F&M College Library

CNX 163: Dis/ability

10 Search Tips for New Researchers

  1. Always start your research at the library website
  2. Start early: academic research is a skill that requires time and practice
  3. Determine the kinds of sources you need (scholarly or popular, primary or secondary, books or articles, etc.)
  4. Use a library research guide to select the most appropriate databases
  5. Run multiple searches with different combinations of keywords
  6. Filter and sort your results in multiple ways
  7. Use citations, subject headings, and cited-by data to find more relevant results
  8. Use Zotero to save the sources you find and to format the citations in your bibliography
  9. Always ask a librarian if you're having trouble finding credible and relevant sources or hit a paywall
  10. Never pay for access to a source; use EZ Borrow or Interlibrary Loan instead