Image from https://www.cdc.gov/media/subtopic/images.htm
COVID-19 has impacted our way of life across the globe and examining that impact is important so that we can understand and make changes to our practices in different fields. You may be looking to research this impact for your assignments. This tutorial will help you identify and evaluate sources to complete your research. COVID-19 information is evaluated differently than other information because it is created so quickly and there are so many unknown factors as it develops. You may find that peer-reviewed articles are hard to come by in your search, this is because the peer review process can take months even years. We'll learn about this later.
This tutorial will help prepare you for researching COVID-19 and it's impact but does not provide a comprehensive collection of resources.
When you have completed this tutorial you should be able to:
- Evaluate information effectively
- Identify different sources of information
- Understand the research process
- Develop a search strategy for researching COVID-19
What is COVID-19?
Before you begin researching, you'll want to understand what is COVID-19, or the coronavirus. The World Health Organization (WHO) has officially labeled the disease the coronavirus disease (COVID-19) and the actual virus that causes the disease, severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) (2019). There are actually many viruses that include the term "coronavirus", so if you are searching in health sciences resources, you will need to be specific.
Current COVID-19 Map
See an updated World view of current COVID-19 data from Our World in Data. Visit their website for more data and information. Visit the Health Canada website for the most recent information from the Canadian government. The tracking map from John Hopkins University is also a great resource and provides more specific location tracking, but your local government map may be the most useful depending on the level of granularity you are looking for.