Well about journals i found some at google journals but i want to ask, is there a database that contains every scientific article of the world? I know it does sound silly but only my university's database i dont believe it will cut it. If i need to be able to assess whats happening on the research around my topic all over the globe i will need to have a variety of sources(thats why im considering even books a good source of material for ideas).

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Online gaming communities is something that would be interest me cause i ve been a gamer since i was a little kid but the thing is i am afraid that if i choose a subject like this one, then maybe i wont be able to find many books about this matter thus making harder my research. Of course in this case i guess i could find some psychology/sociology books and try to find out if the same principals apply over these communities...maybe this could be my research. How people exhibit their emotional reactions over the web and how do these reactions differ from the real world.

yeap i guess you are right i should start asking questions and help about these things. My supervisor is good and he can help me although he doesnt have much time so i have to do some things myself. Google scholar and university databases its a good start to see and search relevant material to my research.

Thank you for your answer. I already took your advice and started searching for books around the subject. Hopefully after a lot of reading i will have a clear picture about it. Thing is that many things around my topic fascinate me and maybe this is another reason why its hard to pick some subject.
You spoke about journal articles. Do you know any sites that have big databases of scientific articles and research?

Hello everyone,
im a new PhD student and i have just started my first semester. My PhD is in Informatics and the topic is Information society. During my first semester i need to narrow down some topics for my dissertation and since the topic has a broad range of things i could write, im not sure what should i choose. So i decided to ask for help and ideas.
My topic contains, everything from web marketing, social networking, online gaming communities etc. Personally i find any of these 3 topics interesting enough although i have no idea what possibilities for a research there are for each one of them. Any ideas what i should do and how do i proceed?
Also i need someone to clarify for me if the research that i will choose should be a practical research or literature research. Personally i prefer dealing with books that people :-). Does a research need to be groundbreaking or could it be accumulation of various sources in order to read a conclusion?
Thanks in advance for the help. Im already searching what books are out there concerning my topic in order to find what is written and what i not but if a know what should i be looking for it would be better.