Research Log

Research is a process and you'll want to keep a log of what you are doing so you don't reduplicate your work or miss steps or useful information, especially when you are working in a group. Research logs can help you with this. There are some examples below but you can also create a Google Doc or other resource that you can access.

 

EXERCISE: Using the research log, state your topic as a phrase or question, break it up into the main concepts you need to search, and think of keywords. Also think about what kind of information you need (background, peer-reviewed primary research articles, data, conference proceedings, clinical trials, etc).

PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) Flow Diagram Part 1: Identification

The first part of the systemtic review (after you have identified your research question) is identification of the literature (and keeping track of where you search and what you found).

PRISMA part 1

See the PRISMA Statement (and flow diagram) at http://www.prisma-statement.org/statement.htm

Citing Sources

By properly citing the sources you use in your research projects, you are both identifying the resources that you used to complete your work and formally acknowledging the authors or creators of those resources. This allows others to find what you have found and to verify your research.

Cornell University Code of Academic Integrity

APA citation style

  • Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (5th ed.) CU Library Reference locations include Africana, Hotel, Management, Olin, and Uris Libraries at call number: BF 76.7 .P83x 2001x. Also in ILR and Mann Reference at BF 76.7 .A51 2001.
You can also use citation management software like Zotero, Mendeley or EndNote; they do an excellent job of formatting citations and bibliographies in whatever style you want

Keep Up on Literature in Your Field: Current Awareness Tools

 JournalTOCS - One-stop shopping for Tables of Contents. 

Use this service tokeep up-to-date with new publications by browsing, viewing, saving, and searching across thousands of journal tables of contents (TOCs) from hundreds of publishers. Free registration allows you to create a customized list of your most important and favorite journals, and includes export options such as email alerts, RSS feeds, formats for bibliographic managers, and customizable API for web pages. Note: there is a limit of 30 journal titles that can be followed.

Publishers' and Database Alerts

Journal publishers allow you to set up alerts in order to get ongoing emails about new published articles and databases often offer free registration, which provides access to features such as saved searches, email alerts when new material matching your search is added to the database, and more. Some may require free registration on the publisher's website or through databases like Web of Science.

 

New Books at CUL

Find out what books, e-books, and other monographs that have recently been added to the Cornell University Library collections. You can create RSS feeds for your custom list, which will be updated automatically each month.