Research Guides: Social Research: GETTING STARTED

Planning your Search

What is your research about?

Which words would best capture your topic?

Here is an example about how you may want to plan your search.

To learn more about organizing your search and using Boolean operators, view the presentation here

Don't know where to start?

Knowledge is of two kinds: we know a subject ourselves, or we know where we can find information upon it. -- Samuel Johnson (1709 - 1784)

For an introduction to concepts and ideas for research topics, electronic reference sources or subject Encyclopedias can be useful.

Sociology Encyclopedias @ RU Libraries

QuickSearch : search the entire library's catalog

WorldCat : another catalog to search and view resources available outside of Rutgers

Find Articles : search for articles related to your research topic

Indexes and Databases: to narrow down the scope of your results, select a database for a more focused search process

Learning Tools: view tutorials on using Quicksearch, organizing your search, citing resources and more!