COEKSW - Finding & Citing Sources, Literature Reviews

Before you search for your sources:

• Define your topic: Start by identifying a topic of research interest. Then narrow down your topic by doing a prelimanery search via library databases, Google search, etc. Tip: identify elements of your topic and use these elements to create your research question.
• Write down your topic's keywords

Looking for scholarly/peer-reviewed articles?

Some recommended filters are:

• Under "Available at Stanislaus" select "Peer-reviewed Journals" to get scholarly/peer-reviewed sources.
• Under "Resource Type" select articles to only get sources that are articles.
• Under "Publication Date" type in the dates you prefer your sources to be published between. For example if you're looking for recently published articles, like within the last 5 years, enter 2019 under "From." 
• Tip: If you don't get many results after adding these filters, you may want to change your keywords, or modify a filter, such as the publication date filter and enter an older date under "From." For help on adding filters, contact Librarian Isabel.

An optional filter is the "Subject filter" which filters your results based on subjects you choose.

Make sure your sources are credible:

• Add scholarly/peer-reviewed articles filter
• Add recently published sources filter 

Manually check the author's background and the journal. You may need this information for your literature review anyways.