Recommended Resources for Research
Alabama Virtual Library (AVL):
Click the teal "High School" button to filter your resources to ones suitable for high school use.
If you aren't intimidated by large search results, use the gray search bar at the top. Once you get your search results, here are some tips:
Make sure you click on "all filters" and check the box that says "at my library." Otherwise, you might get search results that you won't be able to access.
Many diseases will have a research starter, which is a good overview of the condition.
Filter by source type. News and magazines are written for the general public and will be easy to read. Hit apply filters.
You might later want to include some peer-reviewed academic journals, which will showcase the latest in research. Sometimes these are intimidating to read because they are written by experts for an expert audience within the field.
Filter by date. Your research should be recent, especially any topic related to the medical or technology fields.
Once you open an article, you might have to click a dropdown menu that says "Access options" and click a separate link to view the full text or PDF.
Be sure to save all three of the following:
citation information (quotation marks)
the permalink/stable URL (chainlink), and save it to your docs page in your Google Drive
the article itself to your Google Drive ( you might have to download and upload the
file as a PDF to your drive)
Recommended Databases within AVL to use (find each on the AVL High School Homepage; pages are organized alphabetically):
Brittanica for High School (general overview)
Gale General Onefile
Explora for High Schools
Health Source: Consumer Edition
Medline Plus
Searching websites by domain:
.gov Websites
Search Google using site:.gov and then any keywords
Check out https://www.govinfo.gov/ for a plethora of info. produced by US government
.edu Websites
Search Google using site:.edu and then any keywords
Make sure that your source is from a researcher and is not student work
.org Websites
Search Google using site:.org and then any keywords
Be sure to get any .org source approved by your teacher. Some organizations push their own agenda, and it might be useful to follow the sources that they cite. Also, not all organizations are considered legitimate.
General Research Tips
Kay to all research is staying organized! Be sure to save all articles, citations and permalinks before navigating away. We suggest having a google doc within your folder for citations/permalinks.
If you are having issues saving, click the print option, but then change the printer location to "save as a PDF." This will send the file to your downloads, and you will be able to upload as a file to your Google Drive.
Use search function (Control+F) to skim for keywords.
When using databases, check for "more like this" articles that populate. They might lead you to other good sources!