Resources for Water Advocates

Your research will be more efficient if you know

1. what you want
2. how to get it

The lessons below will help you "Ask the Right Questions" identify "Types of Information" and develop "Search Strategies". Click through the other pages on the Research Basics (How to search, Where to search, Citations) for more details on research.

Source: GSU | Center for Excellence in Teaching & Learning (CETL)

Transcript

Start your background search using these:

YouTube is an excellent place to get to know a research topic (i.e. find background information). You might find interviews with scientists, researchers, and stakeholders or videos explaining processes and approaches to solutions related to your question.

Tips for Searching YouTube:

1. Search with the same keywords as as you would in Google or a database.
   • Find the experts (organization, research institute, or people) on Google or Wikipedia.
   • Search their names on YouTube - they may be publishing videos about their work.
2. If you find one relevant video on YouTube, click the publisher's link under the video to see if they have more. On each publisher's YouTube home page you will find a menu above the video listing:
   • Videos - videos by this publisher;
   • Playlists - videos by this publisher grouped by themes selected by the publisher;
   • Channels - video collections curated by this publisher;
   • Discussion - some publishers allow general comments or host discussions on their pages;
3. About - information sometimes provided by the publisher (you might find a link to their website or social media feeds). This is a good place to look when evaluating a resource.

4. From the publisher's page YouTube also recommends Related channels (to the right of the video, pictured above).
5. As with a Wikipedia article, you will need the source behind the video so check out the credits, information below the video, and comments for references.
   • If you can't find a reference for information in the video:
     • see if you can find it by searching Google;
     • post a comment (other viewers might know more);
     • contact the publisher.

Depending on the product and audience of your research, a YouTube video might be a legitimate resource. Don't forget to cite it! Open the APA or MLA citation styles link and search for YouTube using ctrl f (command f on a Mac).