1. Farmington High School AP Seminar Research
Objectives: Students will perform research, select relevant sources, and extract needed information.

2. Research Tasks
You have a topic. What are you supposed to do first (today)?
Find great information about the topic (three sources minimum; two from scholarly articles)
Evaluate sources according to the RAVEN model and take careful notes (without having to print)
Stay organized
What are you eventually supposed to do with the research?
Write an Individual Research Report
You have to learn a lot about the subject now, or else you’ll have to re-research when you should be focusing on writing.

3. You want to find the best information available, so start with academic sites and work your way down.
First, we’ll try Utah’s Online Library . You need the username and password if you search from home, so take a bookmark.
UOL contains links to many different academic databases. Databases are closed sources (caretakers have to add information), so they contain trustworthy, scholarly info.
As a last resort, use academic search engines like RefSeek.com and Google Scholar.
Using Sources Databases (digital collections of information) and search engines help you find great sources, but they aren’t sources in themselves. Sometimes students incorrectly list Google Scholar or Bing as a source when it just helped them find a source.

4. Searching
You’ve formulated a research question, but you can’t type the whole question into an academic research database and expect to find good information. What you have to do is pick out key words from the question to research.
EX Question: “How are concussions changing the way football is played?”
EX Searches: Football concussions
impact of concussions on football
concussions changing football
Luckily, a lot of databases now have an autosuggest feature that offers topics related to your search.

5. If you don’t find what you’re looking for
Try using synonyms (similar words) or technical terms.
Try to broaden or narrow your focus.
EX: Sports instead of football
Try using Boolean operators (and/or/not) and ctrl + f
Try using “quotation marks” to search exact words in exact order.
Sometimes research can be tricky. You may not find much on your first search, or you may not find good articles on the first few pages of a search return.
Research Tips

6. Currency
When was it written and/or updated?
Do the links work?
Relevancy Does the information tie in with your research issue?
Accuracy
Is this information correct?
Does it come from a credible source?
Does it sound too absurd to be true?
Can you confirm the same information w/ other sources?
Authority
Who wrote this? Is he/she an expert? (Look authors up)
Purpose
Why was this site/information written?
Persuade? Inform? Entertain? Make money?
Reliable Sources Use these questions to help you find reliable information.

7. If it’s a database- it will be credible but still search for the author’s bias.
If it’s a website- look at the URL and check for information about the date, the author, and bias.
Use standard, nonscholarly websites with caution!
Reliable Sources

8. Where to Start? Utah’s Online Library
Go to Utah’s Online Library: onlinelibrary.uen.org
We’ll start with World Book Encyclopedia. It’s a great place to build background information because it explains things briefly and simply. Choose the “Student” product.
Type in your search term, hit enter, and choose the best articles to read on your topic.
It cites your source in MLA format at the bottom of the article. Take note of it for your Works Cited page. You’ll have to add the hanging indent. Take careful notes or save the file as a .pdf for later.
Where to Start? Utah’s Online Library

9. Gale has a lot of great databases you can use, depending upon your topic. There are databases specifically for biographies, reference materials (like textbooks and encyclopedias), current issues in society, magazines/scholarly journals, argumentative topics, and science.
Go back to Utah’s Online Library (in the upper left-hand corner of the page) and click on Gale Reference Collection to get started.
Using Gale Reference Collection on Utah’s Online Library (onlinelibrary. uen.org)

10. Searching for Scholarly Articles
Scholarly articles are articles written in academic journals by experts. For instance, an essay published in a scientific journal and written by a physicist who holds an advanced degree would be considered a scholarly article.
Another aspect of their scholarliness (if that’s a word) is that they have been peer reviewed. Editors of the journal have sent drafts of the article out to other experts in the field to check for accuracy. This makes sure that what you’re reading is the best information of its kind available.
Make sure you select “Full-Text Articles,” so you can read the full article.
To filter only for scholarly articles, make sure you click in one of the places described in the next few images:
Under “Advanced Search, check the “Peer-Reviewed Journals” tab.
During a “Browse Issues” search, select “Academic Journals” or filter for “Academic Journals” after performing a search.
Searching for Scholarly Articles

11. You can search for your topic in the search box
You can search for your topic in the search box. It will link you to magazine articles, scholarly journal articles, books, newspaper articles, images and videos. Click “Full Text,” so you can read the full articles. Or
You can use the Topic Finder to do an interactive search. You can select the Wheels or Tiles to narrow down your topic, and then suggested articles are listed to the right.
General PowerSearch

12. The Gale Databases We can also specialize and narrow your focus.
InfoTrac Student Edition searches through thousands of magazine and scholarly journal articles. You might have to add more information to your search than just your topic to get better results .
Definitely use Biography in Context if your topic is a person.
The Gale Databases

13. There are four databases that let you browse by alphabetical list or offer a standard search.
Student Resources in Context has a lot of great reference articles broken down by media type.
Global Issues in Context lets you look up problems that the world is facing or has faced in the past.
Opposing Viewpoints in Context gives you a balanced view of different issues up for debate.
Science in Context focuses on science issues by topic.
You can also use Gale Virtual Reference Library to find a lot of great scholarly articles on your subject.
Don’t forget to select Full Text for your articles.
Additional Databases

14. When you type information into the search box, the database offers alternative search choices or additional search terms. They might prove useful for additional searches (or help you spell something correctly).
When you get your results back from your search, sometimes there are signs that indicate the difficulty of the article you could choose. The green circle is an easier article, the yellow square is an intermediate level article, and the red triangle is advanced.
On the right hand side of articles and searches, there is a subjects or related subjects menu that can help you find good information.
About the Searches

15. Don’t copy and paste the url
Don’t copy and paste the url. They aren’t fixed, and a lot of students have lost their articles because they don’t save them or write down any extra information.
If you find an article you want to keep, log in to Microsoft 365 at the top of your Gale database using your school and password.
From there, click Download from the article tools and save it to Onedrive. It will save the article, any highlights you have done, and the Correct MLA citation in a folder on Onedrive that is the same name as the database you are using. So if you are using Biographies in Context, your article will be in your Office 365 Onedrive account under a folder titled Biographies in Context .
Saving Articles

16. Academic Search Engines
The information on Refseek.com tends to be scholarly and extremely useful. Watch out for paid ads before it lists its search hits. Google Scholar can also put you in touch with academic information about your subject.
Academic Search Engines

17. I hope this tutorial will help you find a lot of great information in a short amount of time! It’s trustworthy, and the sources include MLA citations for your Works Cited page.
If you need any help, come see me in the library.
Good Luck!