Glossary

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Academic integrity

Academic integrity means acting honestly, fairly, and responsibly within academic work. This includes acknowledging the sources of any information used, following assessment requirements, and representing your own work accurately. When searching for information, academic integrity means recording and acknowledging sources appropriately, respecting copyright and licensing conditions, and following any requirements or restrictions regarding the use of AI tools.

Read more about academic integrity here: Understanding Academic Integrity

Academic Library

Academic libraries are those that belong to institutions of higher education. The mission of academic libraries is to support the educational and research activities of their parent institution through the provision of collections, services and user education. Providing support for teaching, learning and research is the focus of academic libraries.

Curzon, S. and Quinonez-Skinner, J. (2017), Academic libraries, In: McDonald, J. D. and Levine-Clark, M. (eds.) (2017) Encyclopedia of Library and Information Studies, Fourth ed. CRC Press. Available at: https://doi.org/10.1081/E-ELIS4

Academic search tools

Academic search tools are online databases of published academic work, such as articles or books. Searching them usually provides either citations or links to the full text for each item. Library Search, the university’s online catalogue, is an example. More examples can be found through the databases page or the subject guide for your department.

Authority

Authority is typically understood as the recognized legitimacy, credibility, or power of an author, document, or source to be accepted as trustworthy and influential within a particular community or context, often because it conforms to accepted norms of qualification, measurement or production. For an author, authority could be linked expertise, affiliation with a learned institution, or practical or lived experience. In a document, authority will be rooted in provenance (where and how it originated), or publication and editorial processes for example.

B

Boolean operators

Boolean operators are used to combine keywords within a search query. They tell the search engine or database how to limit or broaden your results. The main operators are:

AND, which narrows a search by requiring results to contain both terms. For example, a search for climate AND migration would only return results which contain both the words ‘climate’ and ‘migration’.
OR, which returns results which contain either term. For example, a search for cars OR vans would return results which contains either ‘cars’ or ‘vans’.
NOT, which excludes results. In the search ford NOT car, for example, results containing the word ‘car’ would be excluded.

Using Boolean operators can help to make your search more precise. You will often need to enter the operators in capital letters, depending on the search tool.

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Citation database

Citation databases provide a way of connecting research (mostly journal articles) through the citations used. They allow a researcher to follow the references and citations within articles to reveal the sources used in any research, or show further sources that cite a relevant article. They create a network of authors and research from a single article based on citations and in doing so, can help trace the development of an idea, discover related research, and identify influential publications. Example are Web of Science and Scopus.

Citation searching

Citation searching is a way of finding relevant academic sources by examining the references and citations connected to a useful publication.

Backward citation searching involves looking at the sources cited in a publication’s reference list or bibliography.
Forward citation searching involves finding later publications that cite that publication.

Citation searching can help you trace the development of an idea, discover related research, and identify influential publications. Look for the ‘citations’ or ‘cited by’ buttons in databases such as Web of Science and Scopus.

Find more information: Search and explore topic guide.

Controlled vocabulary

Controlled vocabulary is a standardised set of terms used by a database to describe the topics covered by its resources. Using these terms can help you find relevant results even when authors use different words or phrases to refer to the same concept.

For example, Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) is the controlled vocabulary used to index articles in Medline and PubMed. A MeSH Heading, such as Heart Failure, brings together articles about that topic, including articles that use related terms such as cardiac failure in their titles or abstract.

See the Medline tutorial course for more information.

Controlled vocabulary terms vary between databases and search tools, so you may need to identify and use the terms specific to the database you are searching. You can often combine controlled vocabulary with keyword searching.

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Data: Data is a collection of values that convey information that may be further interpreted formally. It is collected using techniques such as measurement, observation, query, or analysis, and is typically represented as numbers or characters that may be further processed. In some fields, data can also be generated, derived, simulated, or inferred rather than directly collected from observation or experience. Data can be seen as the smallest unit of factual information that can be used as a basis for calculation, reasoning, or discussion
Document supply: Document supply is a service that helps you obtain resources (books, articles, etc.) not available through the library’s existing collections. This may include borrowing it from another library through interlibrary loan, requesting an item for purchase, or requesting a digital copy of part of a print resource.
At Warwick, the Get It For Me service covers these options. You can use it to request books or other resources that the library does not currently hold, or request that a section of a print book is scanned and sent to you. Availability, costs, and copyright restrictions may limit what the Library is able to provide.

E

E-book features: These are the tools available for reading and exploring an electronic book. Depending on the platform, these include keyword searching within the book, navigation between chapters, changing the file format, text size, or layout, adding notes or highlights, and quoting or citation. These features can help you locate relevant information, record useful passages, and make an e-book easier to read. The features vary depending on the publisher’s platform.

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Filters: Most academic search engines offer ways to filter the results of a search to reduce the total number of results. These normally include facets such as resource type (e.g. book, journal article, chapter, newspaper article, or report), discipline or subject term (e.g. medicine, music, or anthropology), publication date (select publication within a recent timeframe, such as the last year or two, or within a date range, such as January 1970 to December 1979), or language.

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Information landscape: Information landscape is a metaphor describing the complex environment of information around us, similar to a physical landscape with peaks, plains, valleys, forests, paths, and hidden areas. It emphasises exploration, navigation, and the potential for both nurturing and misusing information. It is a dynamic, interconnected environment where knowledge is generated, shared, contested, and applied. Understanding it involves recognizing the diversity of sources, the accessibility of information, and the social and technological structures that shape how knowledge is perceived and acted upon.

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Keyword: Keywords are significant words or phrases which describe the main idea or topic you are searching for. Search tools use keywords to find resources with those words in their titles, abstracts, subject headings, or full text. If searching for resources about the impact of social media on student mental wellbeing, for example, keywords could include social media, students or student wellbeing, mental health, and social media. Keywords can be combined or adapted to broaden, narrow, and refine a search.

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Media: Media generally refers to the technologies, channels, formats, and institutions used to create, store, communicate, and distribute information. It is the means through which information, knowledge, messages, and cultural content are produced, represented, transmitted, and received.

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Natural language: Natural language describes the ordinary, everyday language people use to communicate, rather than formal language or a specific set of formatted search terms. In the context of searching, some information retrieval tools (including AI) use natural language instead of keyword-based queries, which involves explaining what you want to find in a more conversational way. For example, instead of searching for something like “social media” AND (“mental health” OR wellbeing) AND students, you might ask ‘provide me with the ten most highly-cited sources on the effects of social media use on students’ mental health or wellbeing’.

O

Open Access

Open access is a broad, international movement that aims for free, open, and permanent online access to scholarly outputs, such as publications, data, and educational resources. A publication or other output is open access if there are no financial, legal, or technical barriers to accessing it – that is, anyone can read, download, copy, distribute, print, and re-use it, in accordance with its license. Open access differs from the subscription model, in which scholarly output is available only to those with a subscription (usually via libraries).

Openaccess.nl (2026). What is open access? [online]. Available at: https://www.openaccess.nl/en/about-open-access/what-is-open-access

Open research

Open research, also widely referred to as open science, relates to how research is performed and how knowledge is shared based on the principle that research should be as open as possible. It also enables research to take advantage of digital technology. Transparency, openness, verification and reproducibility are important features of research and innovation. Open research helps to support and uphold these features across the whole lifecycle of research – improving public value, research integrity, reuse and innovation. Open research also helps to support collaboration within and across disciplines. It is integral to a healthy research culture and environment. UK Research & Innovation (2026). Ensuring Open Research [online]. UKRI. Available at: https://www.ukri.org/what-we-do/supporting-healthy-research-and-innovation-culture/open-research/

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Peer review

A procedure where scholarly work is evaluated by experts of the same discipline against a set of criteria to ensure that it meets the standards necessary for publication. Peer review is widely accepted as the best method for research validation and ensuring quality publications. The peer-review process may be open, where both author and reviewer are known to each other, or it may be a blind process where the reviewer or the author is anonymized or both author name and reviewer name are hidden. Bullock, A., Chris Jennings, C. and Timbrell, N. (2019). Peer review. In: A Dictionary of Publishing. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780191863592.001.0001/acref-9780191863592-e-178

Proximity searching

Proximity searching is a search technique that finds words or phrases appearing close to one another within a result, such as an article title, abstract, or full text. It can help identify results where the search terms are related, even when they do not appear as an exact phrase.

For example, a search for climate NEAR/5 migration may find results where ‘climate’ and ‘migration’ appear within five words of each other.

Proximity operators and their formats vary between search tools – check the database’s guidance before using them.

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Reading Lists: Created by your lecturers, your reading list links you to the key materials for each module - essential for understanding topics and preparing for lectures, seminars and assessments. It's your academic starting point - a solid foundation for building knowledge and confidence.
Research Data Management: Research data management (RDM) refers to all the activities around organising, structuring, storing and caring for data produced as part of a research project: planning around research data, organising research data, preserving and sharing your research data. Find out more here: https://warwick.libguides.com/rdm/home
Research metrics: The numbers and data analysis used in research assessment and research ranking, particularly at the individual level. Examples of ‘research metrics’ could include research grant income, citations, or journal impact factor (JIF) – the measure of the mean citations to recent articles in a given journal title.
Research ranking: Research ranking refers to the evaluation and ranking of researchers, research outputs, journals, institutions, or departments according to measured indicators of research performance, quality, impact, or influence through the quantitative and/or qualitative criteria to determine their relative standing within a field or community. Whilst a range of criteria can be used, this is often centred on citations as an indicator of influence. See the Library's course: Understanding Research Metrics to find out more.
Research strategy: In the context of information literacy and this framework, research strategy refers to the systematically planned methods and approaches used for finding relevant sources in the study of a given topic. A research strategy in this context can include what is being searched for, where to search for it, how it will be searched for and how the results will be managed or organised.

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Scholarly sources: A scholarly source is the reliable text of a work, produced according to clearly delineated and consistently followed editorial principles. They faithfully reflect their own source material and make editorial decisions in the use of this material transparent, usually via extensive citations and referencing. Stark-Gendrano, R. (2010). Scholarly edition. In: The Oxford Companion to the Book. Oxford University Press. Available at: https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/acref/9780198606536.001.0001/acref-9780198606536-e-4347.
SCONUL access: SCONUL access is a reciprocal scheme that allows (student and staff) members at participating university libraries to access study spaces and resources at other libraries which belong to the scheme. Some users may be able to borrow print books, depending on the rules of the library they visit. To use the scheme, apply through the SCONUL access website.

T

Truncation

Truncation is a search technique which uses a symbol, normally an asterisk (*), to replace the end of a word. This allows a search tool to find different word endings and related forms. For example, searching educat* would return results containing ‘educate’, ‘education’, ‘educational’ and ‘educator’.

Truncation can broaden a search, but the symbol and rules used cary between search tools. Check the tool’s guidance before use.

More info: Step 4 - Use Advanced Search Techniques