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Research Quick Start : Steps of the Research Process

Use this guide as a starting point for researching.

The Research Process

Steps of the Research Process

1) Choosing a topic is the first step of the research process. Picking a topic that interests you will help your research process go faster and be more successful.  Choose a topic that is interesting to you or highlights a gap in research, and on which you can find quality resources.

Get background information on your topic. As you begin your research process, ask yourself: What question do you hope to answer with your research? Use textbooks, web resources, encyclopedias etc. to help you identity vocabulary, key issues, and themes of your topic.

 

2) Create a Search Strategy and Develop a Research Question: Think of the 5 W's!  Use basic questions- who, what, where, when, why and how to break your topic into a searchable question and keep it focused. You might need to narrow or broaden your research question depending upon if you are finding too much information or too little.

Example:  Who is the population or group you are focusing on? (college students, women etc.)  What is the discipline or focus? (social media, mental health) Where? ( United States, universities)  When is the time period or era? (19th century, post COVID, WWII) Why is this topic important to you or the field of study? 

 After you have your research question,  come up with "key" words that you will use to search for information on your topic. Keywords are the main ideas or key concepts of your research question. A keyword search matches the terms you enter with records in a database and can help focus your topic and get accurate results. Combine your keywords using boolean operators like (AND, OR, NOT).  Quotations will keep your search terms together.

And: AND will limit your results to those which match both terms you enter. Example:  social media AND college students

Or: OR will expand your results to those that match either of the terms you enter. Example: Mark Twain OR Samuel Clemens

Not: NOT will exclude a term from your results. Example: tigers NOT baseball 

Tips and Example:

  • Don't type in full sentences when using the search boxes
  • Avoid words like impact, effect, etc. 
  • Avoid punctuation like commas or question marks
  • Use quotations for an exact phrase match
  • Use parentheses to keep multi-word terms and phrases together.

          Example:    What effect does the daily use of TikTok have on college students?  Words in bold are keywords.    

You will want to use a thesaurus to come up with synonyms (similar or related terms)  for your keywords to get more results. In addition, use the database’s approved terms to ensure that you are getting the most accurate search results- in a database you will see these approved terms under Subject Headings. Use these subject heading terms to search for your topic.      

 

3) Find Library Resources-  Start by  using the Madonna University's online library catalog https://library.madonna.edu/ . It's a one-stop shop for searching all of the library's resources. It includes access to books/ebooks,  electronic resources (journals, magazines etc.) in our subscribed databases, and articles outside of our collection.  Then search subject specific databases and multidisciplinary  databases using your keywords. https://library.madonna.edu/az.php 

Databases are similar to search engines but primarily search scholarly journals, magazines and more. You can also begin your research using our Research Guides. These guides have been designed by Madonna University librarians and contain databases, journals, books, and websites that are relevant to a specific academic field.

 

4)  Evaluate Resources :  Use lateral reading and the SIFT method to evaluate your resources.  You can also you the ACT UP method created created by Dawn Stahura in 2017.  Check it out Here! 

https://mikecaulfield.files.wordpress.com/2021/02/sift-infographic.png

 

5) Organize, Write, and Cite: Visit the writing center to receive help for writing your paper. 

Tip: Use this Assignment calculator to see the steps of the research process and stay on track, so you don't turn in a late assignment! 

 

 

 

Other Things to Consider

Other considerations

  • Is your topic clear and concise? Who is your audience?
  • What are your keywords? Are there similar terms to search with? 
  • Do you have any limits to your results? Examples include types of studies, publication dates, languages, etc
  • Where you search will depend on what type of resources you wish to find. It may be necessary to search in multiple places depending on your topic. 
  • Your search will change as you find more research. The more information you find might change your original search. 
  • When you first begin searching, start broad and then make changes one at a time to narrow your search depending on the information you are or are not finding.