Before you even think about starting your research, you might like to consider:

Do you know what elements of each source of information you will need in order to reference it properly (using APA 6th or APA 7th). Are you ready to record those elements each time you use a source?

For example, for an online journal article, you will need:

• Author(s)
• Year of publication
• Title of article
• Title of journal
• Volume and Issue numbers
• Page numbers
• The DOI (Digital Object Identifier), or the home page of the journal.

See, in this guide, Referencing.

Would you benefit from using Endnote? EndNote allows you to:

• Export references from an online information resource
• Store, manage, and edit those references
• Attach the full-text PDF of an article to its reference
• Insert in-text citations and reference list items into your essay.

See, in this guide, EndNote.

Do you understand how the different search techniques and functions work? For example,

• Do you know how AND and OR will work in your search?
• Do you know what truncation is and what it does?

See, in this guide, General Search Techniques.

Would you benefit from having a personal folder in any of the main database platforms?

These personal folders usually allow you to:

• Save article records permanently
• Save a search history permanently
• Set up a search alert, or a journal table-of-contents (TOC) alert.

See the pages in this guide on databases in the main database platforms: CINAHL (EBSCOhost), Nursing and Allied Health Database (ProQuest), and MEDLINE (Ovid).