Data & Statistics Librarian; Liaison for Geography & Planning (St. George)
Suggested Approaches to Formulating a Research Question
- Focus on ONE TAXON (species, genus, etc) investigating how it has changed over time.
- Focus on A SPECIFIC LOCATION investigating what plants, mammal, birds, invertebrate, or other taxonomic group are currently present.
- Focus on HUMANS' IMPACT on a given TAXA or the diversity in a particular LOCATION
- Choose YOUR OWN APPROACH, with prior approval from the instructor.
Where do I Begin?
Starting with a species of plant or animal you are interested, doing some preliminary research with online encyclopedias is a great first step to finding information on your species, and discovering what factors influence the distribution?
- Encyclopedia of LifeThis project is attempting to organize and make available via the Internet virtually all information about life present on Earth. It includes images, videos and distribution maps.
- Encyclopedia of EcologyOver 500 detailed stand-alone articles, structured to provide the user with complete coverage of the field of ecology, from general to applied.
- Encyclopedia of Life SciencesAlso known as ELS or Nature Enclyclopedia of Life Sciences (Nature ELS), this reference covers all life sciences and includes updates and new content each month. Encompasses 3,000 original peer-reviewed articles and 6,000 colour illustrations.
- Van Nostrand's Scientific EncyclopediaA general scientific reference ranging across all scientific disciplines including the biological sciences.
- Encyclopedia of Earth This link opens in a new windowAn electronic reference about the Earth, its natural environments, and their interaction with society.
Choosing Keywords
The first step in choosing keywords is to think about what information you need to search for. This seems obvious, and to a certain extent you are probably already doing it. But a more systematic approach will reward you.
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Break the search down into the key concepts:
- hawk moth and tongue
- Brainstorm (or look for in your background reading) synonyms. Tip: You will get more results if you use the common and scientific names for organisms.
- hawk moth OR sphingidae
- tongue OR proboscis
- Combine these terms in a logical way:
- OR: combines synonyms - hawk moth OR sphingidae (either of these concepts should be present in results - not ALL terms need to be present)
- AND: use when combining different concepts since both these concepts need to be present in results
- (hawk moth OR sphingidae) AND (tongue OR proboscis)
- Things to consider when considering words/terms to include in your search:
- think of synonyms
- think of plural and singular variations of words (e.g. moth or moths)
- use truncation to search for singular and plural versions of words: (e.g. moth*)
- think of spelling variations: (e.g. behaviour OR behavior)