Research Tutorials : Get Started

This guide includes video, text-based and interactive tutorials on a variety of interdisciplinary and subject-specific topics. These tutorials have largely been organized by stages in the research process. Clicking on the menu on the left side of the page will open up a list of the tutorial topics available on that page. You can also scan the comprehensive listing below.

Research Basics

• Choose a research topic
• Develop a research question
• Build an effective search
• Databases vs. search engines
• How to Find Library Databases

Scholar OneSearch

• What is Scholar OneSearch?
• Find full text articles
• Use advanced search
• Set up search alerts
• Search for course materials
• Interlibrary loan
• Request materials from the Annex
• Save to EndNote
• Save to RefWorks
• Save to Zotero
• Save to Mendeley

Search Tips and Strategies

• How to narrow a search
• How to find more search results
• Google Scholar
• How to find an e-book
• How to use an article to find more sources
• How to find case studies
• How to find streaming media
• Find cases and law reviews in Westlaw Campus Research
• How to find books and other resources in the Internet Archive
• How to find dissertations
• Use a citation to find the full article
• How to find journals by subject
• How to set up search and publication alerts

Scholarly/Peer Reviewed Sources

• What is peer review?
• Scholarly vs. non-scholarly sources
• How to find peer reviewed articles
• How to determine if an article is peer reviewed

Evaluate Sources

• Evaluate articles and journals
• Evaluate books and book chapters
• Evaluate websites
• Evaluate data & statistics
• What is a primary source?
• How to read a research article
• Annotated bibliographies
• Understand literature reviews in research
• How to analyze research for a literature review
• Primary vs. review articles
• Quantitative vs. qualitative
• Green vs. gold open access

Cite Sources

• Citation fundamentals
• Citation managers
• APA citations
• Chicago citations
• MLA citations
• IEEE citations
• How to cite government publications
• Cite data and statistics

Data & Statistics

• Data or statistics?
• Find data
• Find statistics
• Evaluate data and statistics
• Cite data and statistics

Subject-specific Tutorials

• Art & Architecture Research

  • Finding images using the Avery Index to Architectural Periodicals

• Business & Market Research

  • Public vs. private companies
  • How to find information on private companies
  • Market research: How to find industry information
  • Market research: How to find company information
  • Market research: How to find customer demographic information
  • Market research: How to find country background information

• Education Research

  • What are peer reviewed empirical studies (and how can I tell if I've found one?)
  • How do I find peer reviewed empirical research articles?
  • Empirical vs. theoretical articles
  • Advanced search strategies for Education research
  • Practitioner journals: what they are and how to find them

• Health Sciences Research

  • Primary vs. review articles
  • How do I find articles written by a nurse?
  • How can I create a more comprehensive search for literature in the health sciences?
  • PubMed Essentials
  • How to use MeSH terms in your PubMed search
  • How to build a MeSH search
  • How to find clinical trials in PubMed

• History Research

  • ArchiveGrid
  • How do I find historical newspapers?

• STEM Research

  • Primary vs. review articles
  • How to create an O'Reilly for Higher Education Account
  • How to read the title of a standard
  • How do we know when to cite evidence?
  • When do we need to cite the original source?
  • How to cite figures in IEEE style
  • How to cite interviews in IEEE style
  • What is inclusive citation
  • Patent searching strategies
  • Patent searching: Google Patent search
  • MathSciNet
  • Web of Science