English Research Assignment
Task 1. Deconstruct and Optimize a Search String
Scenario: A colleague is starting a literature review for their project on biomaterials. They
run the following search in a database and complain about the mix of too many irrelevant
results and missing key papers:
scaffolds for bone tissue engineering that are biodegradable and porous made from polymers
or hydrogels
Your Task:
1. Deconstruct: Identify the four main concepts hidden in this sentence.
- Scaffolds
- Bone tissue engineering
- Biodegradable and Porous
- Polymers or hydrogels
2. Analyze: List two major problems with this search string's structure.
- It is written as a sentence not as a database base query. No Boolean logic
‘AND, OR’ was used neither were quotation marks.
- No synonyms or truncation was used.
3. Rebuild: Optimized professional search string.
(“bone tissue engineering” OR “bone regeneration”)
AND (scaffold* OR “biomaterial*” OR “tissue scaffold*”)
AND (biodegrad* OR “bio- degrad*” OR resorbable)
AND (porous OR porosity)
AND (polymer* OR hydrogel* OR “polymeric material*”)
Task 2. Precision Search for a Complex Problem
Scenario: Your research involves using machine learning to optimize the catalytic
activity of nanoparticles for hydrogen production. You are specifically interested
in platinum-based catalysts and want to avoid literature on biological
fermentation methods for hydrogen production, which often clutter your results.
Your Task:
1. Build the Search Menu: Create a search menu with at least four main concepts. For
each concept, list 2-3 keywords/synonyms, using truncation and phrasing where
appropriate.
Machine learning: “machine learning” OR “artificial intelligence” OR “deep learning” OR
“data-driven”
Catalytic Activity: “catalytic activit*” OR “catalyst performance” OR “reaction efficien*”
Nanoparticles: nanoparticle OR “Platinum-based” OR “platinum catalyst*” OR “platinum
nanoparticle”
Hydrogen production: “hydrogen production” OR “hydrogen evolution” OR “H2 generation”
Exclude (Biological Methods): fermentation OR “biohydrogen” OR “microbial production”
2. Construct the String: Write the final search string using Boolean operators.
Incorporate the NOT operator to exclude the unwanted biological methods.
(“machine learning” OR “artificial intelligence” OR “deep learning” OR “data-driven”)
AND (“catalytic activit*” OR “catalyst performance” OR “reaction efficien*”)
AND (nanoparticle* OR “Platinum-based” OR “platinum catalyst*” OR “platinum
nanoparticle”)
AND (“hydrogen production” OR “hydrogen evolution” OR “H2 generation”)
NOT (fermentation OR “biohydrogen” OR “microbial production”)
3. Strategy Reflection: If this search returned fewer than 20 results, what would be your
first strategic change to broaden the search without losing precision? Explain your
reasoning.
To broaden the search without losing in precision, it is preferable to broaden the “machine
learning” concept by using other similar general terms like “modelling”, “simulation” or
“optimisation algorithm”.
Reason: By doing this adjustement, this helps to expand the scope of the search hereby
including studies like computational or algorithmic optimisation methods that are not
explicitly labelled as “machine learning”.
