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International Studies - Thesis Research: Research Tips & Strategies

This guides supports Croft students conducting thesis research.

Research Tips for Finding More Secondary Sources

Keyword searching is the most common strategy for finding secondary sources. However, you should not rely on keyword searches alone. There are number of other strategies that you can utilize to cast a wider research net. Incorporating the additional research strategies listed below may help you find sources that traditional keyword searching missed. 

  • Mine the footnotes and bibliography of the secondary sources you already have (backward citation searching).
  • Use the "cited by" feature on Google Scholar to find new secondary sources you may have missed (forward citation searching).
  • Use multiple academic databases; DO NOT rely on just one (indexing and discoverability). 
  • Use boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) when searching academic databases.
  • When searching the library catalog, use the subject heading hyperlinks within each book record to find other books with the same "tag."
  • When retrieving books from the stacks, browse the books nearby to find additional titles (academic libraries are organized by subject).

Research Tips for Finding More Primary Sources

Primary sources can be trickier to find than secondary sources. Keyword searches are less effective, for instance, and knowing where to look may not always be obvious either. Fortunately, the library provides access to a number of digital primary source collections (listed below) but here are a few extra strategies you can use to find more primary sources:

  • Mine the footnotes and bibliography of secondary sources for primary sources cited by the author. Having the citation of a specific primary source document or collection can make finding it much easier.
  • Use Google's Site/Domain level search feature to find reliable primary source documents and collections on the open web.
    • e.g., "site:edu women world war II" -or- "site:archives.gov women world war II"
  • While great primary sources in their own right, newspapers and magazines are another great source to use for identifying additional primary sources as well as data. Use the Journal AZ page to search all of UM Libraries' newspaper and magazine holdings (digital and print): https://ep4my7lr7s.search.serialssolutions.com/ejp/?libHash=EP4MY7LR7S#/?language=en-US&titleType=JOURNALS

Additional Tips for Finding Sources

Interlibrary Loan

  • This may be the most valuable service the library provides. Even though UM Libraries provides access to a good number of resources, like all libraries, we do not have everything. Interlibrary Loan can help you get access to the materials to which the library does not own. Use it! https://guides.lib.olemiss.edu/c.php?g=817754

Reference Management Software

  • Use a reference management software to manage your bibliographic data and related research materials. I prefer Zotero but there are other options available such as Mendeley. Reference management software like Zotero can not only help you organize your sources, it can also save you time by automatically generating footnotes and bibliographies based on your Zotero library using the Zotero plugin available for Microsoft Word and Google Docs. The library provides a handy Zotero start-up guide: https://guides.lib.olemiss.edu/zotero.

Keep a Research Journal

  • Use a research journal to help you keep track of (and link to) the databases you find most useful. Also, use this journal to keep track of all of the keywords you have tried. You can notate which words have worked and which have not.  This is also a good place to jot down notes about what strategies seem to be working and which ones are not. All of this may seem like too much trouble, but if you invest the time now, it will save you time later (and serve as good habit to incorporate into your research workflow).

Searching is an Iterative Process

  • Remember, do not expect to find what you are looking for on your very first search. Searching is an iterative process that requires patience. Scan the results of the initial search and refine your search accordingly by adding new terms and synonyms and removing old ones. Also, do not settle for the first few sources listed on the search results page. You should scan at least the first 10-20 results.