This guide was developed in part by using ChatGPT-4o, a generative AI language model. It assisted in drafting content, providing recommendations, and refining language to ensure clarity and coherence. All AI-generated text was reviewed and edited for accuracy and relevance to the topic.
Let's deep-dive into the research process! We’ve created this interactive module that describes four overlapping stages:
Remember, research is an iterative process—you might revisit stages and refine steps as you go along.
Planning Your Research Project is about turning your curiosity into a clear, doable plan. In this stage, you’ll define focused research questions or objectives, set a timeline, and get organized with tools and strategies that will keep your project on track.
This section breaks down the planning process into specific actions and links you to helpful resources for each one—so you can move forward with confidence and clarity.
Toggle 📓 Planning Your Research Project to access these resources.
Getting Ideas for Research is an important step in your research journey—a stage driven by curiosity and open-ended exploration. You’ll begin by identifying topics that interest you and reflect on how they connect to your values. From there, you’ll explore those interests more deeply through preliminary research to uncover key themes, questions, and multiple perspectives.
This section breaks down the ideation stage into two parts—Identifying and Exploring Your Curiosity and Conducting Preliminary Research—and provides specific tools, strategies, and resources for each action to help you move from broad interest to focused direction.
Toggle them below to access these resources.
Answering your questions involves collecting information that helps you answer your research questions. As you read and analyze the information, you’ll see patterns and develop insights that will inform your argument or thesis. Organizing your findings is crucial because this helps build a coherent and persuasive argument.
This section breaks down answering your questions into three parts—Gathering Detailed Information, Analyzing and Organizing Information, and Formulating Your Argument or Thesis —and provides specific tools, strategies, and resources for each action.
Toggle them below to access these resources.
Creating your research object—your final paper, poster, or presentation—brings everything together, from your initial curiosity to the information you’ve gathered and analyzed.
As you work, you’ll develop your thesis, organize your ideas, and refine your work through revision. Working on your research object is an ongoing, iterative process, so think of this stage as encompassing all the other ones.
Toggle them below to access these resources.
Not all information is created the same—or used for the same purpose. When you're doing research, it's important to understand where your information comes from and how it's been shaped. This guide uses a two-dimensional framework to help you think critically about information types.
By understanding where a piece of information falls along these two dimensions, you’ll be better equipped to decide how and when to use it in your own work. Explore the matrix below to learn more.
In this video, you'll get a quick overview of common information sources—like scholarly journals, popular media, academic books, Wikipedia, and websites—and learn how each one can support different parts of your research process. Whether you're working on your English 102 assignments or preparing for future projects at UNLV, this video will help you make informed decisions about where to look and what to use.
This next video explores the differences between scholarly and popular sources, including how they are created, who they’re for, and when to use them. You'll learn how each type plays a unique role in the research process and why using both can enrich your understanding of a topic. Whether you're writing a research paper or just trying to learn more about an issue, this guide will help you evaluate your sources and use them effectively.
Explore the following subject guides created by your librarians.
Explore the following course guides created by your librarians. These are guides made for specific classes and for specific professors.
