Gender & Women's Studies

It is important to answer the following 3 questions in order to proceed:

• What discipline does the topic focus on? (social work, nursing, sociology, psychology?)
• What aspect of the topic do you want to focus on?
• What are the main ideas or keywords which describe your topic?
  Make a list. HINT: check a dictionary for definitions or read a short encyclopedia entry. Have a look at Credo Reference or you can visit the Reference Collection in your library for more specialized sources.

• Do you need facts and figures, short review or survey of a subject, discussion of an event or series of events, analysis of a research question or a detailed study of a subject?
• Do you need books or journal articles?

• Search WorldCat Local, our online discovery tool. To learn more about WorldCat Local, view these online tutorials:

WorldCat Local - Basic Search
WorldCat Local - Advanced

• Or search Novanet, our catalogue that contains information about books, journals, government documents, and other material held at Dalhousie Libraries as well as other post-secondary institutions in Nova Scotia.  Novanet tutorials may be found on this page.
• To get help with designing a search strategy, jump to step 8.
• To obtain items, proceed to step 5.

• Go to the Key Databases tab of the Social Work library guide.  Read the descriptions of the databases listed and click to open one you think is suitable for your research topic.
• Search for the keywords from Step 1. To get help with designing a search strategy, jump to step 8.
• You should receive a list of results or citations on your topic which give the author and title of the article, the journal that the article is in and the volume, date and page.
• Many databases also provide a link to the full-text of the article.  If not, look for a button that says 'Get it @ Dal', which will help you locate a copy of the article.
• When in doubt, do an exact title search in WorldCat Local for the journal title.
• If Dalhousie has a paper copy of the journal, check the holdings in the record to make sure we have the date and volume you need. If we do, copy down the location code and the call number. To obtain the item, proceed to step 5.

• For help with locating items by call number, see the Killam page of the Dal Libraries' website for information on Call No. Locations, and Floor Plans.  (Sometimes you will have a call number location for another library on campus - please see our Locations and Services page for more information on those libraries.)  Once you have your item in hand, proceed to the 1st floor Circulation desk with your Dal card to check out your books.  Journals do not circulate; you may photocopy content in the photocopy room across from the circulation desk.
• You may find various links to online content.  Various tutorials cover this topic, including this one on the "Get it at Dal" button.
• If the item you want is not held by Dalhousie, you can request it through Document Delivery.
• Distance students can have items delivered, see "Requesting Materials: Make a Request to Distance Services"

• Find out if your article is in a scholarly journal
• Evaluate a web site 

• You can use RefWorks to automatically track your references and format them appropriately.
• Consult the Quick Guide APA Citation Style.
• Make sure you know what plagiarism is and how to avoid it
      - http://plagiarism.dal.ca.

• AND - requires that both terms are in the results thereby reducing the number of results
      eg. Family violence and treatment
• OR - requires that either of the terms be in the results thereby expanding the results
      eg. Juvenile or teenager or adolescent
• NOT - excludes a term from the results thereby reducing the results
      eg. Counselling not group
• combination - you can use all of the operators together using parentheses
      eg. Family violence and (Juvenile or teenager) not treatment