What does research actually mean in this context?

In this context, research aims to gather existing knowledge on a specific topic and integrate it into your own research process. A thorough search allows you to close your own knowledge gaps, identify research gaps, and place your work within the context of existing studies.

To navigate the landscape of information with confidence, it is important to identify and define your own information needs. These are shaped by the aspects of the question you aim to answer.

The definition of your research question in the context of searching literature involves:

• a structured collection of search terms
• and their meaningful combination into search queries.

Next, the goal is to find and gain access to the required information in the form of scientific literature.

A central starting point for this is the library: It provides access to over 200,000 printed books, more than 400,000 e-media resources, and several million academic articles.

What is the OPAC?

The first point of contact in any research process is the library catalogue (OPAC). It contains the library’s entire collection at the title level. This means it provides information about which books, e-books, journals, and newspapers are available through the library.

The OPAC is therefore suitable for searching for foundational literature and for checking whether a specific journal or issue is available.

Why use academic databases?

In the next step, academic databases come into play. They enable targeted searches for individual articles from scientific journals.

An overview of the most relevant databases for each faculty is available on the library website.

The databases differ in topic – ranging from highly specialised subject databases to interdisciplinary databases covering a wide range of topics.

In addition, they differ in terms of availability of the literature they index: Full-text databases provide the entire text for each entry, whereas bibliographic databases only refer to the existence of the article.

Thanks to the internet, it is usually possible to check availability with just a few clicks and, if necessary, place an interlibrary loan request.

You can find a detailed script about searching for literature for your specific degree program in the library’s training materials.

Frequently asked questions

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Managing Literature with Zotero

Zotero is a free, open-source reference management program that allows you to collect, organize, and cite academic publications. Zotero offers numerous advantages for managing literature and knowledge: Efficient collection and organization: Zotero allows easy collection of literature sources from various databases, catalogs, and websites. With the Zotero Connector, bibliographic details can be directly imported from …

• library
• research
• Tools
• Zotero

Faculties: AC, AMP, AR, BI, BW, D, EFI, IN, MB/VS, SOH, SW, VT, WT

• Organisation & Motivation

Contributors: Schreibzentrum, Dzifa Vode, Bibliothek

Writing a Research Proposal

When should I write a research proposal? Once you start exploring various topics for your academic work, certain topics and questions will emerge that you are genuinely interested in. This is the time to start taking a more systematic approach towards deciding on your topic and specific research question. Even if you have already decided …

• Exposé
• planning
• Sketch
• Start
• Summary

Faculties: AC, AMP, AR, BI, BW, D, EFI, IN, MB/VS, SOH, SW, VT, WT

• Genres & Structures

Contributors: Maria Noll, Schreibzentrum, Dzifa Vode, Deirdre Rieker

This article was published in September 2025 and last updated in December 2024.