If you type a word or phrase into Google, you are absolutely going to get a hit – sometimes thousands – or something related to the subject matter you are searching for. But if you are browsing the internet for scholarly information, a massive search engine may not be the place to start. You want to find the correct information, build an impressive bibliography while doing so, and not waste hours of time sifting through the junk hits just to glean a few valid tidbits of knowledge.

So let us pare it down for you a bit, and get you started on your path to an excellently researched, written, referenced, and formatted paper. Voila! With today’s amazing online resources it’s easier than ever before.

5 Awesome Research Websites

1. Zotero.org. “Zotero is the only research tool that automatically senses content, allowing you to add it to your personal library with a single click. Whether you’re searching for a preprint on arXiv.org, a journal article from JSTOR, a news story from the New York Times, or a book from your university library catalog, Zotero has you covered with support for thousands of sites.” Bonus: Zotero collects and stores ALL your research in a searchable database. Did we mention it’s also free?
2. Citeulike.org. If you’re working on a great bibliography for your paper, Citeulike will help you discover new articles and resources, store references online, send you automated article recommendations, and share your references with peers or classmates. To date, there are 6,158,841 articles listed on this HUGE database. Bonus: Citeulike is free and also includes the storage and searching of your pdfs.
3. Diigo.com. If you’re tired of using your browser bookmarking tool (which is often very disorganized and hard to manage), you will love diigo.com. It highlights, organizes content, and provides you with “sticky notes” while reading through all sorts of articles online. It’s won several awards for its value and ease of use, and it also allows for group-based, collaborative work. Bonus: You can access it from anywhere – Iphone, Android or iPad and it works with all browsers.
4. Mendeley.com. This website is for the scholar who really wants to spit-shine his or her work! “Mendeley is a free reference manager and academic social network that can help you organize your research, collaborate with others online, and discover the latest research.” Mendeley will automatically generate bibliographies, collaborate with other researchers online, import papers from other research software, and find relevant papers based on what you’re reading. Bonus: An iPhone App makes it accessible on the go!
5. Carrot2.org.“Carrot2 organizes your search results into topic areas. With an instant overview of what’s available, you will quickly find what you’re looking for.” For example, if you type in the term “breast cancer gene”, carrot2 delivers results under these different headings: breast cancer research, genetics of breast cancer, risk of having, cause, etc. Bonus: It’s free, and you save a bunch of time you would waste scrolling through Google rankings that may have had lots of hits, but no real “research meat and bones” to them.

Welcome to the Digital Age homeschoolers! Research can be Fun and Efficient with these excellent online tools available for our homeschool classrooms – or on the go through a mobile device. And most of them are free to boot!