Clinical Topics & Disorders in Speech-Language Pathology: American Speech-Language-Hearing Association
Selecting a topic is one of the most important steps of your research. Defining and refining your topic is an ongoing process. Be prepared to adjust the focus of your topic as you gather more information.
Identify keywords for your topic and search the databases with these terms:
e.g. "traumatic brain injury" and speech
Using "quotation marks" improves searching for a phrase.
You can also limit by age category e.g. adult
In most databases, you can use filters to limit search results to scholarly or peer-reviewed articles. Peer-reviewed articles are reviewed by experts in the same field prior to publication.
How do you know an article is scholarly?
Google Scholar searches articles, books, theses, and other content. Searching Google Scholar is easy, but it doesn't give you the ability to filter to peer-reviewed journal articles.
If you need to be sure the article you found is from a peer-reviewed journal, use Ulrichsweb as described in the box below.
Always access Google Scholar from the link above or the "Resources" list on the front page of the library website. When you use these links, your MU credentials will be authenticated, giving you access to library resources found in Google Scholar. Look for the "Full-Text @ MU Library" link in your results list. You can also click on the Google Scholar logo above to search using your MU credentials.
One useful feature of Google Scholar is the ability to find articles that have cited an article you already have. See the handout below for more information.
Not sure if a particular journal is peer-reviewed? Check out Ulrichsweb. This database (also found in the A-Z database list from "Quick Links" on the library website) provides detailed information on publications. Look for the referee icon to indicate it is a peer-reviewed journal.
The black and white “ref jersey” icon below indicates that Higher Education is a peer-reviewed journal, but Education Week is not.
