One helpful way to keep track of your research is to use a research log to record where you search, what search terms you use, and what you found. Use this log to help you stay organized.
In contrast to primary research, secondary research, sometimes also referred to as library research, focuses on exploring pre-existing information or research done by others. This often involves searching the library catalog and databases for books, ebooks, articles, media, and more. Secondary research is an important part of the research process because it help you to learn more about the research conversations related to your topic or project and find a niche or gap in the research where you want to contribute. Watch the video below to learn more about using the library to learn more about scholarly conversations.
While you can type whole sentences or questions into Google and still retrieve search results, this approach will not work when searching for your peer-reviewed sources in the library databases. Instead, you will need to break down your topic and research questions into keywords.
Let's say you were researching the question should college athletes be paid? Instead of typing that whole question into the search box, you would start by identifying key concepts:
From there, think of synonyms for those keywords, considering terms that are broader and more specific. For example, some synonyms for "college athletes" could include "student athletes" and "college athletics."