We do research every day: ask the time, look for an e-mail address, decide which vehicle to buy.
Getting started can cause anxiety, but that feeling is temporary.
Requires time and flexibility as you learn throughout the process.
Often an experimental, trial-and-error process. Information from one step may require redoing an earlier step.
Research becomes easier with practice.
The Research Process
Receive a research assignment: A paper or presentation is assigned, or a personal decision is required.
Examples:
Write a paper that's due in one month.
OR, Present a speech in class one week from today.
Select a topic: May be assigned in broad terms, or may be a personal interest.
Examples
Write about violence in the media.
OR, Speak about what happened the day you were born.
Explore the facets of topic/narrow the focus: Ask basic background questions or specific parts of the overall topic. Often requires basic information collection and evaluation.
Examples
Collect information on television, movies, video games, anime cartoons, rap music, etc.
OR, Collect information on world events, state festivals, local politics, celebrity births and deaths, family occurrences, etc.
State a question: This is your thesis, the question that you will answer, and it defines the limits of your problem.
Examples
Does the image of women in rap music lead to more date rape?
OR, What was the headline article in the New York Times on April 1, 1984, and where can I find other information about that event?
Decide on the types of sources: Different kinds of questions will require different types of information sources.
Examples
General databases such as Academic Search Complete contain current research from hundreds of scholarly and general publications on causes of violence and correlations with movies watched or music preferences.
OR, National newspapers and news magazines covered current events, and parents or grandparents may be interviewed.
Collect and evaluate information: Gather data to answer your specific question or thesis. This is often thought of as "research". Too much or too little available information may mean the question has to be restated.
Examples
Academic Search Complete contains current research from hundreds of scholarly and general publications on causes of violence and correlations with movies watched or music preferences.
OR, Print copies of the front page of the New York Times for April 1, 1984, and the cover stories for that week from Time, Newsweek and U.S. News & World Report.
Is the question answered? You may need additional information, or you may need to restate the question, if not enough information is available.
Examples
One source is available, but there are 5 other sources that discuss rap music and violence against women. Restate the question as Does the image of women in rap music cause more violence against women?
OR, You have five articles discussing the events of your birthday. Start practicing your speech.
Make the decision/write the report/prepare the presentation.
Examples
Your paper on rap music is turned in and you get an A.
OR, Your speech wins applause from your classmates.
Over 1,390 reference books offering more than 3.6 million full-text articles. Also offers around 100 videos and tutorials on aspects of research skills, evaluating information, avoiding plagiarism, study skills, and creating and delivering presentations.
Topic pages include mind-mapping tool and simultaneous search of other resources. Advanced search is necessary for exact phrase searching. For power searching operators, see http://academic.help.credoreference.com/search/power-searching.html
Covered topics include world religions, major denominations, biblical studies, epistemology, moral and political philosophy, and history of philosophy. More than 300 full-text journals, 250 peer-reviewed. Subset of Academic Search Complete.
Format: Majority full-text; some additional full-text via link resolver, Coverage: 1975 - present. Varies by title., Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to full-text, scholarly journals, date, length, publication name and type. HELP link on each screen, which includes Citation information. Can print, save, or email results. Some full-text publications may have the most current 3-12 months in abstract only, due to publisher restrictions.
Covers the history of the world outside of the United States and Canada, from the 15th Century onward. Includes essentially unique feature to focus search by historical time period. Indexing of historical articles from more than 2,400 journals in over 40 languages from 1953 to the present, with some coverage for titles back to the early 20th century. Access to the full text of more than 540 journals and 140 books.
Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Boolean command searching. Browsable index of search terms for author/editor, journal name, language, document type, and subject term. Help link at the top of each screen. May e-mail marked entries with selected citation style - check capitalization and punctuation.
Multi-disciplinary academic resource. Covers social sciences, humanities, education, computer sciences, engineering, language, arts, literature, and medicine. Includes scholarly full-text articles from over 7,300 sources, with an additional 1,000 full-text sources. Indexes more than 10,000 periodicals
Coverage: Varies by title. Mostly mid90s - present., Truncation and Wildcard: * and ?, Search Tips: Use quotation marks to phrase search. Allows Boolean AND, OR and NOT searching. May limit to full-text, scholarly journals, date, page length, publication name and type.
** Until June 30, 2021, due to the COVID-19 crisis, JSTOR is providing free access to a much greater number of journals. **
Back volumes for 880 journals from the very first issue but excluding the most current 2-5 years. About 20 titles have coverage through the most recent issue, and about 5 have current but not historical coverage. General subject areas include art & architecture, Asian studies, botany, ecology, economics, education, finance, history, language & literature, mathematics, music, philosophy, political science, population studies, sociology and statistics.
Format: Majority full-text; some additional full-text via link resolver, Coverage: Dates vary with beginning date of journal., Truncation and Wildcard: + and ----, Search Tips: Boolean commands are supported. Use quotation marks to search keywords as a phrase.