Research - All the Things: Background Research

Background research - pre-research - helps students gather information to narrow the topic, determine gaps in the information and go beyond basic facts.  Students who spend time finding background information typically have strong research questions and thesis statements.

• When conducting background research, look for answers to who, what, when, where, and why questions.  
• Determine different keywords that connect to the topic.
• Find other connecting issues or smaller issues that focus your topic.

Databases:

The databases provide overview of specific issues.  SIRS Researcher and many Gale databases will take a current topic and give you a starting point.  US Newsstream provides thousands of newspaper articles, so you can view a wide range of information sources.  

Google and Other Sources:

Sure, you can use Google and find background information.  However, gather many sites to compare accuracy and bias.  Compare information you find with the information from databases.  Use a critical lens and always return back to the databases for validity. 

Examples:

Mia was assigned a paper about a current issue.  She decided to look at drug abuse and focus on opioid addiction.  Mia went to the library databases and put in her keyword, opioid addiction.  She read a few articles about laws, safety precautions, prescription drug companies, and individual stories. She decided to look at individual stories and focus on the communities impacted.  As she was searching for information, she found an article about communities creating supervised injection sites.  Mia thought this was fascinating and decided to focus her research on supervised inject sites.