Do you need help with your research?
Search plan
This document is a great step by step templateto help you focus on your research steps.
Use Concordia’s guide to understanding your writing assignment keywords and University of New Brunswick to help you define your Research Question .
The website Unlocking Research offerts online information about the 5 steps of research:
5- Cite Sources
For more information, check also Concordia University Library Research Training Skills Tutorial:
- Getting started : choose a research topic, come up with a search question (check ou the video) and find the right place to search
- Search basics : discover the best search techniques for finding books and articles, and what to do if you get too many or too few results
- Finding articles or books or other sources
- Reading, writing & notes : discover strategies to be more efficient and organized
- Citing : check also the videos Citation a very bref introduction, How to paraphrase, Finding the information you need to cite books and articles and Identifying a source when you are not sure what it is
They also have great information about peer reviewed articles and a video How do I know if articles are scholarly or peer-reviewed ?
McGill University Library created some video tutorials on YouTube, here are a few interesting ones:
- How do I start my research?
- Asking answerable questions
- Concept mapping
- Boolean Operators
- Advanced Search Techniques
- Search strategy worksheet: subject headings search
- Search strategy worksheet: keywords search
- Where can I find scholarly journal articles on my subject? (take consideration that we don’t have the same electronic databases)
- Open Access
- Zotero Tutorials : 1-Introduction 2-Collecting References 3-Attachments&Notes 4-In-text Citations 5-Footnote Citations 6-Getting Organized 7-Online Syncing 8-Group Collaboration
Advanced Search on the Internet
Here is our Guide to advance searching in Google and other search engines like Bing of Duck Duck Go.
Also, we recommend Socratica‘s great video about developing Google Search Tricks and the UofL Research Assistance & Instruction offers a video on the persistent Google Myths and Why You Should Use the Library instead.
Purdue University Library has a video to help you search on the web and Google Scholar (part 1). See also Part 2.
Then, here is some Do’s and Don’t when you are using Wikipedia as a source of information by Newcastle University Library. This video also questions Wikipedia, the pros, cons and alternatives for students by the Athabasca University Library.
Then, these “I am searching for [THIS] type de information” guides will help you to find quality information sources on the web whether you are searching for information on :
- days, years, chronologies
- locations
- people and organizations (First Nations, Métis, and Inuit worldviews, experiences and knowledges)
- subjects or topics
- statistics (Libguide from librarian Michelle Lake, UConcordia) see also our guide “subjects” just above!
- patents (Libguide from the University of Toronto Librairies)
Evaluating Resources
Not everything is a reliable or valid source. Here is our Guide to evaluating resources with questions.
You can also use this Quality Evaluation Grid for information sources and data that offers reseach tips as a bonus!
See also the McMaster University video How Library Stuff Works : How to Evaluate Resources.
Here is a table to visualize the different documentation content creators.
Also, here is a document about the types of information sources and their definitions that are available on the web and in the reference section of a library.
To distinguish if a source of information is primary, secondary or tertiary, there is also a nice video from Steely Library NKU.
The Library of Congress as a video to help you define primary and secondary sources. See also their video on Analyzing a Primary Source.
Cite your sources
Why Referencing is important – Murdoch University Library
Check out Infotrack : training for information literacy from the University of Geneva that offers humoristic videos for public awareness:
- Reusing materials in a legal manner
- Guidelines for the use of quotations
- The University’s rules on plagiarism
- How to recognize plagiarism
- How to make sure you don’t plagiarize
Methodology Guide
3 copies of the printed guide (available at the library):
Jane E. Aaron & Elaine Bander (2018). The Little, Brown Essential Handbook, 9th Canadian edition, Toronto, Pearson, 405 p.