Starting Your Research

Brainstorm

Step 1: Brainstorm Your Topic

Brainstorming your topic is the start of any research process. This is when you're trying to figure out what topic you're interested in and see what kind of information is out there about it. Resources like Credo Reference, CQ Researcher, and Wikipedia are great places to get started with the pre-research process.

CREDO Reference
A collection of nearly 500 encyclopedias, dictionaries, and other reference books provides a good starting point for research.
CQ Researcher
In-depth reports and analysis on political and social issues, each covering a single theme and providing solid background information, with regular reports on topics in health, international affairs, education, the environment, technology and the U.S. economy. Each 13,000-word CQ Researcher report is a unique work, investigated and written by a seasoned journalist.

Wikipedia
Provides user-generated content meaning anyone can edit Wikipedia articles (including you!). Articles are supposed to contain references, but references are not always there or accurate. It's a great place for pre-research, but once you pick your topic you'll want to head towards more scholarly sources.

Develop your Research Question

Step 2: Develop Your Research Question

When starting your research, it is important to develop a research question to keep your searches structured and to keep the scope of the resources you find relevant. A research question is a question that you would like answered about broad topic.

Things to consider:

What questions do you want to answer? Are these questions new and innovative?
What audiences do you want to reach and how do you want them to be influenced?
What is the purpose of the research you want to use to test your hypothesis?

Begin with a broad topic, in this case dehydration. Then, identify a researchable issue related to that topic, such as the impact of hydration on athletic performance. Finally, consider how to apply this to a specific population, geography, etc. In this example, we'll choose the NFL.

Search Strategy

Step 3: Define Your Search Strategy

Keywords are phrases or terms that search engines use to find resources by matching search terms entered to indexed terms in the record. Build your keywords by pulling out the main points of your research questions and by developing additional terms that describe the articles you are hoping to find.

Sport Sciences & Physical Education