Is this relevant to my topic?

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 to focus on sources from the past 5 or 10 years.
  • 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:

The title appears near the top of the search results, just beneath the 'Peer Reviewed' label. The publication date is listed below the title, on the same line as the author's name, and follows the journal's name. The abstract is positioned below the author's name and directly above the subjects.

If you find that you are getting a lot of irrelevant results, you may want to change your search terms. Or, if you find a particularly relevant result, you can look at its subjects and title to see if there are words you want to try searching for.

As you see what search results are available, your understanding of your topic may change. This is a normal experience for thoughtful researchers.

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