Databases such as Google Scholar, Google Books, EBSCO and JSTOR can be great places to search for scholarly sources. If you are affiliated with a college or university, it is likely that your institution subscribes to a set of databases made available to all students and faculty. If this resource is available, it can be helpful to consult your institution’s directory of databases to see what sources you have available to you. Databases also usually contain some mechanism, like a check box, to select only for scholarly or peer reviewed articles, ensuring the reliability of your sources.
There are four main places to look for sources to use in your research:
1. Research databases
You can search for scholarly sources online using databases and search engines like Google Scholar. These platforms provide a range of search functions that can help you to find the most relevant sources. If you are searching for a specific article or book, include the title or the author’s name. Alternatively, if you’re just looking for sources related to your research problem, you can search using keywords. In this case, it’s important to have a clear understanding of the scope of your project and of the most relevant keywords.
Databases can be general or subject-specific.
- When utilizing general databases, try filtering results by selecting for specific subjects or disciplines (Example: JSTOR Search Filter).
- If using subject-specific databases, the results will almost certainly relate to your field.
2. Your institution’s library
There are likely a variety of sources in your institution’s library that can be helpful to your research. These include:
- Peer-Reviewed Journals (print and online)
- Encyclopedias
- Books
To find these sources, consult your institution’s library database, which will allow you to explore the library’s catalog and to search relevant keywords. When looking for a book, once you locate it, consider what books are beside it! This can be a great way to locate other sources that relate to your research, especially if your initial document is a secondary. Additionally, librarians can help you find and use library resources in a number of different ways, such as identifying a clear research topic, efficiently searching their database for reliable information, and creating and managing citations.
3. Review the references cited by your sources
A productive place to find other scholarly sources is the reference pages of sources you have already located. Look at the Works Cited or Reference page to locate other sources that are related to your topic. Additionally, research databases and Google Scholar offer similar resources where you can search for an article and select “Cited By” or “Related articles” to see what other resources may be connected.
Some experts also produce whole journal articles dedicated to reviewing the literature on a particular topic. These synthetic articles, such as those in the Annual Review series, are very helpful for understanding the relevant literature and finding helpful sources.
4. Experts on the topic
Professors or other expert researchers can also be good resources when trying to pinpoint the direction you want to take your research. They may be able to provide you with specific academic journals, books, and other resources relevant to your topic.
An Introduction to Prompt Engineering
Crafting efficient search terms when beginning your research will lead to more productive search results. To begin crafting an effective search term, start by identifying key words related to your research topic. Ask yourself: What are the main ideas? What concepts or theories have already been covered?
Prompt engineering is the practice of doing exactly what we described above: crafting precise and informative search terms that will yield the most relevant results to your research interests. Prompt engineering is an important skill to master for all research platforms, however, the nature of effective prompts may vary by platform.
For example, when using Google Scholar, it is important to know that:
- Google scholar automatically places “AND” between words
- If you entered: Social Science Research
- Google Scholar would search: Social AND Science AND Research
- To yield an exact match for your search term(s), place quotation marks around keywords and/or phrases
- Placing quotations around “Social Learning Theory” prevents the search from becoming “Social AND Learning AND Theory”
- To search for alternative terms, place “OR” in between search terms
- “First Grade” OR “Second Grade”
- “Theory” OR “Model”
The more efficient your search term, the more likely you are to generate accurate and useful results for your research purposes. If looking for particular types of research, it can also be helpful to utilize terms such as “qualitative”, “quantitative”, “methodology”, “review”, “survey”, “test”, and “trend” (UOW Library, 2023). You can also employ search tricks such as the asterisk symbol (*) that will allow your search results to yield different word endings than what you originally typed in. For example a study on teenagers could be entered as “teen*” to find results with the words: teen, teens, teenager, teenagers.
