LIBRARY GUIDE TO HC 3900 - Introduction to the Thesis

To help you find or refine a topic, you can:

Scan encyclopedias in the discipline of your choice.
They provide overviews of issues and research trends in a discipline.

• For discipline-specific information, see the library's specialized online encyclopedias.
• Credo Reference A collection of encyclopedias in various disciplines. The "concept map" search allows you to explore general topics and refine them, using an interactive map of topics and subtopics. Credo offers a video demonstration of this feature.
• Opposing Viewpoints in Context : Easy to browse set of resources on controversial social issues.
• Virtual reference collection: a list of online sources to find information on everything. For example:
• : A huge and highly heterogeneous multidisciplinary mix of scholarly, journalistic, practitioner and popular sources, with much direct full-text included. Use the list of related subjects to explore a topic.
• For a detailed overview of resources in each discipline, see the library's Research Guides.

Once you have chosen your topic you will need to identify where to look for resources in your discipline.
 

• KL has a list of specialized databases (specific to disciplines) under Databases by Subject.
• Research guides offer more specific suggestions for the best databases, websites and other resources on a given discipline or topic.

• limit your search to "peer-reviewed" (also called refereed) articles.
• check whether a journal is peer-reviewed in Ulrich's Periodicals Directory . Enter the journal title in the search box.  When you find it, check whether it has the icon in front. If so, it is peer-reviewed.
• check the website of the journal, or a print copy, to see if they mention anything about peer review. 

Here are some tips to find, organize and manage the sources you find.

• Tips to conduct a literature review
• Tips for Conducting an Organized Literature Review.pdf

• See the HC 390 Guide to Starting Your Research to find your librarian.
• Workshop Slides from How to Start Your Honors Thesis Research:

Library OneSearch
Use the catalog to find books, videos, recordings, and goverment documents we have at the library.

MelCat
A statewide catalog of many of Michigan's libraries. It allows you to request books at another library be sent to Kresge Library for you.

Interlibrary Loan
You may request materials we don't have and we'll borrow them from another library for you.