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Science & Business Research Guide: Project/ Program Research

Library Research

What is Project/Program Research?

There are many reasons why you may be interested in researching a project or program. For example, you may be interested in completing a similar project in your own company. 

Regardless of the reason, there are some common features you may be looking out for, such as:

  • the project's scope and goals
  • the team members and dynamics
  • the project's successes, failures, and impact
  • the role of external factors on the project

Crafting your Search

In order to get good project/program research, we need a good strategy. In this case, a good strategy is comprised of the right project and an effective search strategy. 

Selecting the Right Project

In order to have enough information to analyze, it is in our best interest to choose large, public projects.

If you don't already have a project in mind, the best way to search for ones that fit our criteria is:

  1. Use a database like Scopus.
  2. Search for keywords like:
    • "megaproject," "megaproject management," or "major infrastructure project"
    • if you want to look at a project or program in a specific area, feel free to modify your search with relevant keywords
      • for example: "megaproject" AND "sustainability"
  3. Skim through your results. In particular, abstracts, literature reviews, and article keywords would be good to pay attention to for this brainstorming phase. 

Creating the Strategy

Depending on the type of project you choose there are different ways of searching for information. Pick and choose from the below strategies or use different ones, as it pertains to your research needs.

  1. Search using databases like Scopus or Google Scholar.

  2. Go to the Wikipedia article of your project and look through the citations to find relevant credible sources.

  3. If your project or program is attached to an existent company or organization, visit that organization's webpages and search for relevant documents. 

  4. When Googling add search terms like Filetype:PDF or Site:.gov to find help find relevant webpages and documents quicker.

In order to demonstrate project/program research, we will look at the Large Hadron Collider in Google Scholar.

Slide 1: Finding Project/Program Research – The Large Hadron Collider in Google Scholar

The Library Home Page, with the Search function in the centre of the page, menu options across the top of the header and body, and the Quick Links menu to the left. An orange arrow points to the Quick Link “Databases.”

Slide 2: Navigating to Google Scholar

To find Google Scholar, go to the Library Home Page. Click on the Databases Tab.

The Database search results, with a link to Google Scholar in the centre of the screen, followed by a description of the database.

Slide 3: Navigating to Google Scholar

In the Databases search bar, search for Google Scholar.

The Google Scholar homepage, a white screen with the search bar and blue search button in the centre of the screen. Options to access settings, your library and your profile line the top of the screen.

Slide 4: Searching on Google Scholar

Before we begin searching in Google Scholar, it is a good idea to alter our settings so we can get links for resources that the University of Waterloo has access to.

The Google Scholar homepage, with the menu column open to the left of the screen. An orange arrow points to the settings tab.

Slide 5: Searching on Google Scholar

Navigate to the settings page using the left-hand column.

The Library Links tab of the settings. To the left of the screen is a column with more setting options, in addition to Library links. Centre of the screen is a search bar for searching universities. And below the search bar is the results of your search or libraries you have already added to your account.

Slide 6: Searching on Google Scholar

Once on the settings page, click on the “Library Links” tab.

On this page, you can search for a university and then add it to your account (make sure to hit save). Doing this will allow Google to give you University of Waterloo library access links to resources that we subscriptions to.

Slide 7 - Creating the Search String

You are probably used to searching in Google. And so, you likely know that when you search you can simply use your natural language and Google will give you relevant results. Although this is true, employing some library skills, like Boolean searching, will allow us to retrieve even more tailored results.

In order to make a search string, using Boolean searching techniques, we need to isolate our key concepts, think of synonyms, and join our keywords together using AND, OR, or, NOT. For the topic “Large Hadron Collider Megaproject Management” our concepts are “Large Hadron Collider” and “Megaproject management.”  

Let’s also say in this search we are interested in how the project got funded. So, let’s add a third concept group: “funding.”

The synonyms  for these groups might be “LHC”, “CERN”, “project management,” “infrastructure,” and “financing". So our search string is:  “Large Hadron Collider” OR “LHC” OR “CERN”) AND (“megaproject management” OR “project management” OR infrastructure) AND (funding OR financing). Keep concept groups together using brackets and search for exact phrases using quotation marks.

Slide 8: Google Scholar – The Results

Looking at these results, we can see a mix of academic literature and official documents related to the Large Hadron Collider, all of which may help our project. If we are interested in just reading the documents, we can click the links in the right-hand column. Some of these links are to PDFs and some are library access links. Clicking the links in the centre column will bring us to the source’s website, which we may also want to check out later.

Library Resources

Scopus 

How to use Scopus for Project/Program Research?

Scopus is an interdisciplinary database. This means that it should be easier to find academic literature on project management relating to different industries. Search Scopus using your project/program's title or organization's name and specify your search with keywords for what you are looking for like "funding," if needed. 

Google Scholar 

How to use Google Scholar for Project/Program Research?

Similar to Scopus, Google Scholar is also an interdisciplinary database. This means that it should be easier to find literature on project management relating to different industries, especially since Google Scholar aggregates results from across sources. Search Google Scholar using your project/program's title or organization and specify your search with keywords for what you are looking for like "leadership," if needed. 

Openly Available Resources

Business Firms 

How to use Business Firms for Project/Program Research?

Using these firm's insights and reports, either find information on or inspiration for projects and programs.

World Economic Forum 

How to use The World Economic Forum for Project/Program Research?

Find and draw inspiration from publications on international projects and megaprojects or reports on the wider policy and industry environments.

Rand Corporation 

How to use the Rand Corporation for Project/Program Research?

Find relevant policy environment reports to potentially help support your analysis.

The World Bank Open Knowledge Repository 

How to use the World Bank Open Knowledge Repository for Project/ Program Research?

Use the World Bank to find publications on development knowledge which can potentially support research on international megaprojects. 

It is important to know that there are many more potential tools, beyond these curated ones, which you could use for project or program research. Depending on your topic, some of these tools may be more or less useful to you. As you get comfortable with your problem space and searching, feel free to explore beyond what's offered here.