LIB-1600

Module 1 Notes

Research - ongoing cycle of formulating questions and seeking answers to them

Academic Research - Process of finding and using authoritative resources to answer questions, promoting deeper understanding, generate new knowledge, share ideas and communicate within the academic community

• Academic research is more robust because it’s how members in the academic community communicate and share ideas

• Academic research uses/is: 

  • predominantly scholarly and primary sources

  • Considers multiple perspectives

  • Draws on peer-reviewed research

  • In-depth analysis towards solving an issue or contributing to new insights

  • Research process is well-documented and transparent

  • Open to critique and often involves further investigation

Research process

• Presearch

  • Background info can you find on the topic

  • Issues around the topic

• Develop research questions

  • Good research question for this topic

• Gather information

  • Keywords to use when researching

  • Research strategy

• Refine and improve question

  • Refine research question

  • Create thesis statement

• Inform others

  • Track information sources

  • Cite information

• Understanding assignment parameters

  • Assignment requirements

  • Kinds of information needed

Scholar - expert, professional, or specialist who is highly skilled and knowledgeable in a specific field and has credentials for their expertise and scholarly contributions OR a student engaged in academic studies to acquire expertise and knowledge within a field

Scholarly information is created by scholars for scholars in order to:

• Share knowledge

• Generate new ideas

• Address and solve questions and problems within their field

Popular information - written for general public rather than scholarly audiences

Peer review - evaluation of scholar’s manuscript of work by other scholars within the field to determine whether it is worthy of publication (once published they have quality, accuracy, trustworthiness, and contribution to the field)

• Peer review differentiates popular information from scholarly information

Primary sources - often first-hand accounts of an event (eyewitness)

• Useful for research seeking historical perspectives that are unaffected by changing public opinions over time

Secondary sources - analyze primary sources (recounting events/research)

• Secondary sources can analyze the original event in more detail/context, and they may provide alternate interpretations or commentary

Item records - how libraries and databases present information about their books, articles, magazines, and other materials

• Often contain info about what the item is and where it is located

Presearching - acquiring enough background information on a topic to determine if it’s something you want to pursue (pre-research)

• Helps you understand what the topic is about

• Foundation for developing a research question

Crowdsourced - content that is co-constructed through the contributions of a large group of people, usually from an online community or the general public (many whom may not be qualified)

• Ex. Wikipedia - because anyone can edit the content

Parts of a research article

• Abstract - summary of paper (includes findings, purpose, and methodology)

• Introduction - Overview of conversions on the topic, description of paper’s purpose

• Methodology - Explains procedures, how data was collected, reasoning behind specific methodologies 

• Results/Discussion - details findings, overall results, corresponding data in the form of tables, figures, graphs, and explanations

• Conclusion - Summarizes major conclusions and why it’s important/discuss gaps in topic and future investigations

• References - sources cited

READ OUT OF ORDER - to save time and get a better understanding of the article

Flow of information - how the information available about an event accumulated and evolves over time

• Goes from mostly primary sources to secondary

Research question - a question or statement that your research project intends to answer or solve

Thesis statement - a one-sentence answer to your research question

Information gathering involves:

• Developing a search strategy to find the info you need

• Knowing the kinds of information required for your assignment

Keywords - words and short phrases used in a search engine to find related information

Your research question may be too narrow if:

• You can’t find enough information

• Information is so specific it can’t lead to any conclusions

• Your sources cover so few ideas that you can’t expand them into a significant paper

• The research question is so case-specific that it limits opportunities for generalization (or ability to apply to other contexts)

WHO/WHAT/WHEN/HOW/WHY

What information to track for sources:

• Citation information

• Quotes

• Context: reason for citing it

Citation managers - software tools and platforms that can help you organize/store your citations

Module 2 Notes

Open web - a portion of the internet with free-to-access content with varying degrees of trustworthiness; built on the philosophy of free expression and digital inclusion

Open-access materials - materials that are freely available on the internet

• Open-access materials: textbooks, scholarly journals, books, articles

Paywall - a system that limits access to content so that users must:

• Pay a fee

• Log-in

• Be a member of a community

• Most scholarly resources are locked behind paywalls

  • Paywalls contribute to information disparity and global injustice by restricting access to a small population of people

• Web search engines have advanced search capabilities that can help refine search results to relevant items

Boolean operators - Words that connect between two or more keywords in a search (AND, OR, NOT)

Phrase searching - technique to indicate that specific keywords must remain in a certain order when doing a search

• Place quotation marks around works, to keep them together (“kinds of couches”)

• Advanced search in Google has a space for phrase searching

  • Make sure it’s not:

    • Too long

    • Misspelled words

    • Phrase isn’t commonly used in your topic

• Google Scholar is a good resource for sources

At ISU Library

• To locate a physical item, you need collection/location, and call number

• General collection - most library materials fall within this collection

• Reference collection - handbooks, encyclopedias, style manuals, and other reference books

• Reading room - has DVDs, CDs, newspapers, magazines, unbound journals

• Special collections - houses rare and unique research materials that support major research areas at ISU (fragile items) (limited access)

• Veterinary Medical Library - Located at the college of veterinary medicine

Call number - unique alphanumeric code for individual items in the library (like the physical address of item)

Filtering - process of narrowing search results using search characteristics (ex. Format, availability, date, topic)

• Start with general databases then use subject-specific databases

Generative AI - AI that can create original content; it is based on the data sets used to train the software system

• Avoid using words like result, method, effect, analysis and research as keywords

Controlled vocabulary - a standard list of words used to describe and categorize items within a database

• The subject from a controlled vocabulary are listed in the subject field in a database’s item record

• Controlled vocabularies keeps everything about the same topic connected even when authors use different terms

Thesaurus - (subject terms or subjects) is a tool within databases that contains and identifies all of the subject terms used by that databases

Truncation - use of a special symbol, usually an *, to search for multiple endings for a word’s base, or “trunk”, with a single term

Math

Maths

Mathematics

• Truncation is not a useful strategy for all keywords (it depends on the word)

Advanced Boolean operator techniques

• Step1: Put OR between synonyms and related terms

• Step2: Put AND between your key element groups

• Step3: Use your nested string in a database

• Use parentheses for a single search box (“home design” or “universal design)

• Using multiple boxes for multiple search terms

Field search(ing) (if you know ISSN)

• A search that targets specific information sources by placing keywords (search terms) into different categories

Complete citations contain:

• Author name(s) or organization

• Title of information source

• Year of publication

Books

• You can recognize if a citation is a book when it has a publisher and lacks page numbers

Book Chapter

• When the citation is similar to book citation as well as editor name(s), title of chapter, and page numbers

Journal article

• When you have the title of the journal and volume number and an issue number

Conference proceedings

• Look like journal article but have “proceedings”, “conference”, “annual meetings”, “transactions of”, “symposium”, or “annuals”

Newspapers

• Include exact date not just the year

Citation chaining - process of finding related references from an original source of information (aka. citation tracking)

• Uses the citations in the references section to find the information sources used by your original source

Original source - source of information that is highly relevant to your topic; one that you will use for your research assignment (aka. Seed articles)

• Uses search tools to find information sources that cite your original source in the references section

Getting access past a paywall

• Use the Get it@ISU button first

• Interlibrary Loan

• Will get you access to items the ISU Library does not own, or item that have been checked out

Module 4 Notes

SIFT - Stop, Investigate the source, Find better coverage, Trace information back to source

Confirmation bias - Accepting/disagreeing with sources that confirm what you already think/believe

Confirmation bias - accepting information from sources that confirm what you already believe

Backfire effect - tendency for people to strengthen their preexisting beliefs and worldviews when faced with evidence, facts, and ideas that challenge a core belief

• These two are forms of cognitive biases

Investigate the source

• Reputation/authority

• Purpose

• Bias

Advocacy: Articles or websites from political parties, activist groups, or religious groups that promote a specific agenda

Personal: blogs or personal web pages that reflect the opinions and interests of the author

Sensations: magazines and tabloids with intent to evoke curiosity or a strong reaction

Bias -

1. A tendency to lean in a certain direction

2. An unreasoned judgment

3. A prejudice toward or against something or someone

4. Opposing or supporting a particular person or thing based on personal opinions or beliefs

Echo chambers - environments in which the opinion, political leaning, or belief of users about a topic gets reinforced due to repeated interactions with peers or sources having similar tendencies/attitudes

Conflict of interest - When an entity or individual becomes unreliable because of a clash between personal interests and professional duties or responsibilities 

Algorithmic bias - repeatable and systematic outcomes or errors produced by a computer program that disadvantage certain groups or individuals (can arise from faulty data sets, program design, human biases, or a combination

Find better coverage

• Look to experts in the field

Perspective - how someone sees and thinks about an event or experience (often interpreted through one’s worldview and experiences)

Trace back strategies

• Click-through-and-find

• Check the date

• Partial citations

• Reverse image searching

Pay attention to:

• False correlations

• Claims made with unsubstantiated or no evidence

• Whether the publication date is appropriate for your assignment  

Module 5 Notes

Copyright infringement - when a copyrighted work is used without permission

• Can include copying, reusing, performing, or creating derivative works from the copyrighted material

Creative Commons licenses - provide a type of copyright license that lets the creator specify ways others can reuse their work

Plagiarism - using someone else’s words, ideas, or other creative works without giving proper or sufficient credit 

Fair use - a specific legal exceptions that let you use copyrighted material without having to ask for permission or pay any fees

Allows academics to reuse, repost, or revise content with the consideration of four factors:

• Transform a work instead of using it as-is

• Radically and significantly change a work from the original

• Provide a commentary, critique, or parody of the original

• Add new meaning to a work through its use

• Facilitate teaching or learning

Public domain - intellectual or creative works that are legally usable without permission because:

• There is no copyright

• The copyright has been waived or expired

• NOT COPYRIGHTED: published US government documents

• EXPIRED COPYRIGHT: books published 95 years ago or longer in the US 

Common knowledge - factual information that can be easily identified in multiple authoritative sources such as encyclopedias, dictionaries, reputable websites, and books

• Common knowledge is an exception to giving someone credit for something

Paraphrasing - incorporating someone else’s ideas into your work and restating them in your own words

Giving credit:

• Paraphrasing

• Quotes

Style manuals - guides to a specific style of standards for formatting, writing, and citing within a document, usually a scholarly document

Professional network - network of people you know in and around your subject area and career field