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S.U.R.E. Resources

Resources for the Summer Undergraduate Research Experience

Starting to think about your topic.

Identify Keywords

The keywords you use can have a profound impact on the results of your research. Using the “right” words will speed up the research process, while the “wrong” words can bring to it to a halt.

Before you can begin searching for information, you need to identify keywords related to your topic. Key terminology can be easily be found by scanning:

  • Your research questions
  • Articles found from background research 
  • Bibliographies found at the end of books and articles

If you are still struggling:

  • Use a thesaurus to identify synonyms -- try the thesaurus search on this page.
  • Brainstorm keywords with a librarian, your instructor, or a friend.

Use a Keyword Vocabulary!

Primary vs Secondary Sources in Science

Primary Sources

  • Written by scientists who perform the experiments
  • These articles include original research data and a methods section explaining how experiments were done
  • Examples: journal articles, theses, conferences, (governmental) reports, patents

Secondary Sources

  • Summarize or compare lots of research in a particular area (e.g., a review)
  • In a review article, graphs, tables, or figures containing actual data will contain citations in the figure legend to the primary research papers that originally reported the findings
  • Examples: review journals, literature/article reviews, data compilations

Identifying Primary & Secondary Research Articles Other Disciplines

Here are some criteria for evaluating if a research article is primary or secondary:

Primary:

  • Consists of original studies conducted by the authors
  • Includes: controlled trials, cohort studies, case studies
  • Includes: methods, results, tables, figures

Secondary:

  • Consists of assimilated evidence from a number of high-quality primary studies
  • Includes: systematic review, meta-analyses, evidence summaries
  • May include: methods as a literature review, cited tables, and results from other studies

What Kind of Article Is This Map