Define Research Questions
Search wisely by formulating your research questions
Instead of just Googling with a keyword like diabetes, think first about what you want to know.
Examples:
- What is diabetes? How is it classified?
- What causes diabetes?
- What are the symptoms?
- How is it treated?
- What are the chemical pathways involved in diabetes?
- How many people have diabetes?
- Can we predict the onset of diabetes?
- Can we prevent it?
- Is it injurious or harmful?
Before going online, think of what sources might have information on your topic.
Examples:
- Databases. Check here;
for databases relevant to your subject - WWW search engines
- Government agencies which will have .gov in their domain name
- University departments which will have .edu in their domain name
- Organizations like the National Institute of Diabetes & Digestive & Kidney Diseases
- Media such as iMol, images including photographs and maps
Search wisely by identifying keywords from your questions and possible sources.
Examples:
- to find how to treat diabetes mellitus
- diabetes mellitus + treatment/therapy
- to find out how many people in Kenya have gestational diabetes
- gestational diabetes + Kenya + epidemiology/incidence/rate
- limit to .gov to retrieve statistical sets from government sites
