To say you need to conduct research for your paper makes it sound simple. You find evidence to back up your hypothesis or proposal and present it, right? Not quite.
There are many different methods of conducting research and finding the right one for your paper is not always as easy as it sounds. The Internet is an invaluable source of information, but it can also be overwhelming with all its different sources, many of which conflict with each other. Whom do you believe?
Many institutions have their own research methodology that they prefer their students and faculty to use. To determine what this particular methodology is for your institution, you can ask your professor or simply look at papers submitted by other students and faculty members. The methods they used will be your clue to what they expect you to use. As the world quickly goes digital, more and more of these papers can be found online.
Online academic journals are also an excellent source of research papers, as well as tips on research methodology. They're full of studies whose methods you can emulate, but they also have tips on the best methods to use for different types of studies.
Everyone is familiar with internet search engines but are they useful? When searching for peer-reviewed scientific studies, probably not. But a number of academic search engines are available online. They function much like the search engines we're used to, with some of them being free while others require a subscription. Be aware that some of these search engines provide only the abstract for free while others provide the full papers and data sets.
Your institution might also subscribe to a particular academic search engine, so be aware of that. Often, students of certain colleges and universities have free access to these search engines simply by proving they have a student account with the school. You can ask a professor or one of your school librarians if your institution has such a subscription, and they should be able to help you out.
These search engines work much like the standard search engines, in that you enter a search term that the site uses in deciding which papers to present to you. This means you might have to play around with your search terms a bit before you find what you're looking for.