Formulate Your Research Question
Formulating your research question is simple.
Consider these questions:
- What do you want to know from your research?
- What are your hoping to prove or disprove with your research?
- What knowledge are you hoping to gain from your research?
Brainstorm keywords on your topic and formulate your question around those keywords.
Brainstorm Search Terms & Keywords
Brainstorm search terms by:
- Considering the who, what, where, when, why of your research questions
- Searching reference sources
- Exploring a database's thesaurus
- Brainstorming keywords with your instructor, a librarian, or your friend
Core Resources
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APA PsycArticles This link opens in a new windowFull-text of 77 journals published by the American Psychological Association APA Educational Publishing Foundation, the Canadian Psychological Association, and Hogrefe Publishing Group. Almost all titles are from volume 1, issue 1 through the most recent issue. Initial coverage begins in 1894 for Psychological Review.
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APA PsycInfo This link opens in a new windowBehavioral sciences database containing full-text and abstracts for journals, books, and book chapters. International coverage for psychology, medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education and pharmacology. Index is created by the American Psychological Association. More than 1.8 million entries. Entries are searchable by language, format, special population groups, classification codes, content type, intended audience, and special features.
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Behavioral and Mental Health Online This link opens in a new windowVideo and text resources in support of counseling, social work, nursing, psychology and behavioral health.
Over 3,000 videos and over 2300 text sources.
Includes clinical mental health demonstrations, actual therapy sessions, compelling documentaries on the human condition, psychotherapy transcripts, client narratives and reference works. -
Mental Measurements Yearbook with Tests in Print This link opens in a new windowA comprehensive guide to over 2,700 contemporary testing instruments (and over 7,000 reaching back to 1938) within such diverse areas as psychology, education, business, and leadership.
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Sage Journals Online This link opens in a new windowFull-text from 860+ scholarly journals, with excellent coverage for criminology, psychology, sociology, health sciences and the humanities. Numerous journals also cover education, general and international business, and management.
Using the Boolean Operators
The above Database uses Boolean Operators and search terms to find articles.
Boolean Operators are AND, OR, NOT. Multiple operators can be used at once.
When using Boolean Operators it is important to remember:
AND means;
- All selected search terms must be present in the article results,
- Narrows your search results to the selected search terms.
Example: "Social Work" AND "Ethics" will result in a search of articles that ONLY have both terms present in the title/abstract.
OR means;
- Either selected search term may be present in article results,
- Expands your search results to include articles with EITHER search term.
Example: "Social Work" OR "Ethics" will result in a search of articles with either search term present in the title/abstract. Not all articles retrieved will be relevant to your topic and/or research question.
NOT means;
- The second search term will be exclude from the search results,
- Refines your search results
Example: "Social Work" NOT "Ethics" will result in a search of articles on Social Work that do not include/discuss the topic of Ethics in Social Work. Articles could include Social Work care practice implementation in rural areas, or Social Work innovative practices.