Refine

Be prepared to be flexible with your research question or thesis.

If you find too much information, your topic/thesis may be too broad. You will need to narrow or focus it.

If you are finding very little information, your topic/thesis may be too specific, narrow, specialized or current. It may be difficult to find enough information to write your paper. In this case, you will need to broaden your topic or thesis.

Broaden

Broaden Your Topic
Generalize	Generalize your topic, or explore related topics or issues. If your topic is exploring the segregation of African Americans in the 1950's in baseball specifically in New York,, consider expanding that slightly to explore the segregation by race in the 1950's in baseball.
Currency	If your topic has just occurred, there won't be books or journal articles available just yet. Choose an alternative topic that is not so recent.
Database Choice	Use other databases in your subject area, or consider checking databases in a related subject area (which might cover the topic from a different perspective, for example, history, social science, or the humanities).
Synonyms	Use a thesaurus to find synonyms for your topic. When reading background information, note how your topic is expressed in these materials. When you find citations in an article database, note the terms being used by experts in the field.
Related	Explore related issues.
Expand Remove	Expand or remove: location, time period, aspect, event, population, person/group.

Narrow

Narrow Your Topic
Time	Latest five years
Location	Town, city, state, nation
Population	Age, race, gender, nationality, ethnic group, occupation, particular team
Event or Aspect	Focus on an event within your topic: Native Americans. Or consider a particular aspect: historical, sociological, psychological.
Person or Group	Related to your topic: Native Americans or African Americans, adolescents, middle-aged