When conducting college-level research, approaching topics in this order will help you refine your ideas:

Since you have already selected your topic, this guide will focus on the other aspects of the research process. Ideally, you chose a topic you were somewhat familiar with or interested in researching. To get more information and ideas on the topic you selected, use Google, or Wikipedia. Note that you can’t cite a Wikipedia article or most websites from a Google search. You can, however, find some keywords that you can use or some peer-reviewed literature (references at the bottom of a Wikipedia article, for instance) and other linked sources to gray literature and scholarly literature.

What are the differences among popular, scholarly, and gray literature? Below are the characteristics of each source that can help you differentiate from others:

Popular/General Interest (news, media, magazines)

• Shorter articles with broad overviews of topics
• Published to inform, entertain, or persuade
• Possibly a “suggested reading” list, usually no bibliography
• Authors are often journalists or staff writers; No credentials are provided
• Articles are not evaluated by experts in the field, but by editors on staff

Scholarly Journals (peer-reviewed or refereed)

• Longer articles providing in-depth analysis of topics
• Publish original research in a field
• Bibliography provided to document research
• Authors are usually experts or specialists in the field; Names and credentials are always provided
• Articles are reviewed and evaluated by experts in the field (refereed)

Gray Literature (bulletins, trade journals, science communications, gov’t reports)

• Long or short, depending on the intended audience
• Published through the government, organizations, institutes, and interest groups; Often original research
• Bibliographies usually provided
• Authors are usually experts or specialists in the field; Names and credentials are always provided
• Articles are often written by experts but are mostly not peer-reviewed. In some cases, e.g., federal agencies, they may have internal peer-review

Now let’s talk about search strategies.

Boolean Logic

Boolean logic uses Boolean operators (such as AND, OR, NOT) to narrow, expand, or define a search, and is applicable to conducting searches in library catalog and most databases. Writing out your search terms using Boolean operators by connecting pieces of information and coming up with synonyms is a good exercise as it can show wanted results and filter out unrelated results. Below are some of the advanced searching techniques including Boolean operators you can use:

Boolean Operator	Explanation	Example
AND	Each result contains all search terms	Antibiotic AND farm
OR	Each result contains at least one search term	production OR lactation OR secretion OR yield
" "	Results must include search terms in the defined order	“bovine somatotropin” OR “bovine growth hormone”
NOT	Results do not contain the specified terms	“skim milk” NOT “powdered milk”
*	Results can include search terms with different endings of the root word	Lactat* [for lactate, lactation, lactating, etc.]
?	Results include words with alternative spellings	“pasteuri?ed milk”
( )	Results include the phrase with the order of relationships organized	(“low-fat milk” OR “skim milk”) AND “whole milk” AND consumption