Once you locate one good scholarly article about your topic, you are well on your way to success.  One great technique is to use the references cited in a good article or book about your topic to find other sources.

Example: The article “Gap or Gaps: Challenging the Singular Definition of the Achievement Gap,” published in the journal Education and Urban Society contains three pages of references, such as:

Blair, S. L., & Legazpi, M. C. (1999). Racial/ethnic difference in high school students’ academic performance: Understanding the interweave of social class and ethnicity in the family context. Journal of Comparative Family Studies, 30, 539-555.

To find these and other articles, search the Library Catalog by journal title.  A cautionary note:  due to publisher restrictions, it is sometimes difficult to locate journal articles published in the past year.  Don’t despair.  Sage Full-text Collections:  Education  is a great source of current articles and we can get any article for you through interlibrary loan.

Other valuable clues provided by any good article or book about your topic are the names of the authors doing research in that field.  Remember that you can search most databases by author name, which could prove fruitful.

Need Help? On campus or off, Ask a Librarian or contact your Education Liaison.

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