EN411 Environmental Ocean Engineering

Before you start searching in the scholarly literature, consider brainstorming around your topic through the following questions.

• What are some different ways to describe the thing you're trying to research? For example, you could try searching for wastewater treatment in addition to searching for the phrases water recycling or sewage treatment.
   
• What people, places, or things are related to your topic? The Chesapeake Bay is a local example of a place that could be related to many different topics covered in your class.
   
• What about your topic interests you? Think about its purpose, function, or what it's made of. For example, you might be interested in specific methods of stormwater management such as retention ponds and bioswales.

You may wonder where to find information to answer the questions above. Google, Wikipedia and news sources are excellent resources for this type of brainstorming work to provide a high-level overview on a topic.

Skimming a relevant book or chapter can also bring you up to speed. Here are some examples in Nimitz Search for our wastewater treatment topic.

Once you've got enough context, jump to the Recommended Resources tab to locate papers for your assignment.

Scholarly sources typically meet the following criteria. They are:

• Written by scholars
• Written for a scholarly audience
• Evaluated by other experts in the field
• Supported by relevant references

Ways to figure out if a source is scholarly include:

• Finding the author names and the institutes they work for
• Examining the publication venue of the source
• Determining if the source is peer reviewed
• Looking for a reference list or bibliography

If in doubt, ask your librarian or professor!

Nimitz Search will indicate if a paper is from a peer-reviewed journal.

The journal's website will also usually indicate if it's peer reviewed.