Focusing Your Topic

How do you focus your research topic from the general concepts of "healthy food" and "mobility"? Prior to diving into some of the resources linked in the Research a Need Area and Consumer and Market Research sections of this guide, you may need to do a bit of background reading. This could include browsing the news, exploring a trade publication, or reading articles published in an academic business or engineering journal.

Use Mardigian Search to begin your research. Mardigian Search allows you to search through the entire library collection and many of the databases all at once.

See the video tutorial on using Mardigian Search below.

Search in a Specific Database

If you aren't able to find what you're looking for in Mardigian Search, you can try searching directly in individual databases.

These databases include articles from academic journals:

These databases include newspaper/magazine articles and trade publications:

Keyword Searching

Below are some suggested keywords to get started and help begin narrowing your topic.

These are just a starting point; try combining a keyword below with another term you're interested in. For example, if I am interested in researching something related to healthy eating and rural communities, I could try this search: "food insecurity" AND "rural communities"

Mobility	Healthy Eating/Living
Urban mobility	Food poverty
Urban transportation	Food relief
On-demand mobility	Food banks
Integrated transportation	Food insecurity
Traffic congestion	Food insecurity
Electric cars	Poverty
Connectivity	Food desert
Autonomous vehicles	Food choices
Air pollution	Food deprivation
Dynamic lane reversal	Food production
Road infrastructure	Water access
Rail transport	Fresh food
Intermodal transport	Food cost
Integrated transport	Clean drinking water
Smart cities	Organic food
Mobility and the aged

Health Care	Alternative/sustainable Energy
health care access	green energy
high quality health care	renewable energy
health care desert	green energy transition/clean energy transition
health care barriers	energy equity
health care costs	green economy
health care equity	clean energy