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Finding Background Information

Tutorial for finding background information on your topic

EBSCO's Research Starters

Research Starters is a feature available when searching DragonQuest. You may notice when you enter a generic search term into DragonQuest that a research starter is your first result.

If available, research starters appear at the top of you search results in DragonQuest.

Research Starter entries are similar to a Wikipedia entry of the topic, but Research Starters are pulled from quality sources such as Salem Press, Encyclopedia Britannica, and American National Biography. Research Starters can be a great place to begin your research, if you're not yet sure about your topic details.

Using Research Starters

To use Research Starters click on the title just as you would for any other DragonQuest entry. You will then find a broad overview of the topic. This entry is great for finding

  • Subtopics that can narrow your searching
     
  • Background information to support your claims
     
  • Sources you can use and cite in your research

We do not recommend that you use Research Starters as a source itself though, because of the difficulties in citation.

Citing Research Starters

Using Research Starters as an actual source is not recommended.

Just as we do not recommend using Wikipedia as a source, Research Starters is the same. Use Research Starters as a starting point to get ideas about how to narrow your search and to use its bibliography to find sources you can cite.

We recommend this because citing Research Starters can be tricky as sometimes it will have insufficient bibliographic data to create your reference page.