Research Help

There are 5 steps to the research process. Understanding and knowing how to navigate these concepts will make your research process much easier!

1. Determine your research goals
   1. Do you know what you need to know?
   2. Do you have a topic?
   3. Do you have a list of keywords?
   4. Do you need news resources, scholarly journals, peer-reviewed articles, books?
   5. What even is a scholarly source?
2. Search for Sources
   1. Search in Primo
   2. Search in Databases
   3. Find resources under your Subject Guide
   4. Still need assistance? Chat-with-a-Librarian!
3. Evaluate Sources
   1. Evaluate Articles
   2. Evaluate Websites
   3. Identify Fake News
4.  Use Sources (The University Writing Center will be able to help with this step!)
   1. Quotes
   2. Paraphrases
   3. Summary
   4. Analysis
5. Cite sources

Helpful Videos

This video from Seminole State Library explains how "Information literacy can be divided into five different categories: Identify, Find, Evaluate, Apply, and Acknowledge. View academic and real world examples for each component to discover why information literacy is important to success in college or university and in life."

Helpful Documents

The Information Literacy: Research Path infographic below can help offer some suggestion for navigating the research process. Each of the steps lines up with the five parts of the research process listed above and in the video.