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Resources for High School Students

This guide is for high school students interested in using University Library resources to conduct research.

Have a question?

If you have a question about this guide or CSUN's resources and outreach for local high schools in the Valley and greater Los Angeles, please contact Outreach Librarian Brianna Limas.

About Academic Research

Find strategies, tips, and basic foundations of academic research by visiting the Library's Research Strategies guide. Keep in mind that online resources like databases, full text articles, and ebooks are only accessible to high school students from a library computer. 

Keep in mind that research is a process. We can usually think of this process as a cycle with multiple stages:

  1. Identify and define the problem, concept, or idea (often called your "topic")
  2. Review the literature (in the form of scholarly articles and other sources)
  3. Set objectives and determine the research question (this is narrowing the "scope" of your research topic/project)
  4. Design and develop research method(s)
  5. Collect and analyze data
  6. Document and communicate findings
  7. Continue to refine, expand, and develop your ideas and engage in scholarly conversation!

This process is highly iterative, meaning that it does not happen in a straight-line. Your topic and question will evolve and be revised as you search and read articles. You might go back and forth between stages of the research process. It's a journey!

Here are more examples and explanations about the research process:

How to Read a Scholarly Article

Scholarly sources often have a particular writing style and can be challenging to read compared to other types of sources. When reading scholarly literature, read strategically. Don't start by reading the article from start to finish but rather focus on the sections that will give you the information you need first. This will quickly let you know what the article is about and its relevancy for your research. It will also prepare you for when you’re ready to read the full article, giving you a mental map of its structure and purpose.

Here is a suggestion on how to read a scholarly article and which sections to focus on first. 

 

How to read a scholarly article infographic

How to Read a Scholarly Article

  1. Read the abstract An abstract is a summary of the article, and will give you an idea of what the article is about and how it will be written. If there are lots of complicated subject-specific words in the abstract, the article will be just as hard to read.
  2. Read the conclusion This is where the author will repeat all of their ideas and their findings. Some authors even use this section to compare their study to others. By reading this, you will notice a few things you missed, and will get another overview of the content.
  3. Read the first paragraph or the introduction This is usually where the author will lay out their plan for the article and describe the steps they will take to talk about their topic. By reading this, you will know what parts of the article will be most relevant to your topic!
  4. Read the first sentence of every paragraph These are called topic sentences, and will usually introduce the idea for the paragraph that follows. By reading this, you can make sure that the paragraph has information relevant to your topic before you read the entire thing.
  5. The rest of the article Now that you have gathered the idea of the article through the abstract, conclusion, introduction, and topic sentences, you can read the rest of the article!
  6. To review: Abstract, Conclusion,  Introduction, Topic Sentences, Entire Article

Literature Review

This literature review "how to" guide goes over what a literature review is, questions to consider, and guidelines for synthesizing sources.

Doing Research in College

Curious to see what resources we recommend for our undergraduate and graduate students at CSUN? You can access any of our research guides designed for specific subject areas, disciplines, majors, and courses. Research guides are created by Librarians with students and their coursework in mind, and are typically organized by CSUN academic departments. There are also guides created on specific topics and themes, such as library how-to and interdisciplinary topics.

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Keyword vs. Subject Searching

Keyword Searching

  • Your topic itself may prove to be the words that make up your search term(s). 
  • Keywords searches look for that search term(s) in the: 
    • title, subject, author, summary or abstract fields.
  • Keywords found frequently or throughout an article may push that article higher in the search results.
  • Keywords matches do not distinguish between context and purpose.

Subject Searching

  • A subject search will locate materials by Library of Congress Subject Headings, which is a controlled vocabulary or standard list of subject terms. The CSUN Library assigns Library of Congress Subject Headings to all items listed in the online catalog.
  • The number of results may vary widely.  Some searches will retrieve hundreds of results but if you choose a nonexistent subject term while others get nothing.  
  • If you do not know the appropriate subject heading for your topic, conduct a keyword search first and look at the subject heading(s) for relevant items.

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