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Resources for Research
Need help
finding information on your topic? These links will get you started.
Finding
Sources
Taking
Notes
Citing
Information
Software (free)
Just
for Fun
Finding
Information
Finding
Information on Current Issues
- Annenberg
Public Policy Center (research on political communication, information
and society, media and the developing child, health communication
and adolescent risk )
- Policy
Issues (National Center for Policy Analysis)
- Psychology
Matters (APA's collection of research about how psychology affects
everday lives. Topics include money, stress, and
law and justice.)
- Public
Agenda Research Reports (nonpartisan public opinion
research about critical issues)
- Search on Topix, which returns most recent results first.
- Try searching for your topic + "think tank" or "position
paper" (e.g., immigration + "think
tank")
Finding
Information in Specific Areas
Accounting/Business
Criminal
Justice Resources
Humanities
Information
Technology Resources
Legal Resources
Medical
Sciences Resources
Psychology
Sociology
Pro/Con
Opinions
Statistics
Judging
the Quality of Sources
Citing
Information
APA
Style
 Quick
References
Online
Tutorials
Online
Guides and Cheatsheets
Model
Papers
Free
Software
APA
FAQs
Format
Working with Sources
Style
MLA Style
Taking
Notes
Avoiding
Plagiarism
Working
with Quotations
Search
Engine Tips and Tricks
- If you're having trouble finding keywords:
- Visit KwMap,
which creates a map of words related to your search
term.
- Use a search engine that clusters results, such
as Kartoo or Clusty.
Use the folder names as keywords.
- Try AskJeeves;
its natural language search often comes
up with hits that other search engines miss.
- Use
a tilde (the ~ symbol on the
top left of your keyboard) to get Google to find synonyms for
your search term (e.g., a search for ~"lie detector" will return hits for polygraph as
well).
- If you're getting too many results:
- Use a minus sign or NOT (depending on the search engine) to
exclude terms (e.g., spears -Britney).
- Visit whonu, which lets you
limit your search to titles or
organize results in timeline
view.
- Add intitle to
a Google search to restrict
your search to Web page titles (e.g., intitle:"obesity
epidemic").
- Restrict Google searches to certain domains with site (e.g.,intitle:forensics
site:gov) Useful domains include edu (educational institutions); gov (government),
and mil (military).
- If you're not getting enough hits, try using a meta-search engine,
such as Vivisimo, IxQuick, or Metacrawler.
- Search within a date
range on Google or
get most recent results first at Topix.
- Find professional and peer-reviewed articles at Scholar
Google and Find
Articles (which allows you to restrict your search to free
articles). Find free articles about business
and recreation at MagPortal.com.
- When you find a search that works, set up a Google alert.
- Two blogging search engines are Technorati.com and Blogpulse.com.
If you're researching a cutting-edge topic, blogs might
be a good source. However, ask some questions before
trusting a blog: What are the blogger's credentials?
What do others in the field think about the blogger or
the topic? (One hint: if others quote or link to the
blog, that adds credibility.)
- Become a power-searcher by checking the advanced search options,
reading Searching
the Internet Effectively, or searching
for tutorials on your favorite search engine, such as Google
Guide.
- Check Nielsen's search
engine ratings.
- Keep up with the latest search engines:
Just
for Fun
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