Content last reviewed:
The research process
- Begin by defining exactly what you are searching for
- Get background information from handbooks, encyclopedias, dictionaries
- Be specific when determining search terms: synonyms/antonyms
- Use Boolean Operators to connect search terms by understanding how search engines operate
- Once your topic is narrowly defined, select databases to find specific articles that have been published in journals
- Use the advanced interface of electronic databases and Internet search engines to help narrow your search. Limit to: specific field (article, book, conference proceeding, newspapers, video); full-text or peer reviewed journals only
- Find books on your topic to gain greater depth and understanding
- Films and Videos and Images are non-literary forms of representation
- Take notes during your research to keep track of where you have been, keywords searched, what worked and what didn't, etc. You may consider using Microsoft OneNote or free software for note-taking such as Evernote
- Write down or store all the references you have consulted to include them in the bibliography of your research paper
Sources of information
Publication Cycle: to find primary and secondary sources of information, use tertiary sources of information: dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks. When a researcher publishes material, they follow the cycle clockwise. To find primary and secondary sources, follow the cycle anti clockwise.
FAQ
- Brainstorm for the Essay (UNC at Chapel Hill)
- Google search secrets / Christa Burns and Michael P. Sauers (CUL electronic resource)
- Library research (CUL)
- Literature Reviews (CUL) see rubric (internet)
- Office of the Vice-President (Students and Enrolment) - Carleton University
- Thesaurus (internet)
- Writing an Annotated Bibliography (CUL) see rubric (internet)
- Writing an Outline for your essay (CUL) see rubric (internet)
Online journals
- by 'Subject'
Databases tagged
- 'Computer Systems Engineering'
- by 'Type'
- OMNI: the Carleton University Library search interface
Other suggested databases
- Business Source Complete: Business Source Complete is a scholarly business database. It provides full-text access as well as indexing and abstracting for journals dating back as far as 1886. PEER REVIEWED
- Dissertations and Theses Global: ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global is a comprehensive collection of dissertations and theses from around the world, spanning from 1743 to the present. PQDT Global includes theses from Great Britain and Ireland.
- Google Scholar: provides access to scholarly literature from many disciplines and sources. It indexes articles, theses, books, abstracts, and court opinions from academic publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities, and other websites.
- Lecture Notes in Computer Science: A collection of books, reporting new developments in all areas of computer science and information technology
- SAGE Journals Online: Provides online access to over 1000 journals across a broad range of disciplines.
- SAGE Knowledge Encyclopedias: Carleton subscribes to the 2011 Encyclopedia Collection which provides perpetual access to 27 encyclopedias in the social sciences published between 2005-2011, as well as some other encyclopedias which have been ordered individually. Browse by Content Type: "Encyclopedias" and/or "Handbooks".
- SAGE Research Methods: With information on the full range of qualitative, quantitative, and mixed methods for the social and behavioral sciences, as well as methods commonly used in the hard sciences, the book, reference, and journal content in SAGE Research Methods helps researchers of all levels conduct their research.
- Science.gov: Science.gov is a gateway to government science information and research results.
- Techstreet Enterprise: industry standards and technical books from many organizations.
PrePrints
- arXiv: arXiv is a free distribution service and an open-access archive for 1,769,134 scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics. Materials on this site are not peer-reviewed by arXiv.
- Earth ArXiv: EarthArXiv.org is moving from the OSF Preprints platform to the Janeway preprint platform at the California Digital Library (CDL). In preparation for this move, EarthArXiv will stop accepting submissions on Friday August 21, 2020. EarthArXiv.org will redirect to the new service when it becomes public on October 1, 2020.
- TechRxiv: TechRxiv (pronounced "tech archive") is an open, moderated preprint server for unpublished research in electrical engineering, computer science, and related technology. By using TechRxiv, authors can quickly disseminate their work to a wide audience and gain community feedback on a draft version of their research. A preprint is a draft version of an article; final versions of published articles should not be submitted to TechRxiv.
Subject headings
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH) use controlled vocabulary to access and express the subject content of documents.
This is a searchable index.
- Please click on the links below to discover the Library's holdings in this subject area, and
- Add keywords, or
- Use the filters on the left of the resulting screen. (Typical filters are Available Online and Peer Reviewed Journals)
- Algorithms
- Analysis
- Applied sciences
- Artificial intelligence
- Circuits and systems
- Computer communication networks
- Computer engineering
- Computer engineering--Computer hardware
- Computer science
- Electrical computer engineering
- Electrical engineering
- Electronic and computer engineering
- Electronics
- Engineering
- Engineering--Applied sciences
- Engineering--Electrical and electronic
- Physical sciences
- Physics
- Reliability engineering
- Science and technology
- Studies
- Systems engineering
- Systems engineering and theory
- Technology
- Telecommunication
- Telecommunications
- Video/film
Supplementary readings
- Google vs. the Library: Student Preferences and Perceptions When Doing Research Using Google and a Federated Search Tool
- Google vs. the Library (Part II): Student Search Patterns and Behaviors when Using Google and a Federated Search Tool
- Google vs. the Library (Part III): Assessing the Quality of Sources Found by Undergraduates
- How to Read a Book, v5.0 School of Information University of Michigan
- How to Read a Paragraph: The Art of Close Reading
- How to Read (and Understand) a Social Science Journal Article: Tips and tricks to make reading and understanding social science journal articles easier
- How to Read for Grad School Miriam E. Sweeney
- Read Like A Graduate Student, Not A Mystery Fan William Doane
Minecraft (Education Edition) is free for Carleton students
- Just download the installer: Download | Minecraft Education
- After install, launch the game and log in using your Carleton email address (cmail) and password then you're good to go.
