Academic Search Complete - Academic Search Complete includes rigorous curation and indexing of open access (OA) journals, which has resulted in a growing collection of 6,136 active global OA journals.
Social Sciences Full Text - Covering the latest concepts, theories and methods from both applied and theoretical aspects of the social sciences, this full-text database includes the most important English-language social science journals.
Social Services Abstracts - includes the companion file Social Services Abstracts, which provides bibliographic coverage of current research focused on social work, human services, and related areas.
Sociological Abstracts - indexes the international literature of sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
CQ Researcher - a collection of weekly research reports on recent news topics and issues of broad interest in the public policy sphere. Reports address a wide variety of subjects, including health, social trends, criminal justice, international affairs, education, the environment, technology, and the economy.
Opposing Viewpoints - allows researchers to read the overview of a topic, featured viewpoints, view infographics, videos, news, and read articles from academic journals. Researchers can browse by issue, visualize connections between search terms and topics, and view relevant articles for those topics through the 'Topic Finder' resource.
Gale eBooks - browse by subject or search the full catalog.
Johns Hopkins Writing Resources - provides researchers with resources for developing a topic or research question.
Indiana University Libraries - this PDF composed by Indiana University Libraries provides information on narrowing a topic, forming a research question from a topic, and sample research questions.
Columbia College Chicago - provides information on the TQS or Topic + Question + Significance format of developing a research question.
Choose an interesting topic. Select a topic that you're interested in or curious to learn more about. Note that it is best to start broadly with your research.
Gather background information. Chances are you won't know your research question straight away. Start by researching broadly about a topic and review what research and literature exist. You may discover information that targets your research to something different than you had initially intended!
Audience. Keep in mind the audience you will be writing for. Is this a Policy Brief for a policymaker? A persuasive essay for your professor? For coursework and research writing your audience will typically be academic. Be sure to consult your assignment criteria or professor for clarification, if needed.
Ask Questions. To help narrow your focus from a general topic to a research question ask yourself open-ended "how" and "why" questions. Ultimately you will want to narrow from that broad topic to a more specific inquiry.
Evaluate Your Question. After brainstorming your research question, or a couple of alternatives, evaluate them by asking yourself some follow-up questions such as:
Is my research question clear? Having a clear research question will help you direct your research.
Is my research question complex? A strong research question should require research and analysis.
*Some information adapted from George Mason University Writing Center.
