The Research Process:  HUMA 201 Pathfinder
 

 
Review Your Assignment

• What is required?
  

• How many sources will you need?  Look for more than the number your professor indicates in case you can’t locate all the items or some turn out not to be useful.
   

• What kinds of sources do you need?  Books, peer-reviewed journal articles, newspaper articles, World Wide Web sites?  Do you need primary sources and/or secondary sources?

Select a Topic

When choosing the subject of your research, take care to select a topic that is manageable.  Too much information can be just as problematic as having too little.

Background Reading

• Use general and subject encyclopedias to get an overview of your topic.  Encyclopaedia Britannica is available in print or online.  The reference room contains subject encyclopedias in many subject areas.  Oxford Reference Online Database contains online reference books on a variety of topics.  The New Catholic Encyclopedia is the online encyclopedia covering theology, philosophy, history, literary figures and more.  A great resource for early church topics!
   

• For easy-to-use, quality information, visit our List of Online Reference Databases and Books.  This is a subject listing of online reference sources available, both reference databases and books, including the ABC-CLIO book database.
   

• 3-day loan books (Located in the Large Reserve room) and CQ Researcher provide pro/con information about social and political issues
   

• Some series that use this pro/con format are:

  • At Issue

  • Current Controversies

  • Opposing Viewpoints

  • Taking Sides

Find books

• Browse HENRY by subject
   

• When you find useful books on your topic, use the subject headings in the catalog records to locate related books  (tips on searching for scholarly books)
   

• Use the bibliographies in books to expand your search
   

• Use the library’s Interlibrary Loan service to get books the library does not own
   

• Online Book Portals & Gateways -- Links for locating books that are in the public domain

Find journal articles

• See the Subject List of databases to find electronic indexes relevant to your topic
   

• Use the index, subject list, or thesaurus in the database to select the best search terms for your topic
   

• If a particular article is not available full text in a database, check the library’s A to Z List of Journals to see if the library has access to the journal
   

• Use the library’s Document Delivery service to get journal articles the library does not have access to

Still need more information?

• Try the Research Guides. Considered the starting point, lists of books, databases, and scholarly WWW sites have been collected for nearly every major on campus
   

• Newspaper Articles.  For information on current social issues, newspapers can provide great supplementary material to your papers. ProQuest National Newspapers and LexisNexis Academic provide access to the New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, USA Today and many more

Citing Sources
&
Citing the Bible

see also our 'cheat sheets' for  Citing Bible Commentaries  & Citing Concordances & Bible Atlases  for specific examples!

Getting Help

Writing Center

Reference Desk

Updated:  11/05/09
©Henry Buhl Library
Grove City College 2009