Occupational Health and Safety Research Guide

Library Research in Occupational Health and Safety

Start by Defining Your Topic

Identify the main concepts in your topic, then phrase them as keywords and try to think of synonyms for your keywords. Use Boolean logic to formulate an effective search strategy. If you need help with defining your topic, ask at the Reference Desk, 2nd Floor, Library, or if you are off-campus, use the Ask a Librarian chat reference service.

Determine what Resources you Need

Consider what kinds of library resources you need. For example, does your assignment require you to find books? Journal articles? Peer-reviewed journal articles? If you are looking for books, go to the Library catalogue. If you are looking for journal articles, including peer-reviewed journal articles, then go to Articles and Indexes, and then select an appropriate database from the Find an Article/Index by Subject listing. Databases listed under Occupational Health and Safety will be most relevant, however, depending on the topic, databases under other subject listings may also be useful.

Identify Relevant Library Resources

Once you've executed a search and are reviewing results to determine relevancy, consider the following: How current is the resource - was it published recently, or is it dated? Is there a bibliography or footnotes? How often do the keywords you searched occur in the item record? If you are looking at journal articles, are they published in peer-reviewed journals? Asking these kinds of questions will help you identify which resources will be of use.

Cite your References

Remember when preparing your bibliography to cite all of the references in your paper using the citation style required by your instructor. Some commonly used formats at Ryerson are APA or MLA. Please also see the information available on RefWorks, a web-based bibliographic citation manager which allows you to create correctly formatted bibliographies in the style of your choice.