed you’d be.
Twelfth Grace 
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