Research guides: Stratford Campus : Capstone Research

Academic Research in Scopus

Scopus is a database that captures academic sources, like journal articles, conference proceedings, and ebooks. Scopus is an interdisciplinary tool that allows you to find information across different subject areas, which is helpful to get a sense for how scholars in different fields are approaching the same topic.

Searching Help

Scopus requires a different approach to searching than what we're used to. Take a look at the Advanced Database Searching in Scopus tutorial to learn how to write and connect your keywords effectively.

Scopus
Peer-reviewed literature from scientific journals, books and conference proceedings, covering the fields of science, technology, medicine, social sciences, and arts and humanities.
Coverage: 1966 - present

Scopus Tips

Notice any new keywords or phrases that pop up in the articles from your research. Edit your search query by adding and removing keywords as you get a better sense for how scholars talk about your topic.
Determine if something is relevant to you by reading the article title, then the abstract, and then clicking to read the full article. The Get it @ Waterloo links shows you how to get full text access.
Click on an article to find other related documents. Once you're on the article page, you'll be able to see the hyperlinked reference list, cited by documents, and other articles of relevance, which can help you if you're not finding a lot of related information.

Company Research in Pitchbook

Pitchbook is a database that provides access to company financial information, both for public and private companies. It can be used in a lot of different ways: for your capstone, it might be useful to research to see what companies are already tackling the topic you're researching and do more research to see what their solutions look like.

Pitchbook
Pitchbook tracks private and public companies, including startups and small businesses. Use it to determine company financials, funding rounds, funding firms, and more.
Users must create an account with their Waterloo email address to login.

Pitchbook Tips

You need to login with your Waterloo email address every time you access Pitchbook. When you click the Pitchbook link, enter your email in the email address field and then wait for the verification email to authenticate.
Use the top search box to search for known companies, eg. Apple, HydroOne.
If you are searching for a word or phrase instead of a company, eg. "adaptive clothing", use the menu on the left side of the screen. Click on Companies and then search for your keywords in the Industries, Verticals, and Keywords field.

Primary Research

After your secondary research, it might be necessary to conduct some primary research to get a fuller understanding of your topic. It is recommended that you do as much secondary research as you can so that you already know the answers to more general questions: then you can build off this research to gain more insights during primary research.

The following resources might be useful as you determine what type of research you need and how to conduct it effectively.

Conducting Qualitative Interviews
From the book Research Methods for the Social Sciences: An Introduction. Provides tips on creating your interview guide.
Writing an Effective Guide for a UX Interview
Preparing a guide for a user interview ensures that topics relevant to your research questions are covered, and that the interview captures in-depth information about people’s lives and needs.

Doing Interviews by Steinar Kvale
ISBN: 1526426072
Publication Date: 2018
A step-by-step guide that teaches the craft of interview research with practical, hands-on guidance. Includes chapters on Planning an Interview Study and Conducting an Interview.

SAGE Research Methods
Find books, encyclopedia and dictionaries about research methods.
Coverage: varies
SAGE Research Methods provides a tool called Method Maps, which visualizes relationships among more than 700 unique methods terms, concepts and people. Method List can be used to compile selected books, book chapters and journal articles for later review or sharing with colleagues.

Note: Waterloo only gets the text (read: eBook/reference work) content from Sage Research Methods. Waterloo subscription to SAGE Research Methods doesn't include SAGE videos.