Research using the web

Web search tips

In some cases, researching affiliations between people, groups and organizations is as simple as typing the names involved into the Google search box.

You can narrow down your search by enclosing names containing more than one word in inverted commas. For example, if you are researching links between Joe Bloggs and the company Toxic & Lethal Co., you'll find that typing

"joe bloggs" "toxic & lethal" provides more useful hits than typing

joe bloggs toxic & lethal

because the latter will throw up results relating to all Joes, all Bloggses, and all mentions of the words "toxic" and "lethal". At the same time, it's often useful to omit words like "Co." from your search because the way this is written in your sources may change significantly. So some sources will favour Toxic & Lethal Company, while others will favour Toxic & Lethal Co., while others will omit the "Co." and "Company" part of the name altogether.

If one of the words, names or terms you are searching has an alternative meaning that you want to exclude from your search, you can do this by typing that meaning into the search box using a "-" sign. For example, you're searching for a politician called James Smith, but he has the same name as the lead singer in the rock band Filth. You can get rid of a huge amount of irrelevant sites if you use the minus sign, thus

"james smith" -filth -music -rock

Similarly, if you are searching for a terrorologist called Joan Jackson and don't want too get results about the millions of other Joan Jacksons in the world, then you can use a plus sign "+" to narrow your search to just those pages that mention both Joan Jackson and terrorism by searching under:

"joan jackson" +terrorism

For more Google search tips, see http://www.google.com/support/bin/static.py?page=searchguides.html&ctx=basics&hl=en

Official websites

It makes sense to start your search in the easiest places and graduate to more difficult-to-find ones. The official websites of people, groups and corporations often give useful information about donors, funders, partnerships, etc. Some apparently innocuous-sounding foundations, research groups, and other organizations have corporate affiliations and vested interests, so follow the trail by doing a subsequent search under their name.

Resources and useful links

Press and media databases

Lexis Nexis http://www.lib.strath.ac.uk/lnexecutive.htm (requires Athens login)

BugMeNot. Lets you skip the registration process for many online news sites – although not those requesting paid subscriptions. http://www.bugmenot.com

NewsMap Useful little site that tracks graphically what is making the headlines at any given time. http://www.marumushi.com/apps/newsmap/newsmap.cfm

Mailinator. Allows you to generate a free one-time only, incoming-only email address http://www.mailinator.com/mailinator/index.jsp

Archives

Glasgow University http://www.archives.gla.ac.uk/about/default.html

HBoS http://www.hbosplc.com/abouthbos/history/group_archives.asp

RBS http://www.rbs.com/about02.asp?id=ABOUT_US/OUR_HERITAGE/OUR_ARCHIVES

National Archives of Scotland http://www.nas.gov.uk/about/default.asp

Scottish Executive Consultations [1]

Scottish Executive Publications http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Publications/Recent

Glasgow City Council Archives http://www.glasgow.gov.uk/en/Residents/Libraries/Collections/Localhistory/CityCouncilArchives/

Resources on lobbying/corporate power

Spinwatch http://www.spinwatch.org

Sourcewatch http://www.sourcewatch.org

Corporate Watch UK http://www.corporatewatch.org

Corporate Watch US http://www.corpwatch.org

Wikipedia: http://www.wikipedia.org

Open Secrets, guide to money in (US) politics: http://www.opensecrets.org/

LobbyingInfo.org (part of Public Citizen) http://www.lobbyinginfo.org/

Clean Up Washington (part of Public Citizen) http://www.cleanupwashington.org/

White House for Sale (data on campaign finance in past US Presidential election) http://www.whitehouseforsale.org/

Freedom of Information

Statewatch – FOI in Europe http://www.statewatch.org/foi.htm

“Your right to know” Heather Brooke’s FOIA advice site. http://www.yrtk.org Campaign for Freedom of Information http://www.cfoi.org.uk/ Open Secrets A blog about freedom of information by Martin Rosenbaum http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/opensecrets/

Government offices, official sources

Information Commissioner’s Office (England and Wales) http://www.ico.gov.uk/

Office of the Scottish Information Commissioner http://www.itspublicknowledge.info/

Office of Public Sector Information http://www.opsi.gov.uk/

Departmental pages

Scottish Executive FoI page: http://www.scotland.gov.uk/Topics/Government/FOI

Ministry of Defence http://www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/FreedomOfInformation/

Foreign Office http://www.fco.gov.uk/servlet/Front?pagename=OpenMarket/Xcelerate/ShowPage&c=Page&cid=1032370383930

Cabinet Office/Downing Street

Publication Scheme http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/publicationscheme/

FoI Page: http://www.cabinetoffice.gov.uk/foi/foi.asp

Department of Health http://www.dh.gov.uk/PublicationsAndStatistics/FreedomOfInformation/fs/en

Department of Food and Rural Affairs http://www.defra.gov.uk/corporate/opengov/accessinfo.htm

Governmental publications/records

House of Commons Publications http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm/cmpubns.htm

House of commons Archives

http://www.parliament.uk/publications/archives.cfm

Scottish Parliament Official Report

http://www.scottish.parliament.uk/business/officialReports/index.htm

National Assembly for Wales Record of Proceedings

http://www.wales.gov.uk/keypubrecordproceedings/index.htm

National Statistics (formerly ONS) http://www.statistics.gov.uk/

Official Journal of the European Union

http://publications.europa.eu/general/oj_en.html

European Commission Representations - Office in Scotland http://ec.europa.eu/unitedkingdom/about_us/office_in_scotland/index_en.htm

Europe in the UK: Information Network

http://www.europe.org.uk/info/

European Union Documents

http://europa.eu/documents/index_en.htm

Web research

Web archive/Way back machine http://www.archive.org/index.php This search facility is useful if you have a dead weblink to an article or website, as it keeps an archive of old web addresses with their associated web pages or articles.

The New York Times Newsroom Navigator. This is the home page of all journalists on the NY Times http://tech.nytimes.com/top/news/technology/cybertimesnavigator/index.html/

STD Code Reverse List. Discover which area a dialling code is in: http://www.ukphoneinfo.com/section/tci/locator.shtml

Reverse List of US telephone area codes: http://www.cs.cmu.edu/afs/cs.cmu.edu/user/bsy/www/area.html

Royal Mail postcode/address finder http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/postcodefinder;jsessionid=BSED5FPVSVAQSFB2IGFENZQUHRAYWQ2K;jsessionid=BSED5FPVSVAQSFB2IGFENZQUHRAYWQ2K?catId=400145&gear=postcode

How to find the owners of domain names

http://www.networksolutions.com/whois/index.jsp

http://www.whois.net/

http://www.allwhois.com/

http://www.whois.sc/

http://www.whois-search.com/

http://samspade.org/

For .uk domains: http://www.nominet.org.uk/

Reverse DNS (IP Address) lookup. http://remote.12dt.com/

Monitor changes in websites: http://www.changedetection.com/monitor.html

Or: http://www.changedetect.com/

Statistical Information on the net: useful database of Statistical Information – based in US. http://www.lib.umich.edu/govdocs/stats.html

Corporate information

Companies House http://www.companieshouse.gov.uk/