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I do not know what is relevant to my research?
There are a few things to look at when you’re deciding if a book or article is related to your topic and worth reading all the way through.
- Title: Look at the title and the subtitle of the article/book. Does it include any of your search keywords? Does it sound like it is related to your topic?
- Abstract: Sometimes also called a summary or a description. This provides more information than a title alone and can give you a good idea of what the paper is about.
- Date: When was the article/book published? Depending on your topic you may want more current information (usually no more than 10 years old).
- Scholarly?: Is the book/article appropriate for a university-level research paper? Check out our guides on finding peer-reviewed articles and scholarly books for help deciding whether you should use a source in your paper or not.
Here is an example of an article in OneSearch showing where to find the title, abstract and date:
