Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks: Articles

1. The first step to take when beginning a research project is to write, in statement or question format, the topic you want to start researching.  Once you have a starting point you can begin selecting databases and search terms. 
2. Now take a look at what you just wrote and circle the important words or phrases.  This is the start of a list of search terms that will be used in the library's databasaes.
3. Think of related terms for each of the words you circled.
4. Who is interested in your topic?  Sociologists, historians, scientists (including medical), philosophers, ethicists, political scientists, theologians?  Don't be surprised if scholars from different areas are interested.  Then select databases from these fields.
5. Combine your terms with AND OR

Boolean logic is used to define the relationship between the terms in your research statement or question.  And is used to combine different ideas, Or is used to combine related terms or synonyms, and Not is used to eliminate unwated terms.  Not is rarely used.

You can search for articles in a variety of databases at once using WorldCat Local.  Simply click on on the tab Articles.   

Here are two examples of useful articles found using the search strategy "informed consent" education  

http://ezp3.sxu.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=mnh&AN=12467316&site=ehost-live&scope=site

http://newfirstsearch.oclc.org/dbname=WorldCat;done=referer;FSIPoclc/428529914

 If you find your results are not quire what you want, try a more focued approach by searching specific databases. Below is a short list of databasaes.  More can be found on this page, A-Z List of Databases.