* Scan current issues of journals.  The articles will be topical; you'll find at least one "authoritative" source; articles will be pointers to other sources.

* What's in the news?   Also topical, but may not be "searchable" because some of this will be proprietary ("secret") or not yet even in production.

* Keyword search in a simple database.  Topical, searchable, but requires reading and weeding.

* Browse the Web.  Topical, but highly suspect. Use the news and the journals/magazines to verify facts.

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If you already have a topic, either one assigned to you or one you chose, you will find still these techniques useful.

Instead of browsing likely magazines at the outset, perform a quick search in one of the "article databases" and note which publications often have articles similar to what you are researching. Add those publications to your alert services (email, RSS, etc.).

This list of magazines (short articles meant for the practitioner) includes core and related fields.