Take a moment to imagine a researcher. What activities do they do?
You may imagine someone in a lab conducting experiments. You may imagine someone conducting interviews. You may imagine a scholar writing about their findings. Or you may imagine yourself!
Research is a process we go through every day. We conduct research to find the answers to a question or to learn more about a topic. The research we do on a daily basis is known as informal research. It does not require a lot of structure, and we are usually able to answer questions relatively quickly and easily.
Academic research is a type of formal research. It is a process in which you systematically search for information on a specific topic with the goal of expanding our knowledge or contributing new ideas. Academic research typically culminates in a research paper. For academics, this may be publishing a paper in a journal. For students, you may be asked to write a research paper for a class assignment.
Academic research can seem overwhelming, but your informal research experience has already given you a head start on the skills you need to be successful.
Your research will often start with an interest in a topic or question. Depending on your knowledge of the topic, your original question may be broad, but as you start your research, you will be able to refine your question.
Once you have a topic, you'll start searching for information. For academic research, you will mostly be using scholarly or peer-reviewed sources. The library is a great place to search for these types of sources! Review the How to Use the Library tab for tips on using the library catalog and databases.
Next, you will review your resources. Are they relevant to your topic? What do they have to say about your topic? How does this add to your knowledge? Check out the Evaluating Sources tab for help reviewing your sources.
Remember that this process is cyclical. Researchers will conduct several searches and adapt their search based on their results. Your results can also help you develop your research question or lead you to new questions.
Scholarly sources are sources like books or journal articles that are written by experts in the field.
Peer-reviewed articles are a type of scholarly source. Peer-review is a process in which an article is reviewed by other experts before it is published.