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STEP 1: GET AN OVERVIEW OF YOUR TOPIC

Home / Lillian & Milford Harris Library / Research Guides / Steps / Step 1: Get an overview of your topic

Step 1: Get an overview of your topicWhen you begin any information gathering process, you usually have a general idea of the topic you want to research. For instance, you know you are more interested in the subject of self-esteem in adolescents than you are in the area of schizophrenia or vice versa. Obtaining background information on your subject can provide you with a context for your research and help you narrow your focus. Books can provide you with background information on a topic in a better way than journal articles. A book that is current can also serve as a source for additional references. Be aware that individual chapters in edited books usually focus on a specific aspect of a topic and can be used in the same way as a journal article.There are two ways of locating books by topic in a library catalog: doing a keyword search and doing a subject search.When you do a keyword search, the system looks in additional fields like the title or tables of contents to find

words that match your search statement. Click here for more information on doing a keyword search.When you do a subject search, the system limits you to predefined Library of Congress Subject Headings or Medical Subject Headings. Subject headings generally give you better search results, but you have to make sure to type in the correct subject heading. For more information please review the tutorial on searching by subject headings.Doing a keyword search will always give you more titles than doing a subject search. Sometimes you will want to narrow your search results. You can do this by limiting.Most online catalogs will use Boolean logic for keyword searching. Click here for more information on Boolean logic.One way to search for books to provide an overview is to use the terms Encyclopedias or Handbooks as part of your keyword search. Not only do they offer a good place to start, they can provide a concise history or summary of topics and terms in your area. Looking at encyclopedias and handbooks can also help you to further refine your research.Subject-specific dictionaries can be used to help you understand the terminology used in a particular discipline.Annual Reviews are also a good source of background information. They are published in many disciplines and summarize trends and research in a particular subject area. Case Western Reserve University provides online access to

several Annual Reviews. They can be accessed through the Research Databases section of the Library Catalog. Annual reviews can also be searched as keywords in the Library Catalog.Once you have a better handle on your topic, you will need to define your research statement. This is covered in Step 2.--STEP 2

Home / Lillian & Milford Harris Library / Research Guides / Steps / Step 2

Step 2: Define Your Research Topic And Identify Appropriate ResourcesYour research statement contains the major elements of the topic you are investigating. When you define your research statement you will want to find a balance between choosing a topic that is too broad or too narrow.Depression, Substance Abuse and Welfare Reform are all examples of broad research topics. There are entire books written on these subjects. To obtain more targeted information, you will need to think about looking at just one

aspect of these topics.For example:

What studies have been done on depression in men?

What contributes to failure in substance abuse treatment programs?

What are the indicators used in judging the success of welfare-to-work programs?

Depending on the context of your research, you may want to narrow your hypothesis even further.For example:

What is the relationship between depression and mid-life issues in men?

Is there a correlation between relapse in substance abuse treatment and level of education?

How does the issue of child care impact the success or failure of mothers in the welfare-to-work transition?

To enable you to find books and articles related to your research statement, it is very important to identify key concepts. After you have defined your research statement, you will need to identify key concepts related to your topic. Usually you will be able to identify three or four main ideas.

If you are doing research on the effectiveness of substance abuse treatment programs for women, your key concepts would be:(substance abuse)(treatment)(women)(effectiveness)Once you have identified the concepts, it is useful to identify synonyms for the terms. Consulting a thesaurus will help you find synonyms for concepts related to your specific subject area. Click here for a list of thesauri owned by the Harris Library.substance abuse (alcohol, alcoholism, cocaine, heroin, drugs, addiction)treatment (therapy, intervention, interventions, programs)women (female, mothers, girls)effectiveness (assessment, evaluation, outcomes, failure, success)Typing in the singular or plural of a word can make a difference when you are searching in an online system. Using a systems truncation feature will allow you to search for different variations of a word. The truncation symbol will vary depending on the system you are using. ALWAYS check the help menus of the system you are using for more information on truncating.Click here to print out a copy of a handout that will help you organize your concepts.Harris Library has also developed an interactive worksheet to help guide you through the process of creating a search

strategy. Click here to use the worksheet and receive feedback from a librarian via e-mail.Once you have an overview of the concepts and context of your research topic, you will want to find more specific information using journals and newspapers. You are now ready to begin gathering information. See Step 3 to Find information on your topic.Tutorials

Concept Worksheet (PDF)

Feedback Worksheet (PDF)

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Step 3: Find Information On Your TopicAfter you have found books on your topic, have good background information for your research, you will want to obtain more specific information through information resources other than books. Citations to journal and newspaper articles are organized in an electronic format through databases and in a print format through indexes and abstracts. Case Western Reserve University provides you with access to over 175 databases. Some of the databases offer the full-text of journal articles; some provide an abstract and

citation only. All of them are listed under the Research Databases section of the online library catalog.Some databases are general in scope. They cover a wide variety of subject areas and include citations from magazines, newspapers and professional journals. General databases will sometimes lead you to reviews of books relating to your topic. These can help you identify book titles and authors that you may want to use in your research.Databases can also be very specific in focus. They are designed to help you find journal and book citations in one subject discipline Click here for a list of social science databases available to you at Case Western Reserve University.Databases are structured and searched in different ways. All of them will allow you to do some kind of keyword searching and many allow you to search by subject or descriptor. Almost all online systems will use Boolean logic for keyword searching. Click here for more information on Boolean logic.Using the help screens available in each of the databases will assist you in your searching.Most databases that you use in libraries are available to you because of licensing arrangements that have been made with publishers. They are free to you but not to the University. Access is usually limited to current affiliates of the institution. Some organizations and government agencies, however, have created databases that are available to you regardless of your

affiliation with a college, university or public library.There is always a lag time between when articles appear in print and when they are indexed by databases. Although online databases are usually fairly current it can be useful to browse current journals for articles on your topic. Browsing current issues of journals allows you to look for articles that might not yet be included in online databases.Click here for a list of journals in the MSASS Harris Library.Click here for a master list of electronic journals available to Caseaffiliates.Click here for a list of social science electronic journals available on the webSome online databases allow you to browse the tables of contents online. These include the OhioLINK Electronic Journal Center (EJC) and the Ingenta database. In the case of the EJC you can also view the abstract or full text of the article. Ingenta allows you to order documents and have them faxed or e-mailed to you for a fee. These databases are available to Case affiliates through the Research Databases section of the online library catalog.

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Locating statisticsOnce you have obtained information from books and journals, you may want to expand your search to include statistical

resources. In addition to information from books and journals, you will sometimes need statistics to support your research. Statistics are made available either in print or electronic format by various federal, state, local, and non-governmental sources. They appear in!journal articles, in reports, or in statistical handbooks.Local organizations and agencies also keep statistics on the populations they serve. These are often not available to the public unless there is an obligation to report the information. Finding this information may require contacting someone in the organization. Annual reports of agencies may also provide some of this information.Increasingly statistics, particularly those that have been collected by government agencies, are available on the web. Click here for a list of statistical sources on the web.To find statistical sources in books using an online catalog do a keyword search combining terms related to your topic with the word statistics. (For example: alcoholism and statistics, Hispanic and statistics, violence and statistics, etc.). Click here for more information on doing a keyword search.Or do a subject search using Library of Congress subject headings in one of the following formats. Click here for more information on doing a subject search.Hispanic Americans StatisticsChildren StatisticsOlder People United States Statistics

Social Services Statistical MethodsStatisticsUnited States-StatisticsBack to Top

Obtaining the resourcesOnline databases are distributed nationally and are not specific to the holdings of one library. Your local library will probably not have all of the sources that are cited in a database. You will need to find out which library, if any, owns the journal, book or report that is being cited. To do that at Case you will use the online library catalog. Click here for information on finding journal titles in the online catalog.If you do not find the journal in any of the Case libraries, you may use the Harris Librarys Interlibrary Loan service. Although there is generally no cost associated with this, you do need to allow at least 10 business days until you receive the article. Click here for more information on Interlibrary Loan services.If you are looking for a book that is not owned at Case (or if all of the campus copies have been checked out or are unavailable), you can order the title through OhioLINK for delivery to one of the campus libraries. Allow five business days for delivery. Click here for more information on OhioLINK borrowing.If the book is not owned by an OhioLINK library, you can

submit an Interlibrary Loan request for the book. Click here for more information on Interlibrary Loan services.Dissertations are in a category of their own. Click here for more information on obtaining dissertations.Click here to go to Digital Case: Electronic Theses and Dissertations.Click here to go to the OhioLINK Electronic Theses and Dissertations Center.

Obtaining world wide web resourcesFinally, the World Wide Web is a source of additional information. The web is the place to go for policy and position papers, reports and fact sheets, statistics and research, and county and city level information. It is particularly useful for policy information and community initiatives. Agencies of the U.S. government, in particular, provide an excellent starting point for web research. Although some full-text journal articles are available free on the web, many organizations just allow you to view the tables of contents of their publications. Online subscriptions are also available for some publications.Information on the web may or may not be filtered, monitored or peer-reviewed. Extra care should be taken in evaluating the web site for currency, authorship, bias, and accuracy. Click

here for information on how to critically evaluate a website..Different search engines will yield different results when you do web searching. Click here for a list of search engines. Use the HELP menus on the home pages of the search engines for tips on effective searching. Once you have all of the documents in hand, you will need to evaluate them to determine if you need additional information or if you need to narrow your focus. Evaluation criteria are covered in the next step (Step 4).--

Step 4: Evaluate The InformationOnce you have collected information on your topic, you will need to evaluate the content, focus and source of the resources you have selected. You also need to look at the material you have collected and determine if you have enough resources or too many. Here are some guidelines to use when evaluating information.Articles from journals can be divided into two general categories popular and scholarly. It is important to have a clear idea of the difference between the two. Click here for more information on evaluating popular and scholarly articles.In addition to print resources, you may also have collected

information from the web. Material retrieved from websites should receive extra scrutiny. Click here for information on how to critically evaluate a website.After evaluating the sources, compare the information you have collected against what you need to complete your research.Do you need more resources?

Reframe your question so that it is not as narrow in focus.

Re-examine the concepts you used in your search enter broader terms if necessary.

Follow up on the references used in articles and book chapters.

Do an author search to find more articles written by that person.

Expand your use of databases to cover related disciplines.

Do you have too much information? You may need to narrow the focus of your research.

Use the resources that best fit the criteria for good

scholarship.

Ask for help!!! Sometimes your topic is fine, but the way that you entered the terms or the databases you selected can result in unsatisfactory results.Once you have collected most of the information for your research you are ready to begin writing. See Step 5 for tips on writing and presenting your findings.Books in the Harris LibraryGirden, E. R., & Kabacoff, R. I. (2011). Evaluating research articles from start to finish (3rd ed.). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications.Links

Ask For Help!

Tutorials Evaluate Articles

Evaluate Websites

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STEP 5: WRITING AND PRESENTING YOUR FINDINGS

Home / Lillian & Milford Harris Library / Research Guides / Steps / Step 5: Writing and Presenting Your Findings

Step 5: Writing And Presenting Your FindingsThe key to successfully writing your paper is organization (writing skills help, too!). Here are some tips that may be helpful:

You should have a clear idea of your research hypothesis by now. Make sure that this is stated clearly at the beginning of your paper (or presentation).

Summarize the articles you have collected, identifying the main points. If you have made a photocopy of an article or book chapter, highlight the sentences or paragraphs that are most applicable to your topic.

Start writing the sections that are clearest to you (these dont always have to be written in order). Provide background information and then add your supporting ideas.

Once you start writing you will be able to identify areas where you still need more information. You can then develop a new targeted search strategy to retrieve more information. Your concepts may be much narrower than

at the beginning stages of your research.

Make sure that you have the correct citations for all of your resources (dont wait until the last minute on this one).

The format of your writing will differ depending on the expectations for the research.It is important to provide information on where you obtained the information that was used in your research.

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Cite your referencesAn important part of presenting your research is to acknowledge the sources you used to gather the information. One way of organizing your references is to use bibliographic management software. This software allows you to create your own files of references and can assist you in formatting them according to the publication style you are using. Three of the most popular programs are ProCite, Reference Manager and EndNote.Papers that are written by students for courses at MSASS must adhere to the format created by the American Psychological Association (APA). Copies of the print version of The Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association are on reserve in the Harris Library.

Note: Dont forget to spell-check and proofread your document. You need to do both. They are NOT the same thing.

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Present your researchThe presentation of research can take many formats, although typically a paper or report will be written to summarize the findings. Often, in addition to a written report, the research needs to be presented to classmates, colleagues or another audience. Sometimes you want to include an audiovisual aid in your presentation. The Harris Library has an extensive video collection on a number of topics relating to social work and social welfare.Increasingly, presentation software is being used in group settings to share the main ideas of a project. A number of websites exist that provide information on how to effectively use presentation software.Everyone has different comfort levels in front of an audience.Back to Top

Books in the Harris LibraryNicol, A. A. M., & Pexman, P. M. (2010). Displaying your findings: A practical guide for creating figures, posters, and presentations (6th ed.). Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.

Nicol, A. A. M., & Pexman, P. M. (2010). Presenting your findings: A practical guide for creating tables (6th ed.). Washington, DC : American Psychological Association.Links

APA Manual

Tips for Making Effective Presentations

Video / DVD Search

Tutorials Writing: Techniques & Formats

Literature Reviews

Annotated Bibliographies

Critical Review/Book Review

Using Bibliographic

APA Formatting

Library Catalog: How to Find Videos/DVDs

Presentation Software

Speaking Techniques

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