Conducting background research is an essential step, that many of us skip!
Background research is so important because:
1) It will help you become more grounded in your understanding of your topic, which will help you develop a strong research question.
2) It will also give you an idea of important keywords and terms, and what kind of resources (scholarly, popular, etc.) are written about your topic. This will help you develop a search strategy that is more effective and efficient.
As a Babson student, you have access to a variety of databases that are wonderful for conducting broad, background research. Find the best fit for you below.
DO NOT use encyclopedia content in your literature review. Encyclopedia resources should only be used to teach yourself a little about your topic, so that you are able to devise an efficient search strategy.
Power Search is our library search engine. It can be used to search across many of our scholarly article, reference, and news databases, as well as our print book and eBook collection. It's a great resource for conducting background research, because not only do you have the ability to filter for the kind of resources you'd like to see, but you get a birds-eye view of what kind of scholarship is available on your topic in general.
Tip: Power Search uses Boolean logic, so it may be helpful to utilize some Boolean Search Strategies to enhance your results.
It is completely fine to do a little Googling at the beginning of your research process. When you are choosing a research topic, surveying a number of different kinds of resources can a good way of getting some basic background knowledge on your topic.
Try a few different searches using the keywords you developed in your brainstorming exercise, and see what comes up. Keep in mind that Google surveys the open, unfiltered web, so you'll need to exercise your source evaluation skills here!
Be VERY wary of using resources that you find on the open web in your literature review! Always cross-check academic articles in the Horn Library's Power Search engine to make sure they are peer-reviewed.
Your research question serves as the compass for all of the steps in your research and writing processes, so it's very important that your question is strong (and meaningful to you!).
After conducting some background research on your topic, ask yourself the following questions:
Using these questions and the foundation you've built from the background research process, draft a research question to share with your instructor or advisor. This research question will guide your literature search and literature review (not "literary" review!). To learn more, see here.
Source: Scribbr
Determining the academic disciplines that are most concerned with your topic will help you to determine what kind of materials you may need to be looking for, which will help you develop a search strategy.
For example:
In some cases, the topics that Honors students pursue are interdisciplinary, meaning that they cross over multiple academic disciplines. Therefore, the material and information needs can vary. See below for some helpful tips, and if you're still unsure what you should be looking for, reach out to a librarian.
If you're unsure what disciplinary context(s) your research topic falls under, ask yourself the following questions:
Another way to determine which disciplines are concerned with your topic is to do a broad, exploratory search in Power Search or Google Scholar.
In your search results list, scan the titles of the academic journals that are publishing articles on the topic. What academic disciplines do they belong to?
See below for an example for a search performed in Google Scholar ("artificial intelligence" AND education). In addition to journals focusing on the intersection of technology and education, there is also an article published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE). This clues me into the fact that while Education might be the primary discipline interested in Artificial Intelligence's role in education, I may also seek and find materials in Information Technology and Engineering.