PSY 321 Research Methods - Dickard: Find Articles on a Topic

1. Identify your information need

For beginning your search for research articles, consider your research question and identify the key concepts or variables. Often, your question will have an independent and a dependent variable: 

Does bullying impact how a teenager performs in school?

Concept 1: Bullying

Concept 2: School performance

Concept 3/Population: Teenager

Also, consider the other criteria; for example: Do you need peer-reviewed articles? Do you need the most recent research or an overview of how the research has evolved over time? 

2. Define your terms

Do any of the concepts need to be operationalized or more focused?  

For example, what does "school performance" mean? We'll need to decide if we want to look at academic achievement (measurable via grades, graduation rates, etc. or something captured via an instrument or survey (like strong social networks).

3. Brainstorm synonyms or related terms that might be helpful for the search

Concept 1: Bullying, harrassment

Concept 2: Academic achievement, grades, high school completion

Concept 3/Population: High school students, Adolescents

This quick video explains how to turn your topic into keywords while searching for library resources and sources on the Web.