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AHAL430 Course Research Guide: Get Started

This guide has been created to support the AHAL430 Health Professions Capstone project.

Get Started

This course guide has been created in support of Health Professions Capstone project. You will find help with each step of the process of finding peer-reviewed articles about your topic. If you need help at any point, don't hesitate to contact your librarian!

Brainstorming a Topic

The first step in the research process is choosing a topic. Sometimes this is more difficult than it sounds. Your topic must be narrow enough to be interesting and give you focus, but broad enough to allow you to find enough information. Start by carefully reading the assignment to make sure you know what your professor expects from your final project. 

It may help you to draw on your own existing knowledge and experience to come up with a topic for your research assignment. Here are some questions you can ask yourself as you are brainstorming a topic.​

  • Is there an idea or concept you have learned about in the past which you would like to explore more?
  • What have you seen in the news that has interested or affected you somehow?
  • What personal experiences have you had that were particularly significant, that you can relate to your assignment?

It is also important to be flexible throughout your research process. As you look for sources, you may have to broaden, narrow, or tweak your topic based on what you find.

Identify Search Terms

Once you've identified a topic, the next step in the research process is to develop a list of search terms to use in databases. Gathering background information from textbooks and credible websites can help you develop search terms or identify angles of your topic to explore. You can also use open web tools like Google or Wikipedia, as long as you critically evaluate the sources you find.

As you explore these resources, keep a list of important terms and concepts to use when you move on to searching in databases.

Librarian

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Cali Biaggi
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