Transcript Electronic Research - Peru State College

Searching and Researching
on the Internet and in the
Library
James Nevitt, PhD
Carrie Gottschalk
Greg Galardi
Presented by the School of Professional Studies and
Student Support Services
Searching and researching
"I think a lot of students who are
trying to do research are not aware
that a lot of what they're looking at
may not be factual information."
Stephanie Hunker, Interim Coordinator of Electronic
Resources at Bowling Green State University's Jerome Library.
Locating credible sources
 It is important to critically evaluate
your readings to establish their
relevance and credibility for your
research topic.
 The quality of your work depends on
the quality of information you use!
 The PSC Library and online databases
have many credible sources
Authority
 Who conducted the research?
 Is the author an authority in his or
her field of study?
 What evidence is there to support
this?
Validity
 What is the scope of this resource?
 Where has this research come from?
 Are the sources for factual
information in the material clearly
identified? Can you verify them?
 Is it peer reviewed or been passed by
an editorial panel?
 Is the material free of error (typos,
spelling, grammar, etc.)?
Validity on the web
Are there details of an author?
Is there a publication date?
Who is the sponsor of the site?
Is there an organization affiliated with the
site or its author?
 Can you find out more about their purposes
and intent?
 [Hints: examine the URL - is it .org? .com?
.edu?; go up a few levels to learn more
about the host organization.]
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Accuracy
 What is the literature about?
 Is the literature accurate and how do
you know?
 What makes the literature believable?
Is the literature from credible
sources? (see validity)
Objectivity
 Is there evidence of bias in the
article?
 Do the statistics match those in other
publications? If not, is the argument
on which they are based convincing?
 How do you know the data is true?
What other supporting data is there?
Objectivity
 Who is the intended audience?
 To what extent is the material meant
to persuade? Is this clearly stated?
 Would any surrounding advertising
influence the material's contents or
results? Is the advertising clearly
separate from the resource contents?
Currency
 What is the publication date of the
material?
 Is it likely that more current
information is available?
 Have you found any more recent
research that casts doubt upon or
refutes some findings?
 Have you checked for more recent
information / research?
What is a Literature Review?
 A comprehensive survey of publications in a
specific field of study or related to a
particular line of research, usually in the
form of a list of references or an in-depth
review of key works.
 The first section of most research articles is
usually devoted to a review of the
previously published literature on the topic
addressed in the article.
How do I do a literature review?
1. Reading with and for a purpose
2. Evaluating your readings
3. Summarizing, analyzing, and
organizing your readings
4. Analyzing and organizing your
summaries and notes (create a
mindmap)
Mindmap on Motivation
Developed by the Learning Skills Unit, RMIT © 2004, Version 2
Avoiding Plagiarism
 Plagiarism- copying someone else's
work and then passing it off as one's
own.
 This is illegal.
 Thus, the importance of learning how
to adequately reference your sources.
Why Use APA Format?
 Allows readers to cross-reference your
sources easily
 Provides consistent format within a discipline
 Gives you credibility as a writer
 Protects yourself from plagiarism
 Science is the last bastion of complete honesty.
James R. Nevitt, Ph.D.
Where Do I Find APA Format?
Publication Manual of the
American Psychological
Association, 5th ed.
www.apastyle.org
A good manual for writers may
have multiple types of
formatting available
Title Page
 Papers in APA style
require a title page.
 The running head
will be used as the
header for the whole
paper.
 Include the paper’s
title and the author’s
name and affiliation.
APA Style: Two Main Concerns
Reference
Page
Parenthetical
Citations
Reference Page
 A list of every source that you make reference
to in your essay.
 Provides the information necessary for a reader
to locate and retrieve any sources cited in your
essay.
 Each retrievable source cited in the essay must
appear on the reference page, and vice versa.
 This page is titled “References”
Reference Page
Most citations should contain the following
basic information:
 Author’s name
 Title of work
 Publication information
 Use hanging indent format
References: Some Examples
 Book
Shay, J. (1994). Achilles in Vietnam:
Combat trauma and the undoing of
character. New York: Touchstone.
 Article in a Magazine
Klein, J. (1998, October 5). Dizzy
days. The New Yorker, pp. 40-45.
References: Some Examples
 A newspaper article
Tommasini, A. (1998, October 27).
Master teachers whose artistry glows in
private. New York Times, p. B2.
 A source with no known author
Cigarette sales fall 30% as California tax
rises. (1999, September 14). New York
Times, p. A17.
When Should You Use Parenthetical Citations?
 When quoting any words that
are not your own
 Quoting means to repeat
another source word for word,
using quotation marks
Keys to Parenthetical Citations
Readability
 Keep references brief
 Give only information needed to identify the
source on your reference page
 Do not repeat unnecessary information
Handling Quotes in Your Text
 Author’s last name, publication year, and page number(s) of
quote must appear in the text
Caruth (1996) states that a traumatic response
frequently entails a “delayed, uncontrolled repetitive
appearance of hallucinations and other intrusive
phenomena” (p.11).
A traumatic response frequently entails a “delayed,
uncontrolled repetitive appearance of hallucinations
and other intrusive phenomena” (Caruth, 1996, p.11).
Handling Parenthetical Citations
Sometimes additional information is necessary .
 More than one author with the same last name
(H. James, 1878); (W. James, 1880)
 Two or more works in the same parentheses
(Caruth, 1996; Fussell, 1975; Showalter, 1997)
 Work with three or more authors – after first listing with all
authors
(Smith et al, 1998)
 Specific part of a source
(Jones, 1995, chap. 2)
Handling Parenthetical Citations
 A reference to a personal
communication:
Source: email message from C. Everett
Koop
Citation: (C. E. Koop, personal
communication, May 16, 1998)
 A general reference to a web site
Source:
Purdue University web site
Citation: (http://www.purdue.edu)
Handling Parenthetical Citations
Recently, the history of warfare has been significantly
revised by Higonnet et al (1987), Marcus (1989), and Raitt and
Tate (1997) to include women’s personal and cultural
responses to battle and its resultant traumatic effects.
Feminist researchers now concur that “It is no longer true to
claim that women's responses to the war have been ignored”
(Raitt & Tate, p. 2). Though these studies focus solely on
women's experiences, they err by collectively perpetuating the
masculine-centered impressions originating in Fussell (1975)
and Bergonzi (1996).
However, Tylee (1990) further criticizes Fussell, arguing
that his study “treated memory and culture as if they belonged
to a sphere beyond the existence of individuals or the control
of institutions” (p. 6).
Guidelines
 (1) Direct readers as closely as
possible to the information being
cited; whenever possible, reference
specific documents rather than home
or menu pages.
 (2) Provide web addresses (url) that
work.
Minimum
 At a minimum, a reference of an
Internet source should provide a
document title or description, a date
(either the date of publication or
update or the date of retrieval), and
an address (in Internet terms, a
uniform resource locator, or URL).
Whenever possible, identify the
authors of a document as well.
The URL- Uniform Resource Locator
 The URL is the most critical element: If
it doesn't work, readers won't be able to
find the cited material, and the
credibility of your paper or argument will
suffer. The most common reason URLs
fail is that they are transcribed or typed
incorrectly; the second most common
reason is that the document they point
to has been moved or deleted.
 http://www.apastyle.org
Components of a URL
 The components of a URL are as
follows:
 Protocol: http://
 Host name: www.apa.org/
 Path to document: monitor/oct00/
 File name or specific document:
workplace.html
Example 1-Periodical
 Online periodical:
 Author, A. A., Author, B. B., &
Author, C. C. (2000).
Title of article. Title of Periodical, xx,
xxxxxx.
Retrieved month day, year, from
source.
Example 2 - Document
 Online document:
 Author, A. A. (2000). Title of work.
Retrieved month day, year, from
source.
A Web Page
 Web page
Poland, D. (1998, October 26). The hot
button. Roughcut. Retrieved October
28, 1998 from
http://www.roughcut.com
Transcribing a URL
 If you are using a word-processing
program, the easiest way to
transcribe a URL correctly is to copy it
directly from the address window in
your browser and paste it into your
paper (make sure the automatic
hyphenation feature of your word
processor is turned off).
PSC Research Databases
 The primary databases we will use to find
peer reviewed research in the social
sciences field at PSC are
 EBSCO Full Text
 Open Access Journals
 For legal or court research, you can use
Lexis Nexus Academic
 For business, use the Business Source Elite
Research
 Use proper terminology to search for information on
the Internet or in Databases
 Learn how to use or, and, not when querying
databases, journals, the Internet
 Or- two terms
 And- two terms together
 Not- excludes records
 Here is a tutorial and simple explanation:
http://www.internettutorials.net/boolean.html
 Make sure you have Adobe Acrobat Reader on your
computer- it is free, and you will need it to open.pdf
documents
Go to the homepage & find your
local library
Start at the Peru
Library!
Go to the
databases!
Select All Subject
EBSCO is a great
place to start!
Click Here!
You are on the right page.
Scroll down to the bottom
of the page and make
sure the Academic
Search Premier Box is
checked a the bottom of
the page and click on the
link
This is the easy way.
Try using the EBSCO
host Advanced Search
feature instead of the
basic search. Make
sure you check the
boxes entitled full
text and scholarly
(peer reviewed
journal)
Now search for any
topic you wish under
the Advanced Search
Icon. We have used
psychology as the
search term here.
Note the full text and
scholarly journals
boxes are checked
Look at where the
arrow is pointed. You
can see the PDF Full
text icon, which
means if you click on
it, you can read the
article. You can also
save the article or
email it to yourself.
Go back to
advanced
search and Try
adding a
statistical
measure to a
term. It will
help you find
articles using
that type of
analysis. Now
there are only
5,360 pages
Let us search the phrase sociology
in EBSCO under the advanced
search feature.
We received over
23,000 sociology
records. We’ll probably
want to refine that
search with more
specific terms
Let us go back to
the main Library
page and look at
the Open Access
Journals. They
are free and in
the Public
Domain! Click on
Open Access
Journals
Click on search
articles. Now
search for
motivation.
Students are
motivated!
WOWZA! 200
documents
showed up!
That is great!
You may
need to
refine your
search
through
narrower
parameters.
Use Lexis Academic
for legal research of
court cases
Enter your case here. I
have entered Tennessee
v. Garner, a classic case
in deadly force . Then
click on search
Note the numerous cases on Tennessee v.
Garner. You can click on individual cases to
determine if the content is available you
need, or search within
the selected ones for specific information.
Searching and Researching
 Keys to success…..
 Understand the respective format required
to document our sources (APA, MLA,ASA)
 Become familiar with the online databases
available
 Use the library for paper copies of journals
the online sources might not have
 Contact your professor if you have
questions regarding assignments or content
 Use the ARC for assistance in learning.. We
are here to help you succeed…