Using a search engine like Google or DuckDuckGo is one way to find general articles that will help you achieve a broad understanding of your topic. A basic search can lead you to news, blog posts, dictionaries, Wikipedia articles, educational videos, or other types of sources written or produced for a general audience. While not all results will be helpful, reliable, or as in-depth as you need for your research project, starting with a basic search can help you find the language and context you need to do more rigorous research. Remember to always be critical when you interact with information online.
When you begin researching a topic that is new to you, it can be difficult to jump right into the scholarly literature—or to even find the scholarly literature. Background research can help with that. Background research refers to the exploratory work you do as you formulate a research question in an unfamiliar subject. In this phase of the research process, you might read news stories, browse reference sources in the library, listen to podcasts, or explore Wikipedia. Doing background research will help you understand the conversation surrounding your topic and give you tools to launch you into the deeper, more complex scholarly literature.
Starting with background research is important because it can:
Reference sources refer to books like encyclopedias, dictionaries, or citation manuals that either provide broad overviews of a topic or house little bits of information about a variety of topics. Reference sources like encyclopedias and dictionaries provide background information, definitions, and context that help you understand your topic. They can also point you to other books and articles to check out in bibliographies or "further reading" sections. They're one way to get you started in your research.
In addition to physical reference materials you can browse in the library, you can also access reference materials digitally through the library website. Find a list of searchable digital reference tools via Databases A-Z.
Wikipedia is the largest, most comprehensive, and most widely used reference tool available. However, whereas the articles you’d find in a traditional encyclopedia are written by experts for a general audience, Wikipedia articles are collaboratively written and edited in real time by volunteers and Wikipedia administrators. Sometimes those Wikipedians are experts and the information you find has been rigorously fact-checked and edited, but that's not always the case.
Although Wikipedia can offer helpful information to jumpstart your research, there are several reasons why your teachers may have told you to stay away from Wikipedia in your reference list. First, because of its open and collaborative model of authorship, sometimes the information in a Wikipedia article can be unreliable. Second, Wikipedia articles are dynamic, meaning that an article might change from day to day, depending on when authors and editors decide to interact with the text. The Wikipedia article you cite in your paper might be different from the one your reader sees when they follow your citation.
And finally, the purpose of Wikipedia is like that of a traditional encyclopedia: it’s a starting place. You wouldn’t use only encyclopedia articles in a college research paper, either; these source types are meant to serve as general introductions to a topic. Wikipedia and traditional encyclopedia articles can lead you to better, more specific research questions and more precise key terms to search. Think of them as gateways to finding better sources, rather than sources in and of themselves.