Finding Research

Starting Your Search

When you are starting your search, it can be valuable to think about the different themes related to your topic. By thinking about these themes and who might be writing about them, you can start to know where to look for good resources.

Starting Your Search
Learn about where to start your research and how to develop search terms. (QUIZ)
Evaluating Reliable Sources
Learn to evaluate sources critically and identify what will help you with your research. (QUIZ)

Selecting a Database

Whether looking at print sources or electronic ones, it is important to evaluate the quality of a source. Use the following guidelines to select appropriate resources for this assignment.

Currency: the timeliness of the information

Relevance: the importance of the information for your needs

Authority: the source of the information

Accuracy: the reliability, truthfulness, and correctness of the content, and

Purpose: the reason the information exists

EBSCO Discovery
A research tool that searches many DelVal databases simultaneously. Contains books, ebooks, dvds, online videos, journals, magazines, newspapers, conference proceedings, and more.
JSTOR
Archive of articles from scholarly journals for arts, sciences, social sciences and humanities. Includes selected book chapters and primary sources.
PsycArticles
Provides access to full-text journal articles in subject areas such as applied psychology, health, theory, research, social/personality, and more.

Race

Poverty & Race Research Action Council
Source: PRRAC
The Poverty & Race Research Action Council (PRRAC) is a civil rights policy organization whose primary mission is to help connect advocates with social scientists working on race and poverty issues, and to promote a research-based advocacy strategy on structural inequality issues.
Race Forward
Source: The Center for Racial Justice Innovation
Race Forward advances racial justice through research, media and practice. It publishes the daily news site Colorlines and presents Facing Race, the country’s largest multiracial conference on racial justice.
Race Research Online Directory
Source: University of Pittsburgh
The Center on Race and Social Problems website is a searchable database of the videos, publications, and other information produced by the Center during its history.

Gender

Gender Equality
Source: United Nations Population Fund
Publications and resources on gender equality issues globally.
International Center for Research on Women
Source: ICRW
Our research evidence identifies women’s contributions as well as the obstacles that prevent them from being economically strong and able to fully participate in society. ICRW translates these insights into a path of action that honors women’s human rights, ensures gender equality and creates the conditions in which all women can thrive.

Sexuality

Center for Lesbian and Gay Studies
Source: CUNY
CLAGS nurtures cutting-edge scholarship; organizes colloquia for examining and affirming LGBT lives; and fosters network-building.
Guttmacher Institute
Source: Guttmacher Institute
Works to advance sexual and reproductive health through research, policy analysis and public education.

Setting up RefWorks

RefWorks

RefWorks is a new way to collect, manage, and organize research. You can read, annotate, organize, and cite your research as well as collaborate by sharing collections.

From simple bibliographies to papers formatted with in-text citations or footnotes, RefWorks handles it all. To learn more about RefWorks, use our RefWorks research guide.

To create a RefWorks account:

Go to the link below and click Use login from my institution
Fill in your information, making sure to use your DelVal email address.
Go to your inbox and click the email link to complete the activation process.

Already have an account? Just go to the link below and click "Log In"

RefWorks
Citation generation service covering hundreds of styles including Chicago Scientific (Author-Date), Journal of Animal Science, and Council of Scientific Editors (Name-Year).

Formatting your Bibliography

MLA Style Citation Examples

MLA Style Citation Examples
Check out this PDF filled with examples of citations for your MLA 8 styled paper!

MLA 7 vs MLA 8
Source: EasyBib
Learn what the differences are between MLA 7 and MLA 8.
MLA Guidelines & General Formatting
Source: Purdue Owl

MLA Basics
When to use italics, when/how to use quotation marks, how to set up an in-text citation (what goes in the parentheses), using signal verbs, etc.

In-Text Citations

NOTE: MLA treats quotations and paraphrasing the same.

(Last name Page)

Example:

(Dorris and Erdrich 23)

More than two authors

(Last name et al. Page)

Example:

(Burdick et al. 42)

Journal Articles

Last name, First name. "Article Title." Journal Title, vol., no. if available, year, pages. Database, if available. Stable URL, if available.

Example:

Borroff, Marie. "Sound Symbolism as Drama in the Poetry of Robert Frost." PMLA, vol. 107, no. 1, Jan. 1992, pp. 131-44. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/462806.

Journal article with multiple authors

When a source has more than two authors, include Last name, First name, et al.

Last name, First name, and First name Last name. "Article Title." Journal Title, vol., no. if available, year, pages. Database, if available. Stable URL, if available.

Example:

Dorris, Michael, and Louise Erdich. "The Crown of Columbus." PMLA, vol. 120, no. 3, May 1997, pp. 182-44. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/462806.