Although databases differ in specific detail depending on
their software, there are common features. Most provide for some type of
truncation or wild card to find word variations, but the symbol may differ: an
asterisk (*), question mark (?), or colon (:) are often used. Limiting by
element such as language, date, format, field (author, title, subject,
classification code, etc.) is usually available. Parentheses are used to group
ideas. Boolean logic (the use of
OR requires any of the specified words to appear in
each document
NOT excludes terms not desired
e.g. Latin
Americ* NOT Mexic*
Combining ideas
Not enough material?
Too much material?
The following links are a very good place to start if you are looking for reports and discussion on Canadian events. Although the majority of these resources are not peer reviewed you will find them helpful to illustrate other peer reviewed articles in order to give your research arguments a "real world" feel to them.
For social research on questions of an international nature.