Research Paper Part I: Topics

Introduction

Tell me if this sounds familiar. You've got a research paper to do. You open up Google. Or maybe Bing. But probably not Bing because no one uses Bing. Maybe DuckDuckGo if you're worried about privacy, but probably Google.

You type in your research topic. The first link is to Wikipedia. Great, you've got one source. From there you scroll through the next couple of pages, click on some stuff that looks good, and call it a day.

So what's wrong with that? Well, there are a couple of issues. First, literally anyone could be writing that stuff. Not so much the Wikipedia article - that actually has some semblance of editorial control, though it comes with its own issues. But the other stuff you're finding? It could be some wacko living in a basement in Topeka who knows as much about your topic as my dog. So unless your topic is chasing squirrels or attempting to sniff your own butt, you don't want to be listening to the guy in his basement in Topeka.

Second, even if you are getting a credible source, it may still be pretty one-sided. Imagine doing a research paper on abortion and only getting articles from a pro choice or only a pro life position. Or imagine doing a research paper on Iranian nuclear ambitions and all of your sources were from Iranian state media (or Israeli state media). You'd have a pretty crappy paper.

Now that I'm done telling you how not to find sources, here is how to go about it the right way.

Finding sources.

First off, there is absolutely nothing wrong with starting by Googling. I usually use Google twice - once at the beginning of a project to get a lay of the land and then once later on when I know what other keywords to use in the search engine.

What you really want to be using are some good databases that the college has access to. The absolute number one resource to use is the Santa Fe Library. https://www.sfcollege.edu/library/

The library homepage can be found at this link. Our librarians are extremely talented and they are way better than I am at finding sources because they are professionals and I'm an amateur.

Next, I am going to link you to some resources that other individuals and/or colleges have put together. These are all pages with links to other places. Sadly, you won't end up having access to some of the databases, but you never know until you try!

Additional Links

The first link is to a really great http://www.internationalaffairsresources.com/

resource full of other sources on international affairs, put together and maintained by Dr. Wayne A. Selcher, Professor Emeritus of International Studies.

http://libguides.bc.edu/InternationalStudies/FindArticles

Boston College's Library has a page of resources for international studies research as well. http://guides.library.duke.edu/recommended-internationalrelations

Another library with a good IR-specific page is Duke University, found here. http://libguides.usc.edu/c.php?g=234935&p=1559217

Finally, USC's library has a very exhaustive list of other databases here.

Credible Sources

Regardless of where you find your source, you want to make sure you're a critical reader of it. What that means is you want to ask yourself things like "what was the author's intent?", "what is the context in which this document was produced?" and "who was the intended audience"? As an example of why you want to do this, imagine that you were a historian trying to recreate the narrative of a famous relationship that ended really badly. If your only source is one of the people's diaries and you accept it uncritically then you're probably going to end up with a very one-sided version of events.

Hopefully those links are a good start for you. Remember that between our excellent reference librarian and e-mails to me you have lots of resources at the college.