LIBRARIAN: Yes, may I help you?

STUDENT 1: We are new undergraduates here, and we’re working together on a sociology research project that requires academic research.

STUDENT 2: What he means is that we have to search for academic articles, but we don’t know how.

LIBRARIAN: I see. I’m glad you came in to get help. Most students don’t.

STUDENT 2: We both care too much about our grades.

LIBRARIAN: All right, so neither of you have ever done academic research before?

STUDENT 1: Not really. Just reading books and writing reports.

LIBRARIAN: OK, well let’s start from the beginning. You’re going to need to do an online database search for articles related to your topic. So, the first step is to identify your topic. This seems simple, but it can actually be quite difficult. Let’s use your current project as an example. What’s your research project about?

STUDENT 2: Non-traditional families.

LIBRARIAN: What about non-traditional families?

STUDENT 2: Well, we get to decide.

STUDENT 1: We were thinking to write about differences in child development between traditional and non-traditional families.

LIBRARIAN: OK, good. So will you be researching only families in Australia, or…

STUDENT 1: I think that would be easier.

LIBRARIAN: So you have identified your topic as the differences in child development between traditional and non-traditional Australian families. That’s a great example of a specific, researchable topic. The next step is to make a list of searchable terms. These are key words that relate to your topic and help you to search through hundreds of thousands of articles.

STUDENT 2: All right. What about “child development.”

LIBRARIAN: Yes, that’s certainly one. What about some others?

STUDENT 1: I’d use “non-traditional family” or “alternative family.” They both mean the same thing.

LIBRARIAN: Brilliant. Diversifying the terms of your search will result in more search results. Um, I think you get the general drift, right?

STUDENT 2: Yeah, it makes sense.

LIBRARIAN: Next…you have to select which database to use for your search. There are some general databases that include all sorts of journals. Then there are subject-specific databases that only search through journals in your area of study.

STUDENT 1: That means if we are doing a research project for our sociology class, we need to look for a sociology journal database.

LIBRARIAN: You can, and you’re more likely to come up with relevant articles. The only downside is that it will limit your search. If you go with a more general database, you’ll have more articles to choose from, and some articles outside the field of sociology may be useful.

STUDENT 2: I have a question.

LIBRARIAN: Mmm?

STUDENT 2: I did a trial search the other day, just to see what it is like, and by typing in “Australia” I got over 500,000 results. How are we supposed to look through all of those articles?

LIBRARIAN: Right. This is where filtering comes in handy. You can set your search criteria to filter through articles that won’t be helpful to you. Click on the “advanced” search option. You have the option of defining the years of publication, whether the article contains some or all of your search terms, whether the article is peer-reviewed…

STUDENT 1: Excuse me, but is that important? The peer review?

LIBRARIAN: I certainly think so. It guarantees that the article has been endorsed as credibly academic by other researchers. It’s sort of a stamp of approval from the academy.

STUDENT 1: Right then, I’ll be sure to select that option.

LIBRARIAN: Um, but even then, you’re going to get a lot of results. Just remember that the first ones to appear in your results are the most relevant, so focus on those. The only way to know whether an article is useful or not, though, is to read through it. Start with the abstract, as that usually gives you an accurate summary of the article.

STUDENT 2: I guess we’ll just give it a go and then ask you if we have any question, eh?

LIBRARIAN: Yep. It’s a process of trial and error. And if there’s any way I can be of assistance, I’m usually here most days. Best of luck.

Answer Key:

1. E

2. C

3. F

4. B

5. D

6. A

7. K

8. H

9. I

10. J