Hackney Library: PSY 371: Experimental Psychology: Creating a Research Plan

Creating a Research Plan

Research Plan
A research plan helps you come up with and keep track of useful search terms to use when searching for information sources. Remember, no one set of terms is perfect; your goal is to find the best combination of terms (in each resource) to find the best sources. When switching from one info resource to another (such as from books to articles), you may need to change the combination of terms you use to be successful.

Directions:

Pose your topic in the form of a statement OR a question.
Choose 2-4 most important terms (keywords) drawn directly from your research statement/question and write each in the Keywords column in separate boxes.
In the synonyms column, write at least ONE synonym, or related term (broader or narrower) for each keyword.

Tip: For ideas for synonyms/related terms, write down in the Synonyms/Related Terms column any subject headings from a helpful article to use as potential search terms.

Sample Research Plan

Below is a link to a sample research plan concerning the topic "Hindsight Bias." Click on the link to download and access the Word document containing the plan.

Sample Research Plan: Hindsight Bias