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. Research logs can help. There's an example below that you can copy by opening and choosing File>Make a Copy.

EXERCISE: Using a copy of the research log, state your topic(s) 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 (organizational background, peer-reviewed primary research articles, systematic reviews or meta-analyses, evaluation reports, data, foundation or think tank reports, etc).

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.