Textile Engineering

Background Information sources do not assume you already have deep knowledge of your topic, and they do not use technical jargon. These sources are informative, unintimidating, and sometimes inspirational to move your research in a particular direction.

• Wikipedia, for example, can be a great place to start when you know nothing about a topic. Wikipedia demonstrates important steps of research and writing - like citation (with endnotes and references) and the revision process (under the Talk and View History tabs) - to lend credibility to its articles.
• A Google search for background information can be helpful if you are skilled at identifying credible sources among the linked websites.
• Using a chatbot like ChatGPT is not a great way to get accurate information since its large language model (LLM) works by mathematically predicting the next characters and words (like autocomplete). ChatGPT is like a drunk friend at a party who offers occasional wisdom mixed with crazy talk, and you have no idea of where their information came from.
• Some AI chatbots like Copilot are connected to the Web and link to their sources. If you use one of those chatbots for background information, follow its links to make sure the sources are credible and the chatbot didn't provide you with incorrect summaries. Copilot is licensed by Jefferson, and accessible with your campus key login.

These library-owned background information sources have already been edited and fact-checked as part of their publication process:

• Handbook of Nonwovens
• Handbook of Fibrous Materials

Think through related topics and subtopics to your main subject. These concepts will be the keywords you use when you start finding sources. You can also use generative AI like ChatGPT to generate ideas related to your research question. For example, if you give Copilot a prompt like "make me a concept map for a college-level research paper on the topic of [your topic]," the AI will outline ideas in text form, and link to some online concept map images and tools. But you will use your human brain to decide which ideas are good ones, and which ones spark your own curiosity.

How can you translate your concept map into search terms to find good sources? If you are researching the sustainability of chocolate manufacturing, a good library database keyword search would be chocolate and manufacturing and sustainability. 

(1) Talk with your professor for help getting the “just right” topic that is not too broad, not too narrow.

(2) As you research, the sources you find may spark a new curiosity that causes you to adjust your topic. This fine-tuning of your topic is common to the research experience!