Gathering
of Information
To
understand what has been done and what is needed in
your particular area of interest, a review of the
literature is needed. This review most often starts at your university library
although with the advancements in technology many
databases are available entirely online through your
university or as a fee-based service through a
journal publisher.
It is important to have an understanding of
the topic that you are searching since you will
likely use key words related to your topic.
For our study on work experience and grades,
we would likely begin our search by using key words
or key phrases such as:
-
College
achievement
-
Non
traditional students
-
College
grades
-
Success
in college
-
Motivation
and grades
-
Age
and college success
These
phrases help narrow down your search but could also
result in articles that are not elated or don’t
seem to be related based on the title or the
abstract. The
results you find may also cue you into other search
terms that you hadn’t originally associated with
your topic. It
may also be wise to include such phrases as ‘meta
analysis’ or ‘literature review’ as these
articles are most likely to have an extensive works
cited section and can usually shorten your search
time. While
your librarian can help you determine which search
engines to use, Table 2.1 lists several important
databases that may be good places to start.
Table
2.1: Research Databases
Once
you gather the articles you want to look into
further, the next step is to gain access to the full
text of each article.
This can be a simple project at some
universities or may be painfully arduous.
Some databases contain the full text of the
article, which makes it easy to read or print.
Others times you can simply make copies of
hard copies of the journal on your library shelves.
If your library doesn’t carry the article
or the journal, you can often request it through a
library exchange program or you may need to order
it, especially if you are looking for a
dissertation, from the publisher at a nominal fee.
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