DSCI 490 Capstone Fall 2024

Creating a research strategy is always a good idea. It will:

1. Its primary purpose is to help you better manage your time and research outcome

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1. Start by developing a good research question (thesis statement)
2. Learn how to identify the type of information you require - a peer-reviewed journal article, a book, a newspaper or magazine article, or a scientific report from the government, statistics and data, video, etc. 
3. Learn how to discuss these information requirements with others (professor, librarian. classmate, the person sitting next to on a bus),  

4. Develop a plan to manage the information that you discover 

5. Develop a list of keywords and keyword phrases to use in your searching

They're everywhere:

1. Your Lectures and Lecture Notes
2. Background Reference Sources
3. Books and E-Books
4. Journal Articles and their Reference Lists 
5. Textbooks
6. Webpages - especially those from Universities, Colleges, Research Institutions, etc.

Documenting your searches

It's good practice to document and save your search results and methods for how you found your information. By saving your search results in one place, you can re-run, edit or share your results and strategies with other people and keep a thorough record of your review process.

Managing your references

Reference management could include a handwritten journal, Word document, Spreadsheet,  or Bibliographic Management software.  Make sure to record the following bibliographic metadata.

• Author(s)

• Title of:

  • Article and Journal

  • Book 

  • Webpage

  • Streaming Video

• Date of publication 

• Volume Issue (Number) of Journal

• Digital Object Identifier (doi)

• URL  

Remember the Email and Cite Functions in OCtopus.