Now that you have a focus, you can start exploring subject-specific resources. Many times a topic is not only covered in one subject or discipline. Going back to the topic of social media influencers with a focus on authenticity, you could find information in psychology, sociology, business, philosophy/ethics, health, or education.

While most WMU databases are searchable in Library Search, at this point in your research, it's best to use subject-specific databases to narrow your pool of sources. For lists of subject-specific databases for other disciplines, check out our other research guides.

Citation Mining

Citation Mining is a technique to find sources to understand the scope of the scholarly conversation around your focus. Once you find a source that is relevant to your work, look at the sources it cites or what sources it has been cited in. Some databases and search engines have this function built-in.

In Library Search

Use the arrows on Item Records to find sources cited in or cited by that source.

In Google Scholar

Click the link at the bottom of the search result.

Your research focus does not have to be static and unchanging. As you begin to collect more resources and see new themes and aspects, your focus will evolve.

You may discover that your research focus does not have as much information available as you thought or that the connections you thought were there ended up being not as strong as you thought. When this happens, think back to aspects and themes. If you were using an aspect approach, try a theme approach and vice versa. This does not mean that you have to start all your research over. The work you have done has informed where you are now.

In addition to looking at the bibliographies, reference lists, endnotes, or works cited lists at the end of helpful sources you have found, you can find a curated bibliography for your topic. Oxford Bibliographies are a great place to find annotated lists of important or influential works. Each bibliography has a brief summary of certain aspects of a topic and each citation has an explanation of why it was included.

MLA International Bibliography is a searchable collection of citations by the Modern Language Association (the same organization that created MLA citation style). This database is not searchable in Library Search so you may find sources here that you have not seen before.