| Type of Publication: | Definition: |
|---|---|
| Research Article |
Published in a journal and usually reports on studies or scientific/academic research (May also be called scholarly, peer-reviewed or refereed) |
| Conference Paper or Proceeding | Papers that report on talks/presentations given at conferences offered by professional associations |
| Dissertation | An essay/report/study usually written as part of a doctoral degree program |
| Thesis | Similar to a dissertation, but conducted at the master’s degree level |
| Government Publications | Reports/documents published by local, state, regional, national, or international governments or governmental agencies (e.g., Alabama Department of Labor, US Government and Accountability Office, United Nations, etc.) |
| Book (if scholarly) |
Written by a researcher with credentials in the field and usually published by an academic/scholarly press Typically longer than a journal article and has broader topical coverage, but still makes heavy use of citations |
| Type of Publication: | Definition: |
|---|---|
| News Article | Published in newspapers and written to inform the general public about newsworthy events |
| Professional or Trade Journal | A periodical that contains news and information of use to practitioners within a particular industry/field |
| Popular Magazine | A periodical written for a general audience that frequently is designed more for entertainment |
| Reference Manual | A resource that provides general information on a topic, but is not generally read consecutively nor in full (e.g., encyclopedia, dictionary) |
| Book (if popular) |
Written to entertain (fiction) or inform (non-fiction) Typically longer than an article with broader topical coverage, but tends to lack citations |
| General Internet Websites |
Online information made available to anyone and everyone with very little regulation of content Findable and accessible via Internet search engines |
Google and Wikipedia may be good resources to use at the introductory stage of the assignment in order to understand the background and context surrounding your issue. When looking at Google search results, keep an eye out for various government agencies (e.g., Environmental Protection Agency, National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation, US Department of Labor, etc.) and non-profit organizations (e.g., Brookings Institution, National Bureau of Economic Research, Pew Research Center, RAND Corporation, etc.) that may have an interest in and done research or collected data on this issue. On Wikipedia, make sure to look at the footnotes; some will cite scholarly sources that you can locate, read, and potentially cite in your argument.
For an argumentative essay, Opposing Viewpoints is a good database to start with since it includes sources that look at both sides of an argument. Both Business Source Premiere and Academic Search Premiere have wide topic coverage and are also good places to begin searching for scholarly articles on your topic.
Articles in newspapers are also good sources when doing background reading because they are written at a level that the general public can understand and therefore can be easier to digest. Nexis Uni is a good resource for finding newspaper articles. Within this database you can filter for Newspapers under Publication Type in the lower left corner of the results screen:
In order to better understand your research topic, don't forget to check the library catalog to see if there are any books on the general topic:
Ultimately, you may want to include terms that represent the different key stakeholders you identify in your search strategy.
Q. What is mind mapping?
A. It is a visual way to represent ideas and information that can be used to brainstorm and focus your topic.
This video (~2 min.) will introduce the process and the MS Word document that follows can be used as a template to begin composing your own topical mind map.
