Research 101: Conducting Research

As you begin to look for resources to use as evidence for your research project, you need to be aware of all the different types of sources out there. It's not just books and articles. You can find good resources from people, websites, videos, and even music. As long as it can support your argument, your ideas, and be a credible source for your research.

Be careful, though, when you start looking for sources, some sources may be more or even less scholarly than others. And whenever you are conducting research for most projects, especially for college and career, you will want to seek out more scholarly material over the non-scholarly ones.

But how can you spot the difference?

There will sometimes be a few visual clues to help you determine the scholarly sources from the non-scholarly ones. A vast majority of resources found within the library, both books and articles, will be considered scholarly, but just in case, here are some other ways to tell the difference:

• Scholarly articles are often Peer-reviewed, written and reviewed by professionals and researchers within a particular field of study.
• Magazines are often written for entertainment by staff writers and journalists.
• Take a moment to think about who the target audience is for the resource, as well as who the authors are. What are their credentials? Do they have particular titles like RN or PhD listed next to their name?
• There can also be a visual difference between the two: Scholarly articles and journals will not have very many images and often contain no advertisements whatsoever; whereas magazines use multiple images and will have whole pages dedicated to advertisements.

So be careful about the sources you are finding, after you gather a few of them together, take some time to evaluate their credibility and usefulness for your topic and assignment. Both types of sources can contain some good information for research, but your instructors will prefer that you use one over the other. 

While you are searching for sources, there a few tricks that can make your research easier and help you find the best possible results.

Most of our library databases have some unique features that will allow you to fine tune your results to meet your specific needs. Such features as narrowing the results by full text, peer review, publication date, source type, subject, and so much more. By utilizing the "Advanced Search" within most databases and our online catalog you can filter your results to find sources that fit your topic. However, be aware that filtering your results too much could produce nothing for your topic. If this happens, you may need to re-evaluate your search query or search terms, as well as your topic. Remember, if it is too narrow, you will not find many sources about it and if it is too broad, you'll find too much.

Sometimes, finding few to no results might mean that either your topic is too new or there hasn't been much research conducted on the topic. But don't worry, this doesn't mean that nothing exists, it just means that it may be difficult to locate resources for your research project. Just remember to take some time, reconsider the terms and phrases that you would use to describe your topic and then try again. And really think about what you need to look for. If you are struggling, don't hesitate to ask your librarians for help! Our jobs as information professionals is to help you with your research needs, in addition to curating and vast collection of available resources. 

At other times, you may find breaking a topic into smaller pieces might be the easiest thing you can do to find sources for your project. This allows you to search for sources that focus on those smaller pieces, which you can then piece it together later, when you start writing your paper.  

For example, let's say you have a topic on "the effects of sleep deprivation on college students during Final Exam weeks in small liberal arts colleges". You can follow similar steps listed out here to help find resources:

• First, this is a very complex topic and in being so complex, it may be difficult to find exact resources on the topic. In order to find some resources, try breaking the topic down to something smaller like this: "sleep deprivation on college students". This is a more common topic, so you should find quite a few sources on this particular piece of the whole topic.
• Next, you can try searching for sources on "college students during Final Exams". This can also be a very common topic and as such you should be able to find some information that you can correlate to the topic as a whole.
• Then try to search for "college students in small liberal arts colleges". You may be able to find some sources for this and again use the information found here to point back to or make some sort of connection to the other parts of the topic.
• Next you can try to search for "sleep deprivation during Final Exams". Again, a very common topic for some studies. Try to find some information that you can relate to the other parts.
• Finally, search for "sleep deprivation on students in small liberal arts colleges". This may be a bit narrow, but you may find something that you can use. 

In this example, the common topic in all of these parts is going to be "college students". So, once you have some information from each smaller part, you can then think of ways that you can connect it all back together within your project.

When conducting research, you don't have to find resources that fit your topic exactly. As long as you have evidence to back up your claims and that support your topic in some way; breaking down complex topics like this, will help you find even more resources, rather than a few that fit your topic exactly. And more often than not, you will want as many resources as you can possibly find. The more resources you have to support your topic, the stronger your research will be.

There are some other ways to make sure that you find the resources you want, though some may work better than others.

When searching a database for article sources, keep in mind that databases prefer that you organize your queries or searches with specific keywords rather than questions or sentences. But, you can sometimes search a database for a specific phrase, if you need to. For example, if you use quotations to search for an exact phrase (ex. “primary care for kittens”), this will cause the database to search for the exact phrase within its sources.

Some other ways that you can filter database results is by: 

• Using an asterisk (*), hashtag (#), or question mark (?) to search for variations of your search terms (example: dog*). Also known as Truncation and Wild Card searching. This will help you find results, even if you are unsure of the exact spelling that may be used by authors. Some databases may recognize this tricks and others may not, so use with caution.
  • Other examples:
    • Wom?n = woman or women
    • Colo#r = color or colour
• You can also try something called Proximity Searching. This can get you more relevant results to your search terms by asking the database to look for terms near or within a certain number of words in a phrase.
  • Use the Near Operator (N) to finds results for terms that are within a specified number of words from each other in any order
    • (ex. tax N5 reform = results that contain tax reform and/ or reform of income tax)
  • Use the Within Operator (W) to find results for terms within a specified number and in the exact order you entered them
    • (ex. Hiking W5 trails = results containing hiking trails and hiking of easy trails, but not easy trails for hiking)

Also, don't forget about the Boolean Operators which can help you to combine and/or exclude some terms from your search.

• AND- retrieves information for both keywords entered
• OR- retrieves information for either keyword entered
• NOT- retrieves information for one keyword, excluding the another

Use any of these tips and tricks to find the most relevant results and narrow the results found to a more manageable number. It is much easier to sift through a few hundred results, rather than a few thousand. If you need any help finding results or filtering them, ask your librarians!

When you are conducting research, it might surprise you to learn that failure IS an option. It is perfectly okay when you don't get the results you want or even no results at all when searching for resources. All that really means is that you need to rethink your keywords or rearrange them in a different order. Take a moment  and think about the topic from a different angle, consider all the possible words that describe, relate or connect to your topic. 

A failed search isn't the end of your exploration. It just means that you might need to look at everything differently or take a break and come back to the problem later. Sometimes fresh eyes can reveal new things, new ideas and new pathways to try and conduct your research from. You could even try ask other people about your topic and see if they mention anything that you may not have thought of! Don't be afraid to ask for help! There are many people and departments at Tusculum that are ready to help. Don't give up! There is always a way to get the resources you need. 

One of the library's primary services for accessing resources is our interlibrary loan service, where we can request articles and books from other libraries across the country!

If, during your research, you find a book or article that we don't have in our library that you want to use in your project, send us an interlibrary loan request! If you can't get access, are asked to pay a fee, or find an abstract for an interesting article, send us a request! This service is available to everyone in the University community and is our way to provide a broader range of resources, even if we don't have exactly what you are looking for. Oftentimes, we will do what we can to get you those resources at little to no cost to you. You find out more about our Interlibrary Loan Service on our website as well as find our online request form.

After you have found your sources, whether you use them all in the final assignment or not, you should evaluate them, just to make sure that they are good sources to use in your research. For most of your course assignments, your instructors will expect you to use good quality sources to support your research. You don't want to rely on blog posts and Wikis to form your research arguments, so it is best to evaluate your sources once you have gathered them.

You can use something like the C.R.A.A.P. Test, to check and make sure the sources are good. This test is a series of questions that can help you to determine how credible the source is and how useful it will be for your assignment. The test checks a source's credibility, relevance, authority, accuracy, and purpose, hence the acronym C.R.A.A.P.. If your source fails to "answer" any of the questions from the test, then it is most likely one that you don't want to use in your project. If your source "passes" the test, then it can be used in your project with confidence. 

After you have evaluated and chosen your sources, go ahead and write out the citations for them. Citing your sources is one of the most important steps of any research project. If you use any part or any idea that isn't originally yours, you MUST give credit to the original author or creator of that source. Failure to cite your sources may lead plagiarism and even failure of an assignment. No matter how much or how little of a source that you use, if you use any that isn't your original thinking, you need to provide citations for them. And by writing out the citations as you gather your sources, you can already have your work cited or bibliography page done before you even start writing.

Information or media bias is often defined as information presented on a particular bias or viewpoint and at times will exclude or dismiss other viewpoints entirely. Most websites or groups that hold a particular bias, will try to re-enforce a their view or idea, rather than provide neutral views or even truthful information. This can be problematic if you are looking for more neutral information on a research topic, but if you are looking for opposing viewpoints, biased media can prove enlightening. To gain insight on media and information biases, consider sites like Reuters and BBC's Reality Check, as they are aimed at providing neutral information and fact checking. Other news sites like Allsides, BBC, and Forbes often provide a more neutral approach to global news stories. You should use your critical thinking skills when viewing information from biased outlets as they may or may not provide accurate information about a situation. 

Filter Bubbles or better known today as "the Algorithm" often aid in creating a bias of information on the internet. This concept is purely machine based and implemented by websites under the disguise of personalization.

But what is a Filter Bubble, you may ask?

By definition a Filter Bubble is: a situation in which an Internet user encounters only information and opinions that conform to and reinforce their own beliefs, caused by algorithms that personalize an individual’s online experience (Oxford). This TED Talk from Eli Pariser provides interesting insight on how Filter Bubbles work: 

When searching the internet from research sources, think about how your personal online experiences may influence your "personal filter bubbles" and what kinds of information appear more often than others.

There are some ways to avoid many of these filtered or biased issues for online searching.

• You can clear your browser history, ensuring that any of the suggested results won't be something you have already been to.
• You can also try to turn off tracking Cookies or deny them on certain sites. These are often used by the websites to track visitors, how long they stay on the website, and what they view.
• You could also try using an Incognito browser window or Anonymous Mode to ensure that any searches you conduct are not saved by the browser.
• Many web browsers and search engines will also allow you to show advanced result features, helping you to narrow results in various ways to help you find the information you want.

So, be very careful when searching for sources on the internet, you may not find the most credible or reliable sources for your research needs. If you need help finding credible sources, feel free to ask your library staff for assistance!