Ready to start your capstone, independent study or thesis? Check out these resources on designing your own research and selecting the best methods to capture your subject.
The second edition of Criminal Justice Research Methods: Theory and Practice simplifies complex research concepts for beginners, focusing on clarity and practical application. It covers quantitative, qualitative, and evaluation methods, along with survey design, case studies, ethics, and report writing.
This updated edition is a practical guide to conducting ethical and effective qualitative research in criminology. It emphasizes the importance of planning, understanding the research process, and evaluating existing studies. Exercises throughout help build essential research skills.
Zotero is a an open-source, free to use software for making bibliographies and storing documents. It is an essential tool for students working on a capstone, dissertation, or thesis. Check out the Citation Generators and Reference Managers page on our Citing LibGuide for more.
The standard criteria for evaluating scientific literature are bias, reliability, and validity. Investigate the source of the information and inspect the elements of the study.
See how the journal compares against similar publications and review its publishing history.
Looking to survey current research or ready to prepare your own? Check out these resources.
Whether the literature review is part of a research project, doctoral study, dissertation or a stand-alone study, the book offers approaches, methods, tools, tips and guidelines to produce more effective literature reviews in an efficient manner.
A practical guide to writing qualitative and quantitative literature reviews, covering topic selection, research evaluation, and synthesis. It includes tips for using statistics accurately, blending methods without heavy math, and features examples, model reviews, and clear meta-analysis guidance.
To search databases for literature reviews, use "literature reviews" as a keyword or filter results by document type. Preparing to write? Use the account profile feature of a database to save your materials and searches.
Comprehensive annual collections of critical reviews in several focused disciplines. Annual Reviews synthesizes primary research literature and identifies the principal contributions in the fields of study.
Titles the library subscribes to from the Annual Reviews collection
The database also includes indexing and abstracting to the over 50 Annual Reviews and quarterly Open Access journal volumes.
This multi-database search interface allows user to search or choose from over 20 index and full text EBSCO databases.
Many advocacy organization publish original research in addition to their lobbying activity to provide evidence for their causes. In addition, think tanks are focused organizations, often non-profits, that perform research with the purpose of affecting government policy. These groups produce data and reports which are useful in providing background information and evidence for your research. They can be used as secondary sources for government research.
Ethical considerations are an essential topic in social science research because this discipline focuses on the study of human behavior. Research findings can also be manipulated through misleading presentation and methods that engage in deception or fraud.
Research Ethics for Students in the Social Sciences
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