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The Process Matters: How the program will work

Make sure to meet your mentor either weekly or on the frequency as decided by the two of you, and ensure you keep track of all relevant tasks and updates. Maintaining a log of the meetings, of tasks completed, and to-dos will be helpful. Remember that conducting research is meant to be a challenging but fulfilling process, and you’re bound to run into obstacles or feel like you’re struggling. Share concerns with your mentor, and they’ll definitely help you overcome them! 

Important Things to Keep in Mind

  • Selecting a research topic that is arguable: Once you narrow down your area of interest, try doing some more digging to see if you can find any areas of contention or disagreement. For example: if "Neurogenesis in Tumor Microenvironments" is a topic you have chosen, while doing your literature search, try to find some areas where the literature seems to have some opposing ideas. Is there something that a few papers say it's a certain way whereas some papers say otherwise? Areas such as this can be good places to look for an interesting topic of choice.

  • Making your topic specific enough: A broad or general topic may result in a literature review that's unfocused and vague. Always try to narrow down your topic to a specific question or area. For example: focusing on neurogenesis in tumours found in the hippocampus can give your topic slightly more focus.

How to Conduct Research

  1. Narrow your topic and select appropriate sources / papers accordingly

  2. Search for the appropriate literature that fits your specific topic of interest: Define your source selection criteria (ie. articles published between a specific date range, focusing on a specific geographic region, or using a specific methodology). Using keywords, search a library database like PubMed, Google Scholar, and Elsevier. Reference lists of recent articles and reviews can lead to other useful papers. Include any studies contrary to your point of view.

  3. Read the selected papers and evaluate them: Evaluate and synthesize the studies' findings and conclusions. Note the following:

    1. Assumptions some or most researchers seem to make

    2. Methodologies, testing procedures, subjects, material tested researchers use

    3. Experts in the field: names/labs that are frequently referenced

    4. Conflicting theories, results, methodologies

    5. Popularity of theories and how this has/has not changed over time

  4. Identify patterns and develop subtopics based on the selected papers: Note the following:

    1. Findings that are common/contested

    2. Important trends in the research

    3. The most influential theories

    4. Frequently brought up counter points

    5. Unanswered theories or questions

  5. Develop your thesis statement: Now that you have done all the important work of reading, organizing, and synthesizing, write a one or two sentence statement summarizing the conclusion you have reached about the major trends and developments you see in the research that has been conducted on your subject. Keep in mind your thesis must be original, concise, specific, arguable, and clear.

  6. Write the paper: This is the difficult part of sitting down and putting on your writing cap. There's a general structure in which a research paper is written. Please check this APA sample paper here. As you are writing, always remember to cite your sources as you go! This will make your life a lot easier!

  7. Review, revise, and refine: The hard work is done! Now you just need to make sure everything is good, makes sense, and flows properly.

How to find sources

Some sources that can help you with finding relevant information, reliable sources, explanations of concepts, guides, etc., are:

 

  1. Purdue OWL for formatting and references

  2. Google Scholar for doing a basic search

  3. Mendeley for organising research and papers found

  4. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy for philosophical concepts and background work

  5. Citation Machine for creating citations

  6. APA Dictionary of Psychology for psychological concepts

  7. Library of Congress for archived materials

  8. Science.gov for scientific research across many fields

  9. Digital Commons Network for scholarly work from universities across the world

  10. PubMed for biomedical literature

  11. The Lancet for medical literature

Testing the Credibility of Sources

CRAAP Test

Check the source’s

  • Currency: The timeliness of the information

  • Relevance: The importance of the information for your needs

  • Authority: The source of the information

  • Accuracy: The reliability, truthfulness and correctness of the content

  • Purpose: The reason the information exists

SIFT Test

Five Ws Test

  • Stop

  • Investigate the source

  • Find better coverage

  • Trace quotes, claims, and media to the original source

  • Who

  • What

  • Why

  • Where

  • When

For visual information, two kinds of tests are commonly used. These are the Digital Image Guide (DIG) Method, and Junk Charts. 

 

Feel free to use these tests for any source you think could use a credibility check. The more credible, the better!

Outcome of the Research
 

There are many ways this research can benefit you, the first of which is the hands-on experience you will get. This experience can prove immensely useful when you proceed to do research in later years, as you will already have had the opportunity to learn and explore your research skills. Another benefit is that if your research is of high quality, you may be able to get it published in a high school journal or other research journals that accept student papers. This would be a major notch on your belt and would help you with college admissions as well as your career. 

There are many journals that would be worth exploring, to see if you would want to aim for your research to be published in one of them. The journal you aim for would differ based on your education level. Some examples of high school journals and undergraduate research journals are are listed below:

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Undergraduate Journals

​1. Butler Journal of Undergraduate Research (BJUR)

2. Discussions: The Undergraduate Research Journal of Case Western Reserve University

3. Inquiries: Social Sciences, Arts, & Humanities

4. International Journal of Undergraduate Research & Creative Activities (IJURCA)

5. Undergraduate Research Journal

​​

High School Journals

1. Journal of Emerging Investigators

2. National High School Journal of Science

3. International Journal of High School Research

4. STEM Fellowship Journal

5. Schola

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Please note, submission and publication for these journals may incur an additional cost that would be determined by the journal, resulting in a need to plan for this.

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