Begin your search with the following recommended databases to look for scholarly and peer-review journal articles on your topic.
No one database has everything. Search multiple databases from the list below to find adequate articles on your topic. To find more databases from the library, click Subjects A-Z on the library website and choose the subject(s) most relevant to your topic.
For example, for the multidisciplinary topic of immigration, you may also want to search in databases from education, geography, public policy, and political science.
Citations and abstracts of scholarly journals, dissertations, books, and conference papers in the social and behavioural sciences.
Citations to journal articles, books, reviews, and chapters in the fields of anthropology, economics, political science, and sociology.
Before you begin, read your research question/assignment. If you have any questions, be sure to ask your instructor or TA before you begin your research.
Why? | How? | Example | |
Step 1: Identify key concepts | Key concepts from your research question are the most effective search terms to quickly locate relevant sources. | Underline key nouns from your research question. |
What are the challenges that immigrants to the Greater Toronto Area face in the housing market? |
Step 2: Identify alternative search terms | To find everything relevant to your topic in a database. | Brainstorm alternatives (synonyms, alternative spelling) for your key concepts. |
Key concept 1: immigrants
Key concept 2: Greater Toronto Area
Key concept 3: housing market
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Step 3: Combine your search terms | In order to get more focused results, use Boolean operators (and, or) as well as the wildcard* to combine key concepts. |
And: Combines key concepts together to find articles that contain both concepts. Or: Combines alternative search terms to find articles that contain either/any concept. Wildcard*: Finds variations in spelling, prefixes, and suffixes (revers* will find reverse, reversal, reversing, etc.) Quotation marks: searches for word or phrase as a unit (preserves word order) |
(immigrant* OR immigration OR newcomer*) AND (Toronto OR "GTA" OR Scarborough) AND (housing OR home* OR "home ownership" or homeownership OR rent*) |
Step 4: Consider using limiters (available in a library database) | In order to focus on articles that are appropriate for your assignment. | Choose limiters in a library database that are relevant to your research needs. |
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Step 5: Review your search results | Check if articles are appropriate for your assignment to ensure you find the right information to write a high quality paper. |
Check if you articles are:
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Step 6: Adjust your strategy | If you don't find relevant articles, change your search strategy. |
Too few articles? Try...
Too many articles? Try...
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Too few articles?
Examples:
Too many articles? Try...
Examples:
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Adapted from The University of Manchester Library: Making Your Search Work (Cheat Sheet)
You can use articles or books you have already found as a starting point to get additional relevant materials on your topic. This technique is called backward citation chaining. Look for a list of citations at the end of the publication. The list may be called "References," "Bibliography," or "Works Cited," depending on the referencing style that was used in the publication. Locate these items by searching in the Catalogue for books, or in Article Finder for articles.
Forward chaining allows you to move forward in time to find articles that cite a previously published work, usually using citation indexes. In other words, forward citation chaining allows you to see how a relevant article you've found has been cited by newer articles. These are captured in certain citation indexes (like Web of Science, Google Scholar, or Scopus) in a "cited by" list.
Keep in mind that there is a period of delay between when an article is published and when it is cited by other researchers and begins to appear in citation indexes. A very recent article may have few forward citations.
Research Question:
What are the challenges faced by immigrants in the Toronto housing market (Remember - think of PPI - Person, Place, Issue):
Concept 1: Housing | Concept 2: Immigrant | Concept 3: Toronto |
renting | migrant | GTA |
mortgage | newcomer | Scarborough |
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