Honestly, my research skills--at least for my fiction--are rudimentary at best. When I want to add verisimilitude to my story I go full cheese and look up the article of interest on Wikipedia. Generally whatever information I find there I'll work in as description or exposition and it's enough to satisfy me. (If, however, I need to be more specific, I go old school: I take a trek to the local library and check out books on the topic).
For research papers, it's kind of a different story. As an example, in an undergrad history course (History of Witchcraft and Magic), I was assigned a paper on a fallen angel and all-around charming lad: Satan. Besides opening the Wikipedia article (and using that article's citations as a jump-off point), I went to Google Scholar and typed in the keyword (to wit: Satan) and up cropped about seventeen thousand articles, books, and essays on the guy.
As for the essay for this class: I plan on using Google Scholar, of course, and Wikipedia to get an idea of my topic, but I really want to try Addison and see what that's all about. (Also, Michelle brought up Project Gutenberg, which I had completely forgotten). And about the topic itself? Who knows. Sometime between then and now there'll be something I read or something I learn in class that intrigues me, something I don't know much about, and that'll be my catalyst.
I also use Google scholar.
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