Evaluate your search results critically

2. Relevance of results

Relevance is one of the main criteria for evaluating the effectiveness of an information search. A document is relevant if it answers your research question or matches your information need.

You can usually assess relevance by looking at the title, keywords, and abstract. If there is no abstract, it may be difficult to decide whether the document is useful. In some cases, you can only judge relevance after reading the full text.

It is normal that your search results include some irrelevant materials. The aim is not to find only perfect results immediately, but to recognise which results are useful and adjust your search when necessary.