How to Conduct Research

This guide is for students who need to carry out a research assignment from start to finish. Use it for a class assignment, report, presentation, research paper, or early-stage project. The instructions are practical and beginner-friendly; for the underlying search and evaluation skills, see the Research Skills Guide.

Research is not perfectly linear. You may return to your question, keywords, or sources as you learn more. Keep a record of those changes so your final work shows a clear path from question to evidence.

How to Use This Guide

1. Work through the steps in order the first time you research a topic.
2. Use the checklist at the end of each stage to decide whether you are ready to move on.
3. Follow the companion links when you need detailed help with searching, literature reviews, writing, or APA.

Step 1: Understand the Assignment or Question

Read the prompt slowly and mark the task words: explain, compare, analyse, evaluate, design, recommend, or discuss.

• What topic or problem must you address?
• What type of answer or product is required?
• How many sources are required, and must they be scholarly, professional, current, local, or statistical?
• What length, format, audience, deadline, and citation style apply?

Ready to move on when: you can state the assignment in your own words and list its non-negotiable requirements.

Step 2: Narrow the Topic

A broad topic is a subject area, not yet a researchable question. Narrow it by location, time period, population, industry, technology, cause, effect, or comparison.

Broad: Artificial intelligence
More workable: How is artificial intelligence being used in customer service by Jamaican banks?

Write one sentence describing the issue you want to understand and one sentence describing the boundary of your research. Check whether the topic is feasible within your deadline and source access.

Step 3: Build Keywords and a Search Plan

Break the question into two to four concepts. For each concept, list synonyms, related terms, acronyms, alternative spellings, and subject terms used by the discipline.

• Concept: cybersecurity awareness | Related terms: information security training, cyber hygiene, security literacy
• Population: college students | Related terms: tertiary students, undergraduates, higher education
• Place: Jamaica | Related terms: Caribbean, West Indies, Jamaican institutions

Combine terms with AND, use OR for synonyms, and put exact phrases in quotation marks. Example: "cybersecurity awareness" AND students AND Jamaica. Record the search terms that produce useful results and revise them when the results are too broad or too narrow.

Step 4: Search for the Right Evidence

Search in stages: begin with an overview to learn the vocabulary, then move to focused sources that can support your claims.

• Scholarly articles: Google Scholar, DOAJ, CORE, and the Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Articles Library Guide.
• Books and ebooks: DOAB, OAPEN, and the Open Textbook Library.
• Theses and dissertations: OATD and NDLTD.
• Statistics and reports: Data.gov.jm and the Planning Institute of Jamaica.
• Caribbean sources: UWISpace and dLOC.
• Standards and professional guidance: NIST, OWASP, and ISO.

Use more than one discovery route. A search result is a lead; read the source record and the source itself before relying on it.

Step 5: Evaluate the Sources

Before using a source, make a quick judgement about its relevance, authority, currency, evidence, purpose, and limitations. Check the author or organisation, publication date, references, method or data, and the context in which the claim applies.

You do not need to repeat the full CRAAP or SIFT frameworks here. Use the Research Skills Guide for detailed evaluation techniques and the Peer-Reviewed Scholarly Articles Guide for identifying scholarly research.

Ready to move on when: you can explain what each key source contributes and why it is appropriate for your question.

Step 6: Take Notes and Organise Evidence

Record source information as soon as you decide a source is useful:

• Author or organisation, title, date, journal or publisher, DOI or URL, and page numbers.
• The claim, data, quotation, or method you may use.
• Your own explanation of how the source relates to your question.
• Any limitation, disagreement, or follow-up source you need to check.

Keep direct quotations, paraphrases, summaries, and your own ideas separate. Organise notes by theme or claim, not only by source. A reference manager such as Zotero can help, but review every imported citation.

Step 7: Synthesize the Evidence

Synthesis means connecting sources to answer your question. Group evidence by theme, issue, method, or finding. Compare where authors agree and disagree, note patterns and gaps, and explain how the evidence supports or challenges your developing answer.

Do not write one mini-summary per source and stop. Use transitions such as “Taken together,” “In contrast,” and “This suggests” to show the relationship between sources. For a fuller treatment of this stage, use How to Conduct and Write an Effective Literature Review.

Step 8: Draft and Write

Turn your question and evidence map into an outline before drafting. A common research-paper structure is:

• Introduction: topic, context, problem, question, and purpose.
• Background or literature review: what existing sources show and where they differ or leave a gap.
• Discussion, method, or findings: your evidence and analysis.
• Conclusion: answer, implications, limitations, and next steps.
• References: every cited source in the required style.

Use How to Write a Research Paper for planning, structure, and revision support.

Step 9: Cite and Review

Cite ideas, data, quotations, images, and distinctive language. Paraphrase in your own structure, use quotation marks for exact wording, and keep page numbers for quotations or precise claims. Use the APA Formatting & Citation (7th Edition) guide for details.

• Does the final draft answer the question rather than only describe the topic?
• Can each important claim be traced to an appropriate source?
• Are citations and references complete and consistent?
• Have you checked names, dates, links, quotations, figures, spelling, and formatting?
• Have you followed course rules for collaboration and permitted AI tools?

Which Guide Should I Use?

• Need the map? Use Research Process.
• Need search, source evaluation, or note-taking skills? Use Research Skills Guide.
• Need to synthesise a body of sources? Use Literature Review.
• Need a project-specific pathway? Use the Capstone Project guide.