Defining the topic

Planning information seeking

Reserve time to work on information seeking. Write down what you are doing.

The planning and implementation of information seeking and research go hand in hand.

From the beginning, make a mind map or a list of the key concepts of your topic. We will return to this on the following pages.

This allows you to visually and hierarchically structure different meanings, possible synonyms and relationships between concepts.
A mind map or list is part of systematic information seeking, and they are worked on as the research progresses. When you structure your topics into concepts and synonyms and list them, you also brainstorm search terms.

Get to know your topic

Get an overview of the topic: do preliminary searches.

Scientific information seeking starts with research questions: what do you want to find out, what do you want to ask of your topic? How would you define your research problem: are you trying to solve something, evaluate something, or compare?

Formulate research questions in an open form How? Why? What? etc. Research questions usually avoid questions to which the answer is yes or no.

To define your topic and formulate research questions, you need information on the topic.

You can start, for example, by writing down what you already know about the subject. Where did you come up with your topic? What was said about it? What was referred to?

Then start forming an overall picture of your topic. Try to find answers to these questions:

What has been written about the subject, how has it been studied?
Which perspectives are common: has there been a lot of research on the topic from a particular point of view, what has been studied less? How do the different perspectives of the topic relate to each other?
What are the key concepts?
What perspective are you interested in?

The topic does not have to be strictly defined right from the start – the definition of the topic usually begins to become more precise when you search for scientific sources and get to know in more detail how the topic has been studied.

It's also normal if getting started feels difficult or confusing! In other fields of science, concepts and topics are fairly clearly defined, but especially in the human sciences, research topics can be more difficult to grasp.

Preliminary information searches

For the initial information search, you can use:

and
Databases and multidisciplinary databases in your field
There are also non-scientific sources of information, such as Google.

In JYKDOK's basic search, you will find good sources of information for the initial phase, such as books and reference books. If you know a classic book in your research area or related course books, search in JYKDOK

You can also use extensive search engines, such as JYKDOK's international articles search and Google Scholar. Already at this stage, you can also direct yourself to scientific databases in your own field.

Also artificial intelligence tools can assist in preliminary information seeking. For more information, see AI in information seeking website.

How to search in JYKDOK

You can use the search box on JYKDOK's front page and search by topic, author or title of the work. Above the list of search results, there are tabs that you can switch to get different types of sources, e.g. articles.

Tips for preliminary searches

From the very beginning, write down what keywords you've used. This makes it easier to do systematic information searching and you will begin to understand the concepts of your topic.

If you're unfamiliar with the topic, you can start by googling it. Take advantage of everything that will help you get started with the topic. Can you find general information on the subject, is there perhaps a Wikipedia article on the subject?

Have there been any master's theses on the same topic? Master's theses are not scientific sources, but they can help you understand the topic. With JYKDOK's basic search, you can find theses from the Ģ��ֱ��. You can also browse the

Or, for example, ask ChatGPT for a summary of your topic. Artificial intelligences such as ChatGPT can help you perceive perspectives and key concepts related to the topic and thus help you familiarize yourself with the topic and perceive the big picture. Please note, however, that ChatGPT is a language model and its answers may contain inaccuracies and fabricated facts. ChatGPT is not suitable for producing ready-made text, and you cannot blindly trust the answers it provides.

The results of preliminary and experimental information seeking should be scanned with an open mind, but also critically. How is the topic discussed in abstracts, for example, what keywords are listed? When locating an interesting source, scan the text of the article or the introduction to the book. Are the search results something different from what you expected?

Don't panic if you can't find good sources right away. You may need to do a bit of detective work before you start finding good search results. At this stage, you get to know your topic and try to form an overall picture of it.

Reference books, handbooks, encyclopedias and dictionaries provide definitions of concepts and present research traditions and general themes.

JYKDOK has encyclopedic reference books, e.g.

Handbooks, such as Handbook of Digital Currency: Try searching for handbooks by combining your discipline/research area with the word handbook, for example intercultural communication handbook.

Find handbooks, reference books and such in JYKDOK Browse for databases > Science > Handbooks and dictionaries. See also Information seeking in different discplines.

Literature reviews are separate review articles or parts of broader research. The literature review reviews the most important previous research related to the topic. Literature reviews contain a summary of the research and results on a particular topic.

You can find literature reviews in scientific databases. You can also try searching for them in JYKDOK's article tabs.

In addition to the search terms for your research topic, use the words literature review, systematic review, meta-analysis, meta-synthesis
Some databases have a search filter that allows you to limit search results to review articles
Some disciplines, such as medicine, may have databases containing systematic literature reviews, e.g. Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews (Ovid).

Concept analysis

The background of words is important in scientific research. It cannot be assumed that everyone understands a particular concept in the same way. The concepts must be defined, i.e. the researcher must tell the scientific community what a certain concept means in the context of his or her research. Defining concepts and analyzing the relationships between them is an essential part of producing scientific knowledge.

Concept analysis refers to the analysis of the key concepts of research and the relationships between them.

For example, in a thesis, the concepts should usually be defined in the introductory part, where you also define the theoretical background of your research.

In different research traditions, we can talk about the same thing with different concepts. Or the same concept can mean different things! Sometimes a researcher brands the topic they are studying by using a concept that others have not used.

Even though concepts can differ in meaning, it is also useful to find out whether the topic has been studied in other disciplines. This can be found, for example, by searching JYKDOK, multidisciplinary databases or Google Scholar.

Ģ��ֱ��