One of the main aspects of conducting research is searching and reading previous studies that have been conducted on the topic in order to write your introduction or literature review.   Below is a how-to guide on how to search and access scientific literature using general and specific topic examples. Although this guide uses PubMed as the search database, be advised that there are multiple databases to browse through. Make sure to view our other two posts (A Guide to Getting Started with Online Databases and Databases for Online Research) to get some ideas on other databases you can use to access literature and public data.

There are various databases that exist that contain the literature or data that you are looking to work with for your research projects. However, it can be confusing and overwhelming not knowing where to look or which databases to start with.  Below is a starter guide that can give you an idea of some of the popular article and public data databases that can help you complete your research!