Define and refine your topic
- Look for journal articles to get a general idea of the key issues or controversies involved in your topic. Academic Search Complete or Academic One File are both good places to start with your search.
- If you don't find articles relevant to your topic start thinking of similar key words (synonyms) or concepts and search again. For example, if you are looking for material on anorexia and teens, try also "eating disorders" and "adolescents" or "teenagers" as other key words. In this way, you will broaden your search and find more material on the same topic.
- If your topic is to broad and you get too many hits, you should limit your search to a specific time period, geographic area or population. For example, try anorexia and teenagers in the US. You can also use the Limit options in the databases to get only scholarly and current information relevant to your topic.
