There are many different types of resources you might use for your research paper. All of these resources serve different purposes. Before you start searching, think about the kind of information you need.
If you need background information
You have a general idea about what you want to study, but aren't sure what kinds of question to ask. Doing some background research can help you become more familiar with a broad topic, and can help you narrow down your research question.
For background research, you will usually want to turn to sources like encyclopedias and other reference works. Some books can give great background information as well.
Many encyclopedia entries will also offer bibliographies where you can find articles that might be relevant for your topic.
Formerly Grove Music Online, it offers full text of the 29-volume print edition with the added benefit of sophisticated search capabilities, one-click cross-referencing, and an ever increasing network of web-links to musical sites around the world.
Use this form to search OneSearch. You can choose whether to search keywords, or look for a specific title, author, or subject term. You can also narrow down to the type of item you're looking for.
You can search OneSearch for books, media, journal articles, dissertations, book chapters, and more. The video below will you give you some hints for effectively using OneSearch to find the information you need for your research.
If you need scholarly articles
You may have been told that you need to find scholarly articles. But what are scholarly articles, and how do you know if you've found one? A scholarly article is something that was written by an expert about the research that he or she is doing. The articles are reviewed by other experts in a process called peer review. Peer review is a way to ensure that the work being published is of a high quality and meets the research standards of a particular subject area.
Many journals that publish scholarly articles are only available from libraries. You can search for articles in collections of articles called databases. Many databases are subject specific, meaning they only include titles in particular subject areas. Some of them are more general.
Before you start searching in a particular database, spend some time thinking about your topic and how you might want to search.
This worksheet will help you think through your topic, come up with some good search terms, and evaluate whether an article will be useful for your research paper.
Indexing and abstracting for over 1,900 titles with coverage back to 1925, including citations and abstracts for articles, essays and reviews, as well as original creative works including poems, fiction, photographs, paintings and illustrations.
JSTOR is an archive of full-text scholarship, digital collections, and digital images. As of August 2024, all Artstor content has been moved to JSTOR. JSTOR includes content from disciplines across the humanities, social sciences, arts, and sciences.