Getting Started With Your Research

By now, you should have already begun your research in the Rutgers library. For your first library assignment you should find eight books in the the IRIS catalog which relate to your topic. Another good place to start is the "Research on the Family" guide created by the Kilmer Library. Because you want a good mix of recent and older sources in your final research paper, half of the books you will initially search for should have been published no longer than 10 years ago. The other four should have a publication date before 1988. I want you to find some journal articles as well. To find academic articles, you will need to search the many databases located on the Rutgers library web site. Once you have found a suitable article in a database, you will need to return to IRIS to see if Rutgers owns the journal that has the particular article you want to read. You can also look for articles in one of Rutgers' full-text electronic journals. You can print an entire article directly from one of these electronic journals. Once you have completed some initial research, you will be ready to begin compiling your annotated bibliography and writing your research proposal.

Good luck!
Any questions? Send me an e-mail: