Research Process

Online encyclopedias can be great starting points. 

Research Guides can direct you to other encyclopedias as well as the best databases for your subject field.

A - Z Databases provides a list of the library's databases for finding articles and more. 

AI: Artificial Intelligence Resources Research Guide provides information about using AI tools

Different types of information are found using different tools

Commercial search tools tend to favor one or two types of information. For example, the first page search results from Google Scholar are not likely to have links to WebMD (a popular information type). But libraries generally have access to all three types of journal information (more detail in the following boxes) and much more, making them great places to start your investigations no matter what you are researching. 

• Google - Popular journals
• Google Books - Professional / Trade journals and Scholarly journals
• Google Scholar - scholarly journals

How do you find the right information during a research investigation?

The Oxford English Dictionary states information is "knowledge communicated concerning some particular fact, subject, or event." That knowledge is created to convey a message to specific audiences.

Depending on the nature of your question, the right information may come from friends and family, news, magazines, scholarly journals, or books. Information from these sources varies in quality, reliability, and depth. 

Selecting the best information resources to answer your research question depends on the depth of the information you need and the time frame you wish to explore. Ask yourself what kind of information you need:

• General or specific information?
• Narrative analysis or statistical data?
• Current or historical information?

Use the table below to help select the type of source that will best serve your purpose.  Remember that you will probably want to use more than one type to locate the wide variety of information that fully covers your research topic.

Information is created for different purposes over time

While initial information is created to inform and pique interest, information created weeks, months, or years after an event often offers an analysis of the event, its impact, and theories on why it happened. You will need to decide what kind of information will help you answer your question. 

• Day of the event - internet, television, and / or radio
• Within days - Newspapers
• Within weeks - Popular Magazines
• Within Months - News and Trade Magazines
• 1-2 years after - Journals
• 2 plus years after - encyclopedias

The depth of analysis becomes more comprehensive as time goes on. The exception would be encyclopedias, which just provide quick overviews. 

Source types at a glance

Further information about the types

Popular

• simplified works meant to convey experts’ ideas in ordinary language
• Citation Example: King, Peter. "Concussions." Sports Illustrated 113.16 (2010): 34-40.
  • popular title easily available (e.g. at a grocery store)
  • this cover story about NFL players and effects of brain injury is 3 pages long
  • written by a reporter who interviews experts
• There are example of some Popular titles owned by the library on the Chester Fritz Library How Tos Research Guide

Trade

• Known as Trade Journals, Practitioner Journals or Professional Journals
• is neither scholarly material (written for the academy) nor popular (written for the public)
• will have information on practical and engaging instructional methods or trends in the field
• usually comes with membership to a professional organization
• Citation Example: Blair, Richard, and Susan Capel. "The Use Of Coaches." Physical Education Matters 3.3 (2008): 5.
  • Physical Education Matters comes with membership to the Association for Physical Education
  • this article on the training of football coaches is 3 pages long
  • practical advice for the workplace

Scholarly / Academic

• May have the words Journal or Research in the title
• Usually Peer Reviewed or Refereed - gold standard for academic work; it has been looked over and assessed for errors and significance by an academic's peers (usually other professors who are also experts in the field of study)
  • Note: an article can be academic without being peer reviewed. Also, an article can be in a peer reviewed journal but not be a research article (e.g. book review)
• These will often have a specific format (introduction, methods, results, and discussion) and a lengthy list of references. 
  • Can be excellent resources for educators on measurement and evaluation, policy, leadership and decision-making, human development, theoretical and conceptual foundations, and institutional structures.
• Citation Example: Pontifex, Matthew B., et al. "The Relation Of Mild Traumatic Brain Injury To Chronic Lapses Of Attention." Research Quarterly For Exercise & Sport 83.4 (2012): 553-559.
  • several authors (researchers) work on the one article
  • longer articles (higher page count)
  • higher level writing, sometimes difficult to understand
  • different terminology (traumatic brain injury vs concussion)
  • publication date important to note

Examples of information types matched with topics

Topics on the left show an example of an information source for each example above. 

Information in this box adapted from the New Literacies Alliance. 

You'll find journal articles from a wide variety of publications by searching online databases.  Some databases are more general, and other databases are subject or publisher specific.  How do you decide which database indexes journals that are related to your topic?

• General Interest Databases are helpful for researching a general topic.  The publications indexed here cover the broadest range of topics and may include magazines and journals related to current affairs, literature, religion, social sciences, technology, medicine and many others.  An example is the Academic Search Database.  Other more specialized & academic general interest databases include JSTOR and Web of Science. 
• Subject-specific Databases are most helpful for in-depth research on a topic.  These databases usually contain only scholarly/academic journals or professional/trade publications and focus on a narrower subject area.  Examples include the Aerospace Database, Business Source (business and economics), CINAHL (nursing and allied health), and PsycINFO (psychology).
• Publisher Databases focus on the journals from a specific publisher.  Most publications indexed in these databases are scholarly/academic journals or professional/trade publications.  Examples include Elsevier ScienceDirect, Oxford University Press Journals, Sage Journals Online, SpringerLink, Taylor & Francis Online Journals, and Wiley Online Library.