Tip: Spend time finding a suitable topic early on so that you do not run the risk of having to change topics later due to lack of interest or lack of sources.
Use one or more of the following four strategies to find a research topic that interests you.
A. Knox Primo a vast listing of books held by 95 academic libraries in Illinois. Search the catalog for ideas, and to identify books on a topic. Then, you can use the request feature to request the books be sent here from other libraries.
Start a broad search by typing in the word "energy" in the search box, selecting the "All I-Share Libraries" option:
Use the facets on the left to limit your results to "Available online"
Then narrow down your results list by clicking a topic area, as in the following example. Click "more..." to see more topics or subjects.
A good practice with a long list of items is to sort your results with the newest items listed first.
B. Browse some of the current journals listed on the Peer-reviewed Journals tab of this research guide. This will give you an idea of what topics and issues researchers are studying.
C. Wikipedia has an article called "Outline of Energy" listing all the topics in Wikipedia about energy. It classifies the topics in categories, such as "History of energy," "Energy and society," "Energy economics," etc. Peruse the list and look at some of the articles to get ideas for research topics.
D. Use the books listed on the Reference Sources tab above, such as Encyclopedia of Renewable Energy, to search out a topic of interest to you.
Important point: Reference sources such as Wikipedia and those listed on the Reference Sources tab above are meant to be starting points for research. It is generally NOT good academic practice to cite articles in reference sources in a research paper.
