When taking a ride through the road of an academic journey, one of the most critical parts that protect you from crashing is access to the right research tools and resources. It doesn’t matter if you are a student working on a term paper at three in the morning, a scholar trying to find something new in an in-depth study, or a renowned member of academia engaging in lifelong learning, having the knowledge of where to find and how to use academic research tools is essential.
In this blog, we will take a dive into some of the best resources for research you can find today, offer various examples of academic sources, and show you how to maximize your use of these tools to nail your research goals.
Before we jump into exploring the tools themselves, let’s figure out what academic resources are. Simply put, academic resources are all the materials and tools that provide credible, authoritative, and, of course, well-researched information about the subjects of your choice. These include various cool and massive things like databases, journals, books, and articles. Surprisingly, even raw data can be considered an academic resource if it supports the academic inquiry that you are after.
But, what is an academic resource exactly, when compared to casual information? Academic resources are different from general information sources primarily in their depth of research, accuracy, and authority. Academic resources are peer-reviewed, which means that actual experts of their respective fields have vetted them to make sure they meet strict academic standards. To give out a few examples, these include scholarly journal articles, government publications, books from academic/university presses, primary sources (historical documents, etc.), and raw data that is collected via experiments and surveys.
To help you better understand, here are some academic resources examples:
These are scholarly resources examples that should form the backbone of any well-researched paper.
Loads of information on the internet is a good thing, but with it comes a bit of confusion. Anyone can claim that there are countless good research websites that can offer valuable research resources, but since there are so many of them, how do you know which are indeed credible websites for research and which ones just masquerade as ones?
A basic rule of thumb is to look for websites that are in some way associated with academic institutions, reputable organizations, or even government entities. Oftentimes, these sources are more reliable than general internet searches and provide academic sources examples that you need for building a truly solid research foundation. These are some good websites for research that you can use without a doubt:
These are just a few good sources for research, but there are many more depending on your field of study.
Doing an extraordinarily large-scale research that involves seemingly never-ending data collection from various websites and sources? Web scraping is the tool you need in this case. In academic research, web scraping means using automated tools to extract information from various online sources, be it databases, news aggregators, or social media platforms – whatever you need.
Web scraping can raise a few ethical and legal eyebrows, but when done sensibly within academia, it can be ridiculously efficient for gathering raw data that you can use for your research. Take, for example, a social sciences project that tries to take a deeper look into online behavior: web scraping tools can help gather data from a number of social media platforms. On a similar note, economic research gets a helping hand from extracting pricing data from e-commerce websites for data analysis.
Several tools make web scraping easier for researchers. Some of the most popular options include:
By utilizing web scraping, you can access vast amounts of research resources that may not be available through traditional methods. Always ensure to follow ethical guidelines and website terms of service when employing this technique.
One of the most critical aspects of academic research is using credible websites for research. But what are good websites for research, and how can you tell if a source is credible?
A good source for research typically meets the following criteria:
For students or researchers writing a research paper, using unreliable or outdated information can undermine the quality of your work. Be sure to vet all your sources for research paper projects using these criteria.
What else is there? Ah, yes, knowing the difference between primary sources and secondary sources: it’s a critical thing when navigating the wide world of academic research. Speaking of which, primary sources are original documents or raw data that was not interpreted by anyone. For example, historical letters, pure and raw survey data, original research studies – all of these count as primary sources. Primary sources are very valuable when doing original research and in cases where you need to analyze the data or viewpoints presented.
On the other hand, secondary sources are those that were already interpreted by someone based on primary sources. Nevertheless, both types of sources are essential to the research process, but primary sources give you direct and ‘untainted’ access to the evidence or data for which you need to make your own conclusions.
Making your way through the research process is one spooky thing, but it becomes way easier if you break it down into smaller, more manageable steps. It doesn’t matter if you are working on a tiny one-pager or a massive research project, most studies follow a similar course of action:
With the right tools in your hands (not keyboard and mouse, we are not talking about these), navigation of the research process becomes as easy as lifting that energy drink can or a cup of coffee to your lips. Online tools and resources are fully available to provide support in each of the aforementioned steps, starting with finding various credible websites for research and ending with an analysis of your primary sources.
In addition to the good research websites and web scraping tools we’ve already discussed, here are some great tools that will help streamline your research:
These tools ensure that you remain organized and efficient throughout the research process.
All in all, the sometimes overfilled digital age has truly changed the way we conduct academic research. Starting with Google Scholar and stepping up to JSTOR and powerful web scraping tools, paired with powerful reference managers, there is a literal abundance of academic research tools right there within hand’s reach. By utilizing these tools in a sensible manner, you can navigate the research process with full confidence, increased efficiency, and way less occurrences of annoying headaches.
Just remember to rely on credible websites for research, utilize both primary sources and secondary sources that you find, and employ the best tools available online to collect, analyze, and present your findings. With all these goodies in hand, you will be more than well-equipped to tackle any research project that you wish with ease.
Matas has strong background knowledge of information technology and services, computer and network security. Matas areas of expertise include cybersecurity and related fields, growth, digital, performance, and content marketing, as well as hands-on experience in both the B2B and B2C markets.
Great examples of research tools include Zotero, Mendeley, JSTOR, Google Scholar (and Google itself, as long as you check the information provided.)
The best tools are JSTOR, Google Scholar, PhilPapers, and Project MUSE.
The three examples of resources that you could use to do research are primary sources, secondary sources, and raw data.
Primary research resources are those resources that are not interpreted by others. They provide raw information with no commentary. For example, historical letters, documents, pictures, and raw survey data.
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