To help you identify a topic and learn some basic information about it, you'll want to do some background research at the end of the scientific news cycle, searching in popular sources to get some background information and develop some ideas for potential topics and keywords. As you develop your research topic, keep a list of keywords to use when searching databases. Try searching some of the background research and popular scientific news/magazine resources listed below:
When original research of a new scientific discovery is published in peer-reviewed journals (primary literature/scholarly sources) for the scientific community, it often gets picked up by news and/or scientific magazine outlets (popular sources) who distill the research findings into everyday language and general populations. Within the popular sources, you can discover ideas for research topics and possible keywords before diving into the scientific literature.
Image Source: The Scientific Digest. The Science Gap, 2015. Retrieved from https://thescientificdigest.wordpress.com/2015/03/05/what-is-the-science-gap/
Popular sources are often easier to search and skim for ideas of a research topic and are also great places to get background information on your topic to start generating a list of potential keywords.
Look for clues within the article of:
Sometimes, the news article or magazine will event list and link to the DOI of the primary research article.
After you've found an interesting topic, use the clues from the news/magazine article to search library databases for the original research article. Use the Advanced Search function of the library catalog and/or databases to search a combination of the:
