When starting your research, you may want to start with broad, general topics. Maybe you know you want to write about race and medical care but aren't sure how to narrow it down. That's okay! You could brainstorm and come up with a mindmap that may help you narrow it down, OR you could start doing preliminary searches on Google or multidisciplinary databases. Check out our example mindmap and database suggestions below!
A multi-disciplinary database of scholarly and general interest journals, books, and reports. If you're looking for background info on a topic, here is a great place to start!
ProQuest gives us access to several academic databases, including books and journal articles. It covers many subjects, including history + political science, literature, and science.
Say you're looking for info on Black women and maternal mortality. You could try these searches:
Black women AND medical care; Black women AND obstetrics
What if you're looking for info on implicit bias in medical care? You could try these:
"African Americans" AND "pain treatment"
pediatrics AND "Latino children"; pediatrics AND Spanish-speaker; "pediatricians" AND "Hispanic children"
***we use quotation marks to tell the database we're looking for a phrase, not two independent words***
When you're ready for more specialized databases, you can check out some of our suggestions below. Be sure you incorporate Boolean operators (shown above) to narrow down your results.
Comprehensive research database that provides easy access to a multitude of full-text science-oriented content, including full text for hundreds of science encyclopedias, reference books, periodicals, and other sources.
Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)