Rules of Research

 

Things you need

  1. A pencil and paper – to record research findings, web addresses and expert names
  2. Some research knowledge
  3. An open mind
  4. Time

 

Basic Rules

  1. Use keyword searches.  This means that you must figure out some key words that are used in reference to your research topic.  For example, if you are researching the American family structure of the 1920s and comparing that to the 1990’s structure, you might enter “American Family Structure.”  If you don’t get any responses, look in a thesaurus to figure out synonyms of “structure” (like “definition” if you are looking for a cultural definition) or another term to see if there is another term utilized.  Sometimes articles and books can tip you off to the keywords for that issue.  If you get a great number of responses to that query (thousands of web pages), try to limit the search by adding the years to your query (1920 1990) or (1920s 1990s).
  2. Check to see if the search engine or database query uses BOOLEAN logic.  This means that you will add words (AND, OR, NOT) in between your keywords.  If this is the case, add these words into your search.  They mean pretty much what they say.  If you are looking for the above research topic, you would search “American AND family AND structure OR definition NOT statistics.”  This query indicates you are looking for the term “American family structure” or “American family definition” and not looking for “American family statistics.”
  3. Look at the works cited, end notes, chapter notes or bibliography.  Often there are excellent resources already researched for you.  Look at author names, the periodicals that the majority of entries are from, and organizations or web resources utilized to write the chapter, article, or book.
  4. Look for credible web resources.  Not every web page is credible.  Look at who wrote the page (do they have any credibility in the field?), under what supervision the webpage was created (is the webpage hosted by a university or reputable organization?), and the objectivity of the site (are both sides of the issue represented or is the information laid out in an encyclopedia-fashion?).  Not all “.com” sites are bad.  Some commercial sites are excellent resources (like Encyclopedia Britannica and Dictionary.com), but be careful that they aren’t trying to sell you something.  Advertisements on the page are usually a tip to know that the site makes its money off people advertising on the site, not the people visiting the site.
  5. WRITE IT DOWN!!!  Too often do beginning researchers “lose” good sites because they do not properly write down the web address, they do not document the keywords for which they need to search, or they do not document experts’ names.  Write your information down so that you can find it again.  You may THINK you do not need the information, but you never can tell.