RESOURCESSEARCH STRATEGIES

MANAGING YOUR SOURCES& APA CITATION STYLE

31 JAN, 2 & 3 FEB 2011 DAVE CURREY, INSTRUCTOR; LIZ DOBSON, LIBRARIAN

Research Skills

GS 140

Your research proposal (Assignment 7 – due week 14)

What is your proposed research problem?What has been written by others on this topic?

How will data be collected in your proposed study?

Introduction: your “statement of the research problem” or “thesis” that is clear, specific, practical.

Literature Review: discussion of publications on the topic –)

Statement of methods/design that will be used to collect your data (quantitative &/or qualitative…)

Research Skills for…

Statement of your research problem (“choose a research topic” - Assignment 2)

Write a literature review/ bibliography with annotations (Assignment 3)

Annotated bibliography example of a citation + note

McIvor, S.D. (1995). Aboriginal women’s rights as “existing rights”.

Canadian Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 2/3, 34-38.

This article discusses recent constitutional legislation as it affects

the human rights of aboriginal women in Canada: the Constitution

Act (1982), its amendment in 1983, and amendments to the Indian

Act (1985). It also discusses the implications for aboriginal women

of the Supreme Court of Canada’s interpretation of the Constitution

Act in R. v. Sparrow (1991)

Annotated bibliography example of a citation + note

McIvor, S.D. (1995). Aboriginal women’s rights as “existing rights”. Canadian

Woman Studies/Les Cahiers de la Femme 2/3, 34-38.

This article discusses recent constitutional legislation as it affects the

human rights of aboriginal women in Canada: the Constitution Act (1982),

its amendment in 1983, and amendments to the Indian Act (1985).This

legislation reverses prior laws that denied Indian status to aboriginal

women who married non-aboriginal men. On the basis of the Supreme

Court of Canada’s interpretation of the Constitution Act in R. v. Sparrow

(1991), McIvor argues that the Act recognizes fundamental human rights

& existing aboriginal rights, granting to aboriginal women full participation

in the aboriginal right to self-government.

Your research question…

…

Which of these two research questions is probably better? Make sure your research question is practical. That is: can you find publications on your topic?

Literature review……

library.centennialcollege.ca

Distance Access

Start your research

► Get background information – Internet, encyclopedias, books…

► Get research reports & tune into the issues and debates - electronic databases (‘e-resources’) for journal & newspaper articles, Internet (selected sites)…

Need to revise your topic?

Once you have done some searching, you may find that you will need to revise your

topic

Possible Reasons: You can’t find publications on your topic Your topic is discussed, but not in the way you

expected Your topic is too general – you discover that it has too

many aspects (‘sub-topics’) to handle in one essay You see a lot of material on a related aspect that you

find more interesting and/or more practical

Google Scholar – for academic journal articles on the Internet

Google Books – for e-books on the Internet

Personal contacts…

Research help……

Purdue University Library – Online Writing Lab (OWL) website on APA style…

PLAGIARISMAbout

Your essay normally includes 3 types of material…

1. Your ideas

2. Your summaries of others’ ideas and facts

3. Quotations from your sources

(MLA Handbook, 2009)

From: Centennial College Academic Honesty and Plagiarism Policy

E-resources in the library (journal & newspaper articles, & specialized databases) …

…

About databases & journal articles…

Databases:Licensed electronic

resources - many let you search tens of thousands of articles at one time

Journals: Published in issues

regularly (weekly, monthly, etc.)

Each issue contains several articles (essays) by different authors

About databases & the Internet – what’s the

difference…? Internet Quality varies widely Inherent commercial bias Huge Limited user search tools

Databases (E-resources)

More academic info, more consistent reliable quality

Commercial free Big Precision tools for searching

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Is there already a literature review published on your topic?

You might be lucky?

Develop your own literature review

Searching for articles on your topic

Sample record in a database – Note: FIELDS

Manage your results…

print, email, save, etc…

Sample APA style citation from

Business Source Complete database (EBSCO Vendor)

Sample search for full text scholarly articles in a database…

ORBoolean operator that collects

ANDBoolean operator that

combines…

LIMIT tools – e.g. fields

LIMIT tools – e.g. Scholarly (peer reviewed journals)

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More LIMIT tools available to you…

EXPANDER tools – e.g. thesaurus

EXPANDER tools – e.g. multiple database searching

EXPANDER tools – e.g. truncation *

Saving your searches…

Managing your results…

Go to Folder…

Books (print & electronic) & videos in the Library…

…

Websites……

Is Media Awareness Network a reliable

website?

Media literacy……

Wolfgram Memorial Library, Widener University (Chester, Pennsylvania) – a 10-minute av program, Evaluate Web Pages

http://www3.widener.edu/Academics/Libraries/Wolfgram_Memorial_Library/Evaluate_Web_Pages/659/

Ithaca College Library (Ithaca, New York)Website evaluation exerciseshttp://www.ithaca.edu/library/training/think7.html