BIG 6

You've just been assigned a research project now what? Here are some Big6 tips to get you started:
1. Task Definition: make sure you know the assignment and your research question. What are you trying to learn? What do you need to do to answer your research question?  How will you be evaluated?
2. Information Seeking Strategies: what are the best sources to use? Encyclopedia? Interview? How will you find those sources?
3. Location and Access: find the sources you need; find information within those sources. Use the index, the table of contents, and use advanced search strategies.
4. Use of Information:  read, take notes, view videos, listen to podcasts.
5. Synthesis: put it all together. Write your essay, create a blog. Use the information you have found to answer your research question.
6. Evaluation: reflect on what you learned, what you did well, what you can improve, and what you will do next time.

1.Choose a subject

something you're personally invested in - so you'll stay motivated throughout the EE process.  You should be able to explain and identify to others what you're interested in and why.
Educate Yourself! for: EE guides for each subject, along with IB Subject Concepts for EE writers and Subject Command Terms lists.  You can also find other important IB documents giving guidance for researching and writing your essay.

2. Choosing a Topic

After choosing the subject for your extended essay, the next step in the research process is to define what your research is going to focus on - the topic.

At this stage you need to explore:
  • what are my possible topics?
  • what do I know about those topics?
  • which words would be good search terms and keywords?
Within this section of the guide you will find ideas for useful resources to help you to choose a research topic.  Explore some of the options and find the ones which suit your needs best.

Finding Keywords

Try using these tools to help find a focus for your research and discover possible keywords to use as search terms when looking for relevant information.  See:

It's important to put together a search strategy that will make finding the information you need easier.  Your topic and its characteristics determines where you should look.
Carrot2 is an Open Source Search Results Clustering Engine. It can automatically organize small collections of search results, into thematic categories.  You can see these results as a pie-chart, or a treemap, or have the documents in your results be organized into labeled folders.  
Word cloud:This will give you a cloud similar to the one to the right which will emphasize the keywords of your current knowledge.  You can get an idea of the key areas you already have some knowledge of and may highlight a potential topic you would like to focus your research on.

 background READING

questions need to ask?
When you're just beginning your research it can help to find some background information on your topic.

Wikipedia is a very popular encyclopedia; it is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project.  Anyone can edit virtually any of the entries so the information in Wikipedia should be treated with caution and must always be checked for accuracy.  There are some things to keep in mind when using Wikipedia.
Questions you must consider at this stage are:
  • What has already been written about the topic?
  • Was it easy to find sources of information?
  • Is there a range of different sources available?
  • Is there a range of views or perspectives on the topic?
  • What interesting questions have started to emerge from this reading?

Cautions from IB on Using Free Online Encyclopedias

As a tool for research, free online encyclopedias, such as Wikipedia, can be valuable resources, but there are several reasons why students should be cautious in using them:
  • they tend to be general encyclopedias
  • very often the author is unknown
  • there is no guarantee that the content meets standards of academic rigour—it may not, for example, have been through a process of peer review
  • the content can be unstable, in that it can change at any time.

Defining Your Topic?

Getting a better definition of your topic will require some research. See this page for tips on using: Google Scholar (and other free educational search engines)
Smart search engine strategies (with Google, Bing, etc.)
Databases and websites that present both sides of issues
Databases and websites with background information - just to get you started
Finding recent papers
Your search results are normally sorted by relevance, not by date. To find newer articles, try the following options in the left sidebar:
  1. Click "Since Year" to show only recently published papers, sorted by relevance;
  2. Click "Sort by date" to show just the new additions, sorted by date;
  3. Click the envelope icon to have new results periodically delivered by email
Locating the full text of an article
Abstracts are freely available for most of the articles. However, reading the entire article may require a subscription. Here're a few things to try:
  1. Click a link labeled [PDF] to the right of the search result;
  2. Click "All versions" under the search result and check out the alternative sources;
  3. Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" under the search result to explore similar articles.

"I need to do research in a specific discipline."

Steps to Developing a Research Question

You've chosen a subject and topic that interests you, and carried out some preliminary reading.  What are the next steps?
Consider the emerging questions. You should now begin posing open-ended questions about your topic.  These questions will usually be framed "how", "why", or "to what extent."Evaluate the question.  Once you have posed possible research questions you should evaluate them.  This evaluation should be based on whether the question is clear, focused, and arguable.
  • Clear - Will the reader understand the nature of my research?  Will it direct the research being undertaken?
  • Focused - Will the research question be specific enough to allow for exploration within the scope of the task (that is, the number of words and time available)?
  • Arguable - Does the research question allow for analysis, evaluation and the development of a reasoned argument?
An important note:
A question that is unclear or too broad will result in a narrative overview of the issue or event being discussed and provide little scope for analysis and reasoned argument.  The result of this is that IB examiners will not be able to apply the range of marks available in the assessment criteria, particularly in relation to criterion C (critical thinking).

identify SOURCES

In this stage of the research process it's time for you to locate the information you need - identify the "how and where" for the sources you will use to write your essay.  The important thing to remember is to not be overwhelmed by the amount of information out there, just collect what you think might be useful to you.  If you look in the right places and search efficiently you can find relevant resources quickly and easily.

1.FINDING BOOKS

WorldCat: WorldCat represents a “collective collection” of the world’s libraries.  WorldCat.org lets you search the collections of libraries in your community and thousands more around the world.
Google Books: You can browse books online, and...if  the book is out of copyright, or the publisher has given Google permission, you'll be able to see a preview of the book, and in some cases the entire text. If it's in the public domain, you're free to download a PDF copy.
Inter library loan: An Inter library loan (ILL) is a service where a patron (user) of one library can borrow books or receive photocopies of documents that are owned by another library.
KiiT-IS Opac: you can search books from our library through Online Public Access

2. Finding Journal and Magazine Articles

Journal and magazine articles are a excellent way to access information which may be more current than that found in books.   Don't discard information just because it comes from a popular publication. All types of publications can contain valuable information, including popular magazines, newspapers and trade magazines. There are, however,  important differences between magazines and journals that may affect which of these you decide to use
A journal contains scholarly articles with abstracts and references (e.g., footnotes, parenthetical references, citations). Submissions are peer reviewed and The author's tone is serious
A magazine appeals to a general audience, although their depth ranges from substantive to simple. In all good writing, concepts are explained and information is attributed,

Search Engines, repositories

Google: Google is obviously one of the best known search engines, but are you making full use of all the features Google offers?  Find out more about how Google can be used from these help pages from Google Support:
Search engines are programs that search documents for specified keywords and returns a list of the documents where the keywords were found. Web search engines, like Google, Bing and Yahoo!, enable users to search for documents on the Internet.
Ask.com :  Focused Answering questions
Bing: DuckDuckGo  Yahoo!
Meta search engines are search engine tools that pass queries on to many other search engines and/or directories and then summarize all the results in one handy interface.
Dogpile  Ixquick  Yippy
A web repository is a central place in which an aggregation of data is kept and maintained in an organized way.
OpenDOAR 

A search directory is a website in which links to information are organized by subject, and in alphabetical order, to make it easier for users to find the information they're seeking.

help from experts

Ask a Librarian - Library of Congress: Have a question? Need assistance? Fill out an online form to get help from a Library of Congress librarian. Online chat is available for questions on digital reference, newspapers, and periodicals.