SCC Research Guides: The Research Process: 3. Background Research

Background Research

Chances are, you are doing research on a topic you don't know a lot about. Before you can jump into academic sources about your topic, you will need to do some background research so that you know some basic information about your topic. Background research can help you narrow down your topic and also teach you the vocabulary used in a topic to help you come up with keywords for searching.

Where to do Background Research

Some great places to do background research are:

Encyclopedias
Dictionaries
Credible Websites

Below are some of the library databases that are great places to start learning background information about a topic.

Credo Reference
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Articles from almost 600 reference books, covering various subjects.
Gale eBooks
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Contains Reference books covering many subjects, but primarily in areas of literature and social science (including history), and also some in health and science.
Gale eBooks: Science Collection
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Contains reference eBooks on science topics.
Points of View
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Contains a balance of materials from all viewpoints, including more than 1,300 main essays, leading political magazines from both sides of the aisle, newspapers, radio & TV news transcripts, primary source documents and reference books.Provided through EBSCO. Proxy Bypass
Issues & Controversies
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Features pro and con articles on more than 800 thought provoking topics in business, politics, government, education and popular culture. Updated weekly with links to a 12-year back file. Proxy Bypass
Gale in Context: Opposing Viewpoints
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Viewpoint articles, topic overviews, full-text magazine, academic journal, and newspaper articles, primary source documents, statistics, images and podcasts, and links to Websites.