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From Simmons Library Research Guides
Contents |
About the Research Guides
These Research Guides suggest resources and offer guidance for doing research for your classes at Simmons. These guides are intended to provide a starting point for research but are by no means comprehensive.
How to Navigate the Guides
The Guides are listed both by Category and in an A-Z list. Most Guides are structured in the same format. The sections in each guide list resources that are specific to the topic of that Guides. Most Guides include the following:
- Reference and Background Information
- Finding Articles
- Searching the Web
- Writing Style and Citation
- Related Topics
- Class-Specific Resources
Some guides have different or additional sections depending on the nature of the content.
Sections of the Guides
Reference and Background Information
Reference sources can provide you with an overview of your topic. Entries in a reference source include bibliographies that can help you find further information on your topic.
Finding Articles
Periodicals, such as academic journals, newspapers and magazines, can be either online (in a database) or in print. This section suggests databases that contain periodicals relevant to that specific Guide and print indexes to help you locate articles on your topic. Some databases, such as Academic Search Complete, are interdisciplinary and contain periodicals relevant to multiple topics and can be found in more than one of the Research Guides.
Searching the Web
It can be difficult to find quality information on the internet. We have provided some tips and tricks for searching the internet in this section. We also suggest internet directories, such as Infomine, in order to find websites that are more scholarly. Some of the Guides contain a section for a Google Custom Search. Those are sites that Simmons librarians have reviewed and included as being relevant to the subject of that specific Guide.
Writing Style and Citation
Citing your sources is an important part of the writing process. The Writing Center and the Library have provided resources to help guide you in citing your sources.
Related Topics
Many of the topics are interdisciplinary and related to each other. We have highlighted some topics to explore in your research.
Class-Specific Resources
The content in this section relate to specific classes at Simmons.
Remember: You can look at the guide as a whole or you can examine the part that is relevant to any stage of the research process
How to Read Each Resource within the Guides
Each entry within the Guides has the same format:
Title
A link to the location of the resource (Free Online, Simmons Eresource or the location in the library)
A description of the resource and why it is useful
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