Bishop's Resource Guide: Getting Started with Research

• From your preliminary research, choose what concepts and keywords are appropriate for your research question or thesis

• Select appropriate subject headings:

• Use the Library of Congress Authorities website: http://id.loc.gov/authorities/subjects.html

• Find controlled vocabulary

• For online catalogues, use Library of Congress subject headings

• In databases, look for “Thesaurus” “Subject Terms” or “Subjects” etc. to find terms

• Narrow or broaden your search based on what’s out there

• Focus in on your specific subject area or research question

• Make sure this is really what you want to choose for your topic

Things to Consider When Choosing a Topic

• What interests you and what you already know.

• What types of information are required?

• Does Bishop’s Library have the materials necessary for your topic?

• Will you have to use Interlibrary Loan?

• The currency of topic.

• Length of paper and required format.

• Deadlines.

• Make a decision

• Put your subject or research area into the form of a research question or thesis to keep you focused

• Be as specific as possible

• Use the online catalogue, Sofia, to gather books, articles, etc.

• Use Sofia to find books at other institutions; order them through Interlibrary loans.

• Use appropriate databases for electronic access to journal articles (In A-Z Databases, use the subject limiter beside the search bar to choose subject-specific databases)

• You Should Critically Evaluate Every Source You Use!

• Learning how to determine the relevance and authority of a given resource is one of the core skills of the research process

• Initial evaluation of the sources can be done using the information supplied in the online catalogue, Sofia

• The books can be further evaluated where they are shelved in the LLC

• Final analysis requires a more in-depth evaluation of the chosen resources

• For more information on evaluating sources, click here