Are you comfortable doing academic research? Can you develop a workable research question, use databases to find articles in professional journals, and cite your sources? If you’re pursuing a bachelor’s degree, are you prepared for advanced-level research? Can you analyze-evaluate-critique a concept, create an assertion, and use logic and evidence to back up your assertion with your own ideas, using research to support your own, unique thoughts? All of these skills are needed for academic research.
Academic researchers often rely on databases to find articles in scholarly journals. Databases are tailored to academic research and can provide lots of pertinent results in a fraction of the time you’d need to find the material in a general search engine such as standard Google. Databases can help you focus your research, cite your sources, and access a wide range of scholarly journals, books, and newspapers that have been evaluated for accuracy and credibility by subject experts and publishers.
Types of Databases
General databases have a little bit of everything (like a big retail store). Examples of general databases include Google Scholar, the library articles search, or JSTOR. These are good starting points, but you may find they yield either too many search results to sift through or too much irrelevant information. If so, try a specialized database.
Specialized databases (like a boutique) contain research more limited to a particular subject/discipline (ex. psychology), or format (ex. streaming video). You can do a more focused search in specialized databases aligned to your topic. The number of results you get will be smaller, but the content may be more relevant. Examples of specialized databases include PsycINFO, Political Science Complete, or Pubmed.
You will probably begin your search with your library’s “article search” or “database search” link. When you search article databases, your results list contains citations for various information sources. Depending on the database, you might find citations to books or book chapters. For example, the database PsychINFO identifies your search results as scholarly articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, etc. Additionally, databases provide all of the information you need for your citations, should you choose to use the source/s you find through your database search.
The following videos explain the concept of databases, and how to search in databases using what’s called Boolean Operators (the words “and,” “or,” and “not,” which can help you refine your search).
initial learning activity
Identify a topic you’d like to research. Then develop a research question about that topic, appropriate for a 5-8 page research paper, following the process presented in the video below.
Make sure to evaluate your research question before you start your research. For example, the research question “What do people eat in Vietnam?” is not a useful research question, because it does not contain a “why?” or “how?” question and it can be answered in a few simple sentences. On the other hand, the research questions “How does Vietnamese food reflect values in Vietnamese culture?,” or “How does Vietnamese cuisine reflect a history of colonialism?” are useful research questions, because they will require some analysis and level of complexity to answer.
Once you have developed your research question, find an article in a database that will yield some appropriate information to help answer that research question.
Submit the following items:
- your research question
- the database you used
- the specific article you used, in correct citation format (which the database may help you with; if not, check out citationmachine.net)
- answers to the following questions:
- What did you learn? Identify one or more things that you learned from this activity.
- What went well, and what did not go well, with this learning activity? How might you approach it differently the next time?
- Briefly assess your overall competence with academic research. Would you define yourself as a novice, an informed practitioner, an expert? Even if expert, what steps might you take to further refine your academic research skills?
in-depth learning activity
Follow the initial learning activity with these additions:
Find at least 5 articles in databases that will yield some appropriate information to help answer your research question.
Instead of citing the articles in correct format, create an annotated bibliography for those 5 sources, which includes the full citation for each article, followed by your own summary and analysis. You can read/view information about creating an annotated bibliography using the following sources:
- Cornell University Library’s How to Prepare an Annotated Bibliography
- University of Maryland University College’s Library Guide How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
- Purdue Online Writing Lab’s Annotated Bibliography Samples
Using the results of your article review, create a working analytical thesis for a potential research paper, answering your research question by offering an assertion about your topic. For example, “When you examine the history of certain dishes in Vietnam, it becomes evident that Vietnamese cuisine reflects the culture’s values of good name, respect, learning, and family.”
Submit the following items:
- your research question
- the database/s you used
- the specific articles you used, in annotated bibliography format, which includes the full citation followed by your own summary and analysis
- your working analytical thesis for a research paper, which offers an assertion in answer to your research question
- answers to the following questions:
- What did you learn? Identify one or more things that you learned from this activity.
- What went well, and what did not go well, with this learning activity? How might you approach it differently the next time?
- Briefly assess your overall competence with academic research. Would you define yourself as a novice, an informed practitioner, an expert? Even if expert, what steps might you take to further refine your academic research skills?
Related college Learning Goals
Information and Digital Media Literacy: Critically access, evaluate, understand, create and share information using a range of collaborative technologies to advance learning, as well as personal and professional development.
For more information, see the College Learning Goals Policy.