LibGuides: Fall 2025 Library Workshop Series: Research Essentials

Welcome!

Welcome to Research Essentials!

Our Goals today are to:

1. Learn the difference between Scholarly and Popular articles.

2. Understand research topics and research questions.

3. Learn how to construct a basic keyword search.

4. Navigate to the databases.

5. Choose and search the appropriate databases.

Are 'Research Topics' and 'Research Questions' the same thing?

Sometimes used interchangeably, but actually mean two different things.
Research topics are:
- Broad areas of interest.
Research questions are:
- More focused.
- Something that you want to know about your topic.
- Usually a question that you will try to answer (using research).