If the library terminology used throughout this guide is unfamiliar to you, please use the glossary of library terms located at http://www.bu.edu/library/instruction/gloss.html . It should answer most of your questions.

1. Choosing a topic.

The first step in the research process is deciding on your topic. What are you interested in studying? Once you've decided on your area of research, you need to consider the scope of your topic. Some topics may be too broad for short research papers, while others may be too narrow.

Once you've decided on a manageable topic, try to come up with key concepts. For example, if you're interested in the impact of alcoholism on families, your key concepts will be alcohol , family , or related terms such as substance abuse or codependency. These concepts will assist you when you go to indexes, the library catalog, or search engines to gather more information.

2. Finding background information.

Finding background information will assist you in developing your topic further. Using your key concepts, look up information on your topic in dictionaries or encyclopedias. You may need to narrow the scope of your research. There are several ways to do this. Narrowing your area of research to a specific time period or geographical area is one way. You can also narrow your topic to a specific group or situation, for example, research teenage alcoholism rather than alcoholism .

Subject encyclopedias are more specific than general encyclopedias and will provide more precise background information. You can locate a subject encyclopedia by using the subject search function of the online catalog (http://library.bu.edu/). For example, to find an encyclopedia of psychology, you would type "psychology--encyclopedias" in the subject box.

Your lecture notes, textbooks, and reserve readings can be used as background sources as well.

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3. Finding books.

Once you have background information on your topic, you should go to the online catalog (http://library.bu.edu/), which is available on campus and off campus, and search for books. There are several ways to search the online catalog. You can do a search by title if you found some relevant books listed in the bibliographies provided within the encyclopedias or dictionaries you used. You can also search by author. Subject searches require that you use the terms designated by the Library of Congress; these terms can be found in Library of Congress subject headings volumes in the Reference area. Please ask for assistance if you have difficulty locating or using these volumes. Do a search by keyword when you do not know the title of a work or if your key concepts are not a subject headings in the catalog.

Once you've located relevant materials, make a note of the call number and the location of the book ( Theology, Mugar, or one of the other BU libraries). Look at the status section of the record to see if a book is available, charged out to another patron, missing, or recently returned. Once you have the call numbers of the books you want to use, go to the appropriate library and floor and use the call number to find the books you need. Related books can be found either by browsing the books near the ones you found in the catalog or by using the "show items nearby on the shelf" option on the online catalog. Once you've found books that you think will be useful, you may want to look at the bibliographies in the books, if any are included, to find other relevant texts. Some books, such as those in the Reference stacks, do not circulate and must be used in the library.

Occasionally, the book or books you are looking for will not be found at any of the Boston University libraries. In those cases, you can pursue three options. The first is to check to see if one of the Boston Library Consortium libraries or one of the Boston Theological Institute libraries has the book. From the Library home page (http://www.bu.edu/sth/library/), click on " Catalog". At this point, you can choose to check the individual library catalogs (including other seminary libraries and Boston area libraries) OR check an electronic database known as " Worldcat ". While "Worldcat" will provide you with an overview of libraries holding a given book, it will not provide information as to the availability of a given work. You will still need to check the holding library's catalog to see if the book is available. If the book or books you need are available in one of the BLC libraries, you will need to get a consortium card from the Mugar Circulation desk. Please contact the staff at Circulation (617-353-3732) or at Reference (617-353-3704) if you have questions about the Boston Library Consortium. Boston Theological Institute cards (BTI cards) are available to STH faculty, staff, and students at the STH LIbrary Circulation Desk.

Your second option is to request the book or books you need through Interlibrary Loan. This service is invaluable but you should recognize that it can take two weeks or longer to get materials through Interlibrary Loan. It is not a service intended for those last minute research projects. Forms are available at the Circulation Desk or use our online request forms located here: http://www.bu.edu/sth/sthlibrary/info/index.html.

The third option is to try to get materials through the Virtual Catalog. This service provides access to materials held by libraries participating in the Virtual Catalog project.  Materials requested online can be obtained at the Mugar Circulation Desk when received. In most cases, materials will arrive within a week of the initial request.

4. Finding articles and other non-book resources.

When trying to locate information on your topic, you will find articles in journals, magazines, and other non-book resources useful. Indexes, both print and electronic, are another way to locate relevant articles. Some subject areas are covered by more than one index ; it is a good idea to ask for assistance if you are having difficulty deciding which index to use. Many indexing services provide abstracts in addition to basic citation information (author, title, journal edition and year, page numbers). By providing a summary of the article's contents, abstracts can help you determine if a particular article is relevant. Subject-specific electronic resources can be accessed from the library home page at ../eresources/ . Bibliographies, like their smaller counterparts within books, will assist you in locating more material on a given subject. These sources can be located in the same way as subject encyclopedias, either by typing in "bibliography" and your "subject term" as a word search or by typing in "subject term--bibliography" as a subject search. Bibliographies may be annotated, that is, have descriptive or critical information about the works.

It should be noted that the BU libraries do not own all of the journals you will find listed in a print or electronic index. To see if a journal is owned by Boston University, you can search for the journal by title in our online catalog as you did for books. Keep in mind that you will be searching for the journal title, not the article title. If the journal is not owned by Boston University, you may be able to locate it at a BLC or BTI library using the Catalog page.  In some cases, you will need to request the article through interlibrary loan if it is not available locally.

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5. Using the World Wide Web.

The World Wide Web is another resource for gathering information but one must be cautious when using the Web for research. Almost anyone can publish material on the Web, so not all information found on the Web is reliable. Whereas print sources, like books and articles, are reviewed or edited to insure that the information is accurate, there is no comprehensive review of Web information. This is not to say that all sites lack review or that information found on the Web is unreliable. The electronic resources available through the Boston University Libraries, for example, are evaluated by library staff and are often provided by the publishers of our print subscriptions.

6. Evaluating information.

Evaluating the information you've located is crucial when doing research. Below is a list of some questions you might consider as you look at the information you've found for your paper. These questions apply to both print and electronic resources.

• What are the author's credentials? What is the author's educational background? Has the author written other works on this topic?
• How current is the information? Has the information been superseded by new information?
• Does the work have a particular bias and does the author make the bias clear?
• Is the publisher known for scholarly research or is the journal/magazine known to be academic? Scholarly journals contain articles that have been reviewed by either a panel of experts or by a knowledgeable editor. In most cases, the articles contained in these journals include citations, either as footnotes or as a bibliography. Other periodicals, such as "The Wall Street Journal" or "Scientific American," can provide guidance but should not be the sole source of research for your paper.
• Is the information provided backed up by facts or is it opinion? Is the information based on reasonable evidence? Can you verify the information you've located by finding it in other sources?
• What is the intended audience? Undergraduate students? Specialists in a field?
• Is the information provided in a grammatically correct way? Is everything spelled correctly? Is the information provided in a logical, well-ordered manner?
• Is the web information stable, that is, can you retrieve the information from the site in subsequent attempts? When the site is updated, are the changes noted by the author or host?

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7. Citing your sources and plagiarism.

Professors will occasionally require that you use a particular written or citation style when submitting papers. There are several style manuals available at the Reference Desk or in the Reference stacks at Mugar. These include:

• MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers. (XLB2369 .G53 2003)
• Chicago Manual of Style. (Theo Ref Z253 .U69 2003)
• Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA). ( Theo Ref. BF 76.7 .P83 2001)
• Research and Documentation Online : a site created and maintained by Diana Hacker of Prince George's Community College.

Please ask for assistance at the Reference desk if you have any questions about using these guides.

Plagiarism is a serious concern and one that the university takes very seriously. Plagiarism involves using the work of someone else and failing to give proper credit or acknowledgment, thereby claiming the information as your own. While professors will expect you to use outside sources when doing your research, they will also expect you to acknowledge the work of those authors you have chosen to use in your paper. At Boston University, all students are expected to have read or be familiar with the university policy on plagiarism. If you are not, please contact your college and get a copy of the Academic Conduct Code. Several guides to academic conduct for specific schools or colleges are available online. Samples of some of the university's academic conduct websites follow:

• College of Arts and Sciences . (http://www.cs.bu.edu/ugradprogram/conduct.html)
• College of General Studies . (http://www.bu.edu/cgs/current/resources/pdf/cgs_conduct_code.pdf)

If you are having difficulty deciding when or how to cite sources, please contact your professor or the Reference staff at the School of Theology Library.

Other questions, please contact: James R. Skypeck (jrsky@bu.edu)

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