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Pol 101w: introduction to politics and government – Library research and resources

Pol 101w: introduction to politics and government – Library research and resources. For Brian Thomas Spring 2014. Agenda. Develop a research strategy Find appropriate resources Use advanced search techniques Evaluate sources Help!!. Develop a Research Strategy.

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Pol 101w: introduction to politics and government – Library research and resources

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  1. Pol 101w: introduction to politics and government – Library research and resources For Brian Thomas Spring 2014

  2. Agenda • Develop a research strategy • Find appropriate resources • Use advanced search techniques • Evaluate sources • Help!!

  3. Develop a Research Strategy • Write down your topic • Break your topic into its components • Brainstorm synonyms for the words you’re using • These will become your keywords that you use to search databases

  4. Sample Topic • How does globalization affect the rights of women in developing countries?

  5. Exploring Library Resources • Library Search? Fast Search? Catalogue? • Which one should you use? • Explore the Political Science Library Research Guide

  6. Popular v. scholarly Journals • How do you know whether a resource is scholarly (academic) or popular?

  7. Popular Journals • Goals are to entertain the general public … and to sell! • Photographs and ads • Attention-grabbing headlines • Relatively short articles and opinion pieces • Nobibliographies • Authors may be anonymous • Examples: magazines, newspaper articles, etc.

  8. Scholarly Journals • Goals are to share ideas and research findings with other experts in the field • Peer-reviewed • Author credentials listed • Usually lengthy, in-depth • Abstracts, footnotes and/or bibliographies • Examples: journal articles, theses/dissertations, etc.

  9. Find Journal Articles • Recommended databases: PAIS International, Political Science Complete, Columbia International Affairs Online, International Political Science Abstracts (e-journal) • Limit your search to peer-reviewed or academic journals • Do not limit to full-text – It will omit relevant articles that are available in full-text from other SFU databases

  10. Political Science Complete

  11. Advanced Searching • Use quotation marks to search a phrase • “emerging economies” • Use truncation • global* = global, globalization, globalisation, globalizing • Use Boolean operators: OR, AND • Women OR Gender OR Feminism • Use to broaden your search and retrieve more search results • Women AND Globalization • Use to narrow your search and retrieve fewer search results

  12. Sources from the Open Web • Advantages? Disadvantages? • Web publishing • Commercial websites • Advocacy websites • News and opinion pieces • Personal websites and blogs • Scholarly research articles

  13. Evaluating sources • Authority: Who is the author? What are the author’s credentials? • Content: Is the information factual? Is it suitable for your topic? • Scope: Who is the intended audience? • Currency: How recently was the resource published or last updated? • Objectivity: Is the information consistent with other scholarly sources? Is there evidence of bias? Are the author’s sources clearly cited? Can they be verified?

  14. Cite your sources • Choose a citation style (e.g. APA) • Cite your sources in two places: in the body of your paper (in-text citations) and at the end of your paper (References) • Cite when you directly quote from a source and when you paraphrase • The purpose of citing your sources is: • to identify other people's ideas and arguments used within your essay • to inform the reader of your paper where to look to find the same sources

  15. Manage Your Sources • RefWorks • A web-based bibliography and citation database manager • Available to all current SFU faculty, staff, students and alumni • Stores citation data & formats output • Facilitates cooperative bibliography building

  16. Help! • Ask anyone at the Ask Us Desk in all three campus library branches • Use our Ask a Librarianservices http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/ask-us/ • Contact me: Jenna Walsh jmwalsh@sfu.ca • Class? Due Date? • Where have you already searched? • How have you already searched? • Have you found anything close to what you need?

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