CAFF 321 Family and Consumer Resource Management
After you have chosen the topic for your research paper:
1) Choose Keywords for your research: For example, if your topic is How do Student Loans Affect Wealth Inequality, you would not use the whole sentence. The keywords might be Student Loans and Wealth Inequality. Also find synonyms for your keywords. Return to the Get Started Here tab to learn how.
2) Choose a resource: It might be OneSearch on the Library home page, or a databases. Google might be best for some of your research. A good multidisciplinary database to start with is Academic Search Complete, or you can select a database from the list below. Return to the Get Started Here tab to learn how to use Academic Search Complete, or how to choose another database.
3) Refine the results of your search. It is similar whether you use OneSearch or a database.
For example, a search for health care AND consumer behavior in OneSearch would yield more than 500,000 results, while a search for homelessness AND consumer behavior yields a little more than 15,000. That still sounds like a lot, until you start to refine your search. How many of those sources are actually ABOUT homelessness (or health care) AND consumer behavior, as opposed to sources that just mention the keywords.
To find out: Use the filters on the left side of the results screen.
For example: Using the SUBJECT and PUBLICATION DATE filters...
And that's before filtering by Resource Type.
4) Cite your sources. Check this page for examples of common APA citations or watch this presentation on APA citations.
Recommended Databases or, find a searchable list of all databases.
