The difference between searching and researching can affect the quality of your resources. Simply searching (Depression in Women) in Google cannot provide you with adequate information. The using research tools and refining your search can turn a million results into a set of useful and manageable information. Making sure that you use proper search techniques takes the hassle out of finding credible and pertinent information.
For scholarly searches you can use Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) and University Libraries (http://library.osu.edu/). Although I recommend using University Libraries, other resources can be useful. When using search engines there are certain criteria that your resources must meet. Creating a checklist of requirements can help you make sure your resources will be useful to you.
Reliability: The reliability of the information is determined by the credibility of the author and the reputation of the publishers. Information being peer reviewed and provided contact information. The credibility of a source can be determined by position, degree, and previous publications.
Quality: the quality of information is extremely important when researching online. Broad generalizations, outdated statistics, consistency of facts, proper citations, proper grammar, and bias are all important factors to look for when checking the quality of the information.
Usefulness: Make sure that the information found related to your goals and are written for a audience similar to you. Too much or too few details will not be useful to you.