Research Guides: School of Education Intro to Lit Review: Home

Welcome!

Welcome to UAB Libraries! How can we help? Do you need to:

Resource Types

Resource Types

There are so many kinds of resources out there! Don't limit yourself. Things you might find useful include

Journals - not sure where to start? Check out the titles connected to professional organizations.
Books - because of the publication process, these can provide key context
Documentaries
Podcasts
Newspapers articles and magazines - even these can give you a way to navigate the story of your topic

Start Where You Are

Start Where you Are

Remember to just start where you are. Any of the resources listed in this guide are good places to start. Where you start, however, depends on what you already know. If you already have a book, a journal, an article, or even a documentary, then start by fishing through the content provided by that resource.

Author names - they have more work out there and usually have co-authors.
Book/Article titles - there are more resources out there using those terms
Journal titles - focusing in on a specific journal lets you be less precise with your search terms
Notes - bibliographies, references, footnotes, end notes, and citations for graphs and charts also provide a wealth of information that can be utilized for future searching.

Brainstorming

Titles/Hypotheses/Research Questions/Topics

Start where you are. Have you written your idea yet? Did you find one good article but need more? Is the title a complete sentence with everything spelled correctly? Excellent. Now, let's take it apart.

Highlight the Key Pieces

Not everything written down is important to the investigation. Focus in on the most important...well, keywords.

Prioritize

Sometimes you may not need a word at all because it is implied in the effort itself. Some words need to be given more thought to see if they matter.

Each Word is World of Ideas

Every word you use can contain numerous other ideas. Maybe those ideas are more specific. Maybe those ideas are just ways to convey the same idea more precisely.

Jargon, Jargon and more Jargon

It's like a spider's web.

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Use time more efficiently, skim an article before you read it!
Click on the graphic below to help you get started (brought to you courtesy of North Carolina State University)