Food Security
Course Number: GG999
Subject: Geography and Environmental Studies
Hello PO311F Students!
This course guide will help direct you through various aspect of your research essay. Specifically, it covers how to:
- Turn your topic into a research question
- Conduct a preliminary search for high quality scholarly sources
- Expand and refine your search
- Build a collection of sources for use in your final assignment
- Cite your sources using the APA 7th edition
The sections have either brief videos or "course presentations"; click the + icons to expand them.
The presentations are similar to PowerPoint; you advance them using the < or > icons, or the individual silver bar at the bottom of each presentation.
Turn your topic into a research question
Your class has already had a session on developing a research question. For those who need a quick refresher, please watch our brief video tutorial below.
Preliminary research techniques
Expanding Your search
The above example demonstrates how to search not only Omni, but also how to repeat the same search in ProQuest, EBSCO, and Web of Science databases.
For additional high-quality databases, consult those listed on the International Public Policy Subject Guide.
Other non peer-reviewed sources
Your instruction assignment notes half of the sources should be peer-reviewed, and other research can be drawn from media, or policy sources (for example the FAO or United Nations, or different government or NGO and thinktanks).
To search for IGO/NGO Reports
Use the links below to search for reports on your topic:
- NGO Search - This custom Google search targets non-governmental organizations. See a list of the covered URLs.
- IGO Search - This custom Google search targets international governmental organizations. See a list of the covered URLs.
- Individual agency website search using Google Advanced search
- Use the link above
- Enter the main website's domain in the Site or domain search box, e.g.: https://www.fao.org/home/en
- Enter your search terms
- Google Advanced then searches only your domain of choice for your keywords
To search for news articles
- Consult the library's guide to Finding News Articles
Build your collection of sources
Get citations and cite your sources using APA 7th ed.
All our databases have easy ways to copy/paste their citations into your paper.
See the two video tutorials below for details on how to get citations (created originally for Global Studies), and how to format in APA 7.
No citation database or style generator can guarantee error-free citations, so always check your final Bibliography with the official style guide, or a credible online source like Purdue University's OWL APA Formatting and Style Guide.
For further help, see: