SOC 681: Quantitative and Survey Research Methods (Menning)

As scholars, we sometimes begin research with an area of interest, but without specific questions that can be researched. One way to find potential research questions is to do some reading about your area of interest. 

You can search for books at the Ball State University Libraries in OneSearch, which is near the top of the Libraries' home page. Type one or two search terms that represent your area of interest. If you are using two search terms, connect them by typing the word "AND" between them. If your search terms include any short phrases, enclose them in quotation marks. For example: 

The filters on the left side of the OneSearch results page will allow you to refine your search in a number of ways, one of which is by specifying a format or "content type." You can click "book/ebook" within the content type filter to limit your results to those formats. If book/ebook does not appear among the top four or five options within the filter, type "book" in the text box above the filter, then check "Book/eBook." 

OR 

Physical books in your OneSearch results will be accompanied by a location and call number. Electronic books will be marked with a "Full Text Online" button.

You might also look for reference materials about your area of interest. Reference works are items such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, handbooks, etc. that are useful for finding background information. Though you might be familiar with general works such as The Oxford English Dictionary or Encyclopedia Britannica, reference works exist for every academic discipline and many special interest areas within the disciplines. 

You can look for reference materials by typing your search terms in the OneSearch box as shown above; you might wish run a broader search by using only one, more general, search term. To limit your results to reference materials, check "Reference" in the "Content Type" filter; if it doesn't appear among the top four or five options, type "reference" in the text box above the filter and then check "Reference." 

 OR 

As with books and ebooks, electronic items will be accompanied by the "Full Text Online" button, and physical items will be accompanied by a location and a call number. 

Another way to explore an area of interest is to examine literature reviews - articles that summarize the scholarly literature on a topic. The database Sociological Abstracts features an option in its document type filter that will allow you to limit your search results to literature reviews. The filter appears on the database's advanced search page, where you will begin your search. 

More advice about using Sociological Abstracts is available on this guide's "Searching for peer-reviewed articles" page. 

You might also wish to look for information about your interest area in The Annual Review of Sociology, which reports on developments in the field of sociology, including current research. The Annual Review of Sociology is available in several of the University Libraries' databases, but full coverage since its inception in 1975 is available in Annual Reviews, the first option under "view online / full text availability" on the page linked to above. 

As you begin to search for and gather scholarly articles - a step you can read more about on this guide's "Searching for peer-reviewed articles" page - you might take note of those which include a section with a heading like "future directions" or "further research." They appear sometimes near the end of an article. Authors use them to discuss what they see as the questions raised by their own research and to suggest next steps, so to speak, for subsequent research on the topic.