Gaspé Campus Library

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: 

1- Develop a Topic 

2- Search Strategies 

3- Gather Information 

4- Evaluate Information 

5- Cite Sources 

For more information, check also Concordia University Library Research Training Skills Tutorial: 

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: 

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 : 

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:

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.