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Library Tools for MU Athletes

List of tools and resources for MU Athletes and for researching topics on Athletics.

RESEARCH BASICS FOR ATHLETICS 

Brainstorming Keywords

When thinking about keywords for your topic, you want to consider what words the researchers would have used in their research. Did they use a term that was more specific, less specific, or a synonym? Or are you used to using an acronym when the researchers used the full title? 

Use the following information to decide what to type into a database:

  • Determining Keywords Tutorial: If you are getting ready to start your research project, it is important to know what keywords you plan to use in the databases and other tools. This tutorial will help you understand how keywords play a role in using databases to find scholarly articles and other materials.
  • Understanding Boolean Operators: This video describes how to turn your keywords into a search string (or what you will end up putting in the database. It is basically an equation where you tell the database the relationship between your keywords.
  • Keyword Options: This video will explain how to put the search string into the database using the multi-line searching.

Sports/Athletics

Searching for Topics related to Sports or Athletics:

  • Sports
  • Athletics
  • Athletes

Think about what might be specific about the sport or athletic program that you want to research:

  • Football OR "American football" 
  • Football OR hockey OR gymnastics OR wrestling OR "high impact sports"
  • player OR team OR teammates
  • athlete OR player
  • "college sports" OR "college athletics" OR "college athletes" 

Use the terms below by changing the "Select a Field" dropdown to "Subject Terms" to make this more successful:

  • Sport psychology
  • SPORTS ethics
  • College sports -- United States
  football OR hockey OR baseball OR wrestling OR gymnastics OR "high impact sports" Select a field
AND  concussion OR mild traumatic brain injury OR mild tbi OR mtbi OR head injury Select a field
AND  sport psychology Subject Terms

CHECK OUT THE RESULTS FOR THIS SEARCH BY CLICKING HERE. Please note that when you use this link, the terms will look different, but will be what is shown above if you would like to re-create it. 

Searching for Topics related to Sports Betting:

  • sports betting
  • sports gambling
  • sports wagering

For topics in sports betting, think about the following additional information for keywords to add to your search:

  • What level of sport you are interested in prioritizing?
  • What sport might you focus on?
  • Who is being effected by the sports betting?
  • Who is betting?
  "sports betting: OR "sports gambling" OR "sports wagering" Select a field
AND college or university Select a field
AND football Select a field

CHECK OUT THE RESULTS FOR THIS SEARCH BY CLICKING HERE. Please note that when you use this link, the terms will look different, but will be what is shown above if you would like to re-create it.