The Research Process

Understanding how to organize and undertake a research project is critical to conducting successful topic-based inquiries and projects. NU Library provides significant collections of resources designed to support the development and practice of research skills.

Sage Research Methods provides a range of materials to support researchers, including how-to videos, encyclopedias, and handbooks.

Logo for the Sage Research Methods Online collection.   

For a refresher on steps in the research process, check the Sage Project Planner. IMPORTANT...As indicated by the purple circle below, the research question doesn't emerge until the literature review is well under way!!

 Sage Project Planner with "developing a researchable question" highlighted. The Project Planner provides a succinct overview of each step in the research process.

 

 

Encyclopedias and Handbooks - Topic Focused

Encyclopedias and handbooks often provide background material needed at the beginning of a research project. NU Library offers access to a wide range of these reference materials from publishers like Oxford, Elgar, Routledge, and Palgrave. 

To identify additional titles, use a Library Catalog search in Scholar One and experiment with different terms as shown below.

 

Scholar One Search showing a book title in the Boston Catalog interface, This filter does not include news, magazine, or peer reviewed articles.

 

 

In addition to using known publisher names in searches as shown above, you may search for words like encyclopedia or handbook with topics of interest.

"human rights" handbook

"human rights" encyclopedia

migration handbook

"threat assessment" handbook

Encyclopedias, Handbooks, and Video - Research Focused

The Sage Research Methods video collection supports browsing by discipline, method (qualitative data analysis, action research, etc.), or video type (case study, interview, etc.).

 

Image of the Video home screen in Sage Research Methods.

Sage Research Methods also provides an extensive collection of encyclopedias, handbooks, dictionaries, and other resources, including the famous Little Green and Little Blue books for quantitative and qualitative research respectively.

Image showing the range of encyclopedias and handbooks provide in Sage Research Methods.

Need more help?

Please e-mail Roxanne Palmatier, library contact for Political Science, Security and Resilience, Security and Intelligence Studies, International Affairs, and the Policy School.