When deciding your research topic begin by identifying broad topics of interests, refining it to determine which particular aspects interest you and than reframing the topic as a question.
For example:
Once you have a defined research question, it may be useful to pick out the key concepts. For example: "What were the effects of Canadian immigration policies on the settlement patterns of Black Canadians in the 20th century?"
From these key concepts it is beneficial to think of other related terms that express the same idea.
Use combinations of these terms to broaden or narrow your search and find relevant sources. For example:
It may be useful to useful to create a concept map as it is a visual way of organizing your understanding of a topic. A blank chart can also be downloaded here.
| Concept #1 | Concept #2 | Concept #3 | Concept #4 | |||
| Canadian Immigration Policies | AND | Settlement Patterns | AND | Black Canadians | AND | 20th Century |
| OR | OR | OR | ||||
|
Immigration Acts |
AND | Migration Trends | AND | Black Immigrants | AND | 1900s |
| OR | OR | OR | ||||
| Government Policies | AND | Community Formation | AND | African Canadian | AND | Post-war Era |
If you are researching a health related topic then you might want to use research question frameworks which can help you clarify and focus your question.
There are many different types of information that may be relevant to your search purpose. You can search the Library for common information sources, such as government documents, grey literature, patents and statistics.
Subject-specific databases are the most effective way to search for journal articles on a topic, for a specific discipline. The topic of your research may overlap with another discipline in which case it may be best to check out the Subject A-Z Database Guide
If you use Google Scholar, you can connect Google Scholar to the library's resources. Doing so will result in a Get it! UofT link to appear next to articles in your search results. Click on it and it will take you to the catalogue to access the full text.
Detailed instruction with photographs can be accessed through the FAQ article.
Database subject headings are controlled vocabulary terms that a database uses to describe what an article is about. Using appropriate subject headings enhances your search and will help you to find more results on your topic. This is because subject headings find articles according to their subject, even if the article does not use your chosen key words.
Boolean operators (AND, OR and NOT) are a set of commands that can be used in almost every search engine, database, or online catalogue. They allow you to try different combinations of search terms or subject headings.
The most popular operators are:
OR is used to find articles that mention either of the topics you search for.
AND is used to find articles that mention both of the searched topics.
NOT excludes a search term or concept. It should be used with caution as you may inadvertently exclude relevant references.
For example, searching for “self-esteem NOT eating disorders” finds articles that mention self-esteem but removes any articles that mention eating disorders.
If you want words to appear next to each other in an exact phrase, use quotation marks, e.g. "anti-racist pedagogy". Phrase searching decreases the number of results you get and makes your results more relevant.
You can use truncated and wildcard searches to find variations of your search term. Truncation is useful for finding singular and plural forms of words, such as singular and plural. Most databases use an asterisk (*) for truncation. For example, “Canad*” will find Canada, Canadas, Canadian and Canadians.
A wildcard finds variant spellings of words. Use it to search for a single character, or no character. Check the database help section to see which symbol to use as a wildcard. Wildcards help find different spellings of a word. This is especially useful for finding British and American spellings of the same term, for example: “behavio?r” in will find both behaviour and behavior.
There are sometimes different symbols to find a variable single character. Always check the database help section for the correct wildcard symbol.
You can also specify how close two words appear together in your search strategy. This can make your results more relevant; generally the closer two words appear to each other, the closer the relationship is between them.
Commands for adjacency searching differ among databases, so make sure you consult database guides.
If you find a really great article you can also track the references or citations of a particular work to find related research. This method can:
When conducting research, you may encounter outdated or potentially problematic terminology. This is because historical documents and archives often use the vocabulary that was prevalent at the time they were created. Although we have updated our current usage to reflect more modern and respectful language, you may still need to use these historical terms during your searches to access relevant materials. Understanding this context will help ensure a comprehensive and accurate exploration of historical sources.
Always save or print the useful article records you find. Most databases give you a few options, such as:
Generally you will not be able to download the full text of the documents directly from the database or catalogue
Each effective search you create can be saved and rerun at a later time. Just click the Save Query feature circled below.
Selecting Save Query will prompt the page to refresh and a yellow banner will appear with the message: "The search was saved to your favorites".
If you would like to receive an email notification of any updates to your search results, click on the "Turn on notification for this query" option in the yellow banner when it appears. Once you set up this notification, you will receive a weekly email providing a link to a list of new results.
Any searches yous save using the Save Query feature are stored in My Favourites where you can set up an RSS feed, manage notifications, and delete your saved search if necessary.
The Assignment Planner breaks down various projects into manageable steps based on your due dates. Each step includes hints and "how-to" links. You can also add each step to your calendar using button "Add to Calendar" .
Any interim due dates provided by your professor (for working thesis, bibliography, first draft, etc.) take precedence over dates suggested by the Assignment Planner. If your disability requires you to take extra time to read, write, or organize yourself, you may need to give yourself more time than what the Assignment Planner suggests.
