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How to search for information: Internet

Useful links

Google Scholar*

Google Scholar is a search engine specialised in finding research articles. Some of library's electronic resources can be searched with Google Scholar. In addition, you'll be able to search for Open Access materials.

Can you use Google effectively?

Use Google's Advanced search  to

  • combine search terms
  • narrow results by document type: reports and research are often in pdf format
  • limit results by language
  • limit results by latest update time

Remember to evaluate the reliability and usability of the sources you find!

Open data

Open science and research aims to make research results, research data, and research methods publicly accessible and usable. Increasingly, both research publications and research data are freely available to anyone. Research data already collected could be used in theses, for instance. Search for open data in data archives, such as the ones below.

Aila

  • Aila Data Service provides access to data archived at the Finnish Social Science Data Archive. Browsing, searching and accessing metadata is completely free. Some datasets are freely available for downloading.

Avoindata.fi

  • Avoindata.fi is a centralized repository for Open Data in Finland. Open Data is digital information that can be freely used as long as the original source is credited. The repository contains datasets published by the government, municipalities, companies, organizations and individuals. 

Etsin

  • Search tool for research data.

re3data.org - Registry of Research Data Repositories

  • International search portal for data archives. Search datasets by subject, type, country or other criteria.

Citing research data

Research data is source material like any other, such as a book, journal article or a website. The same principles apply to citing data sources. In the minimum, the citation should include author, title, publication year, version, and information on availability (permanent identifier of data). Data archives often provide citation instructions for users. If you are using open data for your thesis, it is a good idea to ask your thesis adviser for advice on citing.

More information and examples of citing data:

Saavutettavuusseloste / Accessibility Statement