Education: Tips & tricks

Find Education articles, journals, books, databases and library's services. / Löydä kasvatustieteiden artikkelit, lehdet, kirjat, tietokannat ja kirjaston palvelut.

AI and Information Seeking

AI Assistants for Databases

Generative AI tools integrated with scientific databases, such as AI Search of Helka, Scopus AI, and Web of Science Research Assistant, can search for publications within their databases. These tools typically generate summaries of 5-20 research papers on the topic you asked. Unlike references from general generative AI applications, these references are existing and identifiable, not hallucinated.

These AI assistants do not search all the information in the database. There are often publication date restrictions. In reference databases, only references with abstracts are included in the search. Some publication types, such as books, may be excluded. The selection of publications can still be biased, especially if there is a lot of research in a specific field, and may not be comprehensive. The results may include further questions for deeper exploration, insights, and visualizations of concepts, citations, or documents.

AI Tools for Searching Scientific Literature

Many AI-based tools have been developed to search scientific literature, to summarize articles, to map connections between articles and citations, or to create visual networks of research results. Currently, the University provides access to Keenious (see more below). Other external AI services should be used with caution. For more information, please refer to the UH Helpdesk website Generative AI at the university.

Generative AI Tools

Generative AI applications, such as ChatGPT or MS Copilot, use natural language queries and can be useful for finding information. They can help you generate and formulate research questions, find and summarize background information, and suggest new approaches, concepts, and search terms.

It's important to be aware of the limitations of these tools. Generative AI outputs can sometimes be biased, inaccurate, or outdated. Always verify the credibility of the sources provided by the AI. Additionally, avoid inputting sensitive, confidential, or copyrighted material into these tools. For more detailed instructions on the responsible use of generative AI at the University, please visit the UH Helpdesk website.

Some guidelines on the use of AI

Remote Access

Electronic resources are available in the network of University of Helsinki or through remote access. Accessing the electronic resources from outside the library locations via a remote connection requires a University user account.

Courses and Guidance at the Library

The Helsinki University Library (HULib) offers lectures, webinars, online courses, and workshops on finding and managing information, reference management, and data management.

Questions and feedback: contact the Library by online form or email.

Plan your Information Seeking and find Sources on your Topic

Plan your information seeking

Find search terms

Define key concepts of your topic and find alternative search terms for them. More search terms can be found from various sources, like general thesauruses (e.g. YSO, General Finnish Ontology) or field specific thesauruses in databases. Term banks, dictionaries and reference works can also be useful.

Use appropriate search techniques

  • Combine search terms with Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT).
  • Use phrase search in order to get more relevant search results. (e.g., “social media”)
  • If necessary, use the truncation (cut-off) of search terms (e.g., child* -> child, children, childhood...)

Improve your search

  • Edit search terms and phrases during your search process. You may find more search terms in the abstracts and keywords of relevant sources. Consider whether more general or detailed search terms are better suited to your search.
  • In databases, use advanced search mode to create more detailed searches.
  • Target  your search as needed (for example title, author, abstract, topic).
  • When necessary, limit your search results (e.g., peer-reviewed, publication years, source type).

If search results are too large, try following:

  • Reduce search terms, use only key concepts or more specific concepts
  • Add more search terms using the AND operator
  • Try phrase search (for search terms containing several words)
  • Refine search results with database delimiting options (year, source type, peer-reviewed etc)
  • Change database, try to search in field specific databases

If search results are too small, try following:

  • Search with broader or more general concepts
  • Add alternative search terms using the OR operator
  • Reduce the delimiting options if you have used them (year, source type etc)
  • Search with individual search terms instead of a phrase search
  • Try another database, such as an extensive multidisciplinary database
  • Search in several databases to obtain a more comprehensive search results

Find articles and books on your topic

Find international articles

  • Browse the Field specific research guides by the library and find relevant guides for your topic.Library Field specific research guides
  • Open the Databases tab of the guide. Choose relevant databases for your study and search articles in them.
     
  • Open Helka database search and browse Databases by subject. Choose relevant databases for your study and search articles in them.
    Helka Databases by subject
  • You can also seek international scientific articles direct via Helka user interface. Write your keywords and target your search to International articles.

Find Finnish articles

  • Use Finna portal for seeking Finnish articles in periodicals (and in edited monographs).
    • Make a search with your keywords and narrow search results by content type -> Journal/Article -> Article and E-article (and Book section), in Finnish: Lehti/artikkeli -> Artikkeli ja e-artikkeli (and Kirja -> Kirjan osa)
  • In journal.fi portal you'll find Finnish scholarly journals online.

Find books

In Helka you'll find both printed and e-books acquired by the Helsinki University Library and other Helka libraries. Target your search to "Library catalog". When seeking books you can tweak your search results by choosing "Available online" (e-books), "Held by library" (printed books) or "Open Access" (e-books online open for all).

You can broaden your search results by using both Finnish and English keywords. In Helka printed books – regardless of their language – usually have Finnish keywords from the YSO thesaurus. In YSO you can find keywords in Finnish, English and Swedish. Go to YSO, write your keyword in English and you'll find the Finnish (and Swedish) translations (or vice versa). E-books have keywords in the language they have been written (majority of the e-books in Helka are in English).

You can use Finna portal for seeking printed books on other Finnish libraries. Make a search with your keywords and narrow search results by content type -> Book material.

Scientific credibility

How do I know if a source is sufficiently academic?

There are several ways to know if a source is relevant.

General knowledge

  • Get to know your own subject. This knowledge will develop over time. Ask your teacher / instructor / researchers to tell you about the most central resources in your field.

  • Is the author affiliated with a serious organisation? Reputable universities and research institutes usually lend more credibility.

  • Who is behind the research? Is it objective or are there signs of bias or an agenda?

  • What kind of journal or book is it? Is it academic or popular? Is it published by an established academic publisher?

  • When is it published? In rapidly evolving fields this is important, in others it might be less important.

  • Is the information in the text detailed and accurately presented. Are the data and methods clearly described?

  • Sources that cite other scientific works and have an extensive bibliography are generally more reliable

     

Tangible measurements: Peer review, Publication Forum, Citation count, Impact Factor; H-index

  • Peer review is a process where other experts in the field evaluate the work before publication. Peer-reviewed articles are generally seen as more reliable. Please note that the importance of peer review varies in different fields, and in some fields, it has not been used until recently.
    You can filter for peer reviewed articles in most databases. In Helka journals that use peer review are clearly marked as such.

  • The Finnish Publication Forum (Julkaisufoorumi) is a classification of publication channels created by the Finnish scientific community to support the quality assessment of academic research. You can check both journals and scientific publication series, conferences and book publishers.
    The Publication Forum uses three levels, Basic level, Leading Level and Top Level. All of them mean that it’s a good, academic source. There’s no practical difference for a standard user.
    Note that the Publication Forum started 2012, before that there is no data.

  • Citations: Check how frequently the work has been cited by other researchers.  In some fields the citation count might indicate influential and respected research. Note that something also can be frequently cited because other researchers want to argue against it.

  • Journal Impact: Some fields use a concept called impact factor of the journal where the work is published. Higher impact factors usually indicate more influential journals. Note that it doesn’t say much about the article, only the journal.

  • H-index is a number intended to represent both the productivity and the impact of a particular scientist or scholar, or a group of scientists or scholars (such as a departmental or research group). This is also used in some fields and not at all in others.

How to find search terms/keywords

  •  The ERIC (database) Thesaurus is a list of terms representing research topics in the field of education
    • Click on the Thesaurus button that is in the top part of the screen. 
  • YSO  - Yleinen suomalainen ontologia. Yleisestä Suomalaisesta Ontologiasta löydät asiasanat suomeksi, ruotsiksi ja englanniksi

Bank of Finnish Terminology in Arts and Sciences / Tieteen termipankki

The Bank of Finnish Terminology in Arts and Sciences is a multidisciplinary project which aims to gather a permanent terminological database for all fields of research in Finland.

Tieteen kansallinen termipankki (TTP) rakentaa kaikkien Suomessa harjoitettavien tieteenalojen yhteisen, avoimen ja jatkuvasti päivitettävän termitietokannan tiedeyhteisön ja kansalaisten käyttöön. Hanke toteutetaan talkooperiaatteella yhteistyössä koko maan tutkijoiden kanssa.
Kasvatustieteiden termistö

How to cite in APA (American Psychological Association) format

Database Tutorials and Guides

Videos by Helsinki University Library

Videos by Helsinki University Library in YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/user/Hulibvideot/featured

Saavutettavuusseloste