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The Research Process Guide 2011-2012 Introduction .............................

The Research Process Guide 2011-2012 Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 3 Use of This Guide ...................................................................................................................... 3 Defining Information .................................................................................................................. 3 How Information is Produced .................................................................................................... 5 Information Production Timeline ................................................................................................ 5 Step One—Exploratory or Preliminary Research ....................................................................... 6 Definitions of Terms ................................................................................................................... 6 Choose a Topic .......................................................................................................................... 7 Define (Refine) a Topic ............................................................................................................. 9 Develop a Topic ....................................................................................................................... 10 Primary Sources ......................................................................................................... 11 Secondary Sources .................................................................................................... 11 Step Two—Preparing for Focused Research: Understanding a Citation and Searching Electronic Databases ................................................................................................ 12 Understanding a Citation ...................................................................................................... 13 Understanding a Citation: Book .................................................................................. 13 Understanding a Citation: Chapters or Essays from a Book ...................................... 14 Understanding a Citation: Journal Articles ................................................................. 14 Understanding a Citation: Newspaper Articles ........................................................... 16 Understanding a Citation: Government Documents ................................................... 17 Searching Electronic Databases .......................................................................................... 18 What Is a Database? .................................................................................................. 18 Records and Fields ..................................................................................................... 19 Vocabulary .................................................................................................................. 20 Vocabulary: Keywords ......................................................................................... 21 Vocabulary: Subject Searching ............................................................................ 22 Vocabulary: Analyzing the Topic .......................................................................... 22 Search Statements ..................................................................................................... 23 Logical Operators (Boolean)—OR ....................................................................... 24 Logical Operators (Boolean)—AND ..................................................................... 25 Logical Operators (Boolean)—NOT ..................................................................... 26 Parentheses (Nesting) ................................................................................................ 26 Search Limits .............................................................................................................. 27 Truncation/Wildcards .................................................................................................. 28 Step Three—Focused Research: Finding Books and Other Cataloged 2 Materials, Journal and Newspaper Articles, Web Sites, and Government Information ...................................................................................................... 28 Books and Other Cataloged Materials: the Library’s Catalog ............................................ 28 Call Numbers .............................................................................................................. 28 Location Within the Library ......................................................................................... 30 Journal and Newspaper Articles .......................................................................................... 32 Appropriate Discipline-Specific Databases ................................................................ 32 Does Stetson Own the Journal or Newspaper? ......................................................... 33 Web Sites ................................................................................................................................ 33 Search Engines: Subject Directories .......................................................................... 34 Search Engines: Web Databases .............................................................................. 34 Government Information ....................................................................................................... 35 Step Four—Evaluating Sources ................................................................................................. 35 ● Books .................................................................................................................................. 36 ● Journal and Magazine Periodicals ...................................................................................... 37 Popular Periodicals ..................................................................................................... 38 Practical/Professional Periodicals .............................................................................. 38 Scholarly Periodicals .................................................................................................. 38 Peer Reviewed or Refereed Journals ........................................................................ 39 ● Web sites ............................................................................................................................. 40 Step Five—Citing Sources .......................................................................................................... 42 ● Plagiarism ............................................................................................................................ 42 ● Style Manuals ...................................................................................................................... 43 ● Copyright .............................................................................................................................. 44 ● Fair Use ............................................................................................................................... 45 Step Six—Where to Get Help ...................................................................................................... 47 All links last checked 28 July 2011. 3 Introduction Use of This Guide This Research Process Guide is meant to supplement and expand upon the discussion of research steps that is included in almost every college-level writing handbook and in additional research process books that might be assigned in a college-level composition or research class. The Library hopes that by going into a bit more detail about choosing, using, and evaluating sources and by using specific resources available in the duPont-Ball Library as examples, Stetson students will feel even more confident and prepared to begin any academic research project. As all books will tell you, the steps outlined here are merely guides. No research project progresses in a completely linear manner, moving from Step A neatly to Step B, then Step C, etc. Like writing, research is a recursive process, that is, it doubles back on itself. Sometimes you get to Step C only to discover that you need to go back to Step A to get more information on something. Don’t be discouraged by this. It happens to everyone; it’s one of the interesting parts of doing research. If you get stuck at any point in the research process, in addition to conferring with your instructor, you can always contact a librarian for help. Come into the library’s Information Desk and ask to talk to a research librarian, call a research librarian at 386-747-9028, or email a question to the research librarians at http://stetson.edu/library/contact_askalibrarian.php Before taking the first steps to research a topic, though, it might be helpful to look at a very brief overview of information: how it is defined, how it is produced, and what is its timeline. Defining Information The New Oxford American Dictionary gives the following definition of information: 1. facts provided or learned about something or someone: a vital piece of information. • (Law) a formal criminal charge lodged with a court or magistrate by a prosecutor without the aid of a grand jury: the tenant may lay an information against his landlord. 2. what is conveyed or represented by a particular arrangement or sequence of things: genetically transmitted information. • (Computing) data as processed, stored, or transmitted by a computer. • (in information theory) a mathematical quantity expressing the probability of occurrence of a particular sequence of symbols, impulses, etc., as contrasted with that of alternative sequences. ["in·for·ma·tion n." New Oxford American Dictionary. Edited by Angus Stevenson and Christine A. Lindberg. Oxford University Press, 2010. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Stetson University. 28 July 2011 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t183.e1258019 ] 4 But the New Oxford American Dictionary also makes the following distinctions among such words as information, knowledge, and wisdom: Information may be no more than a collection of data or facts (information about vacation resorts) gathered through observation, reading, or hearsay, with no guarantee of their validity (false information that led to the arrest). [The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition. Ed. Erin McKean. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. ] Knowledge 1. facts, information, and skills acquired by a person through experience or education; the theoretical or practical understanding of a subject: a thirst for knowledge | her considerable knowledge of antiques. ■ what is known in a particular field or in total; facts and information: the transmission of knowledge. ■ (Philosophy) true, justified belief; certain understanding, as opposed to opinion. 2. awareness or familiarity gained by experience of a fact or situation: the program had been developed without his knowledge | he denied all knowledge of the overnight incidents. ["knowl·edge n." New Oxford American Dictionary. Edited by Angus Stevenson and Christine A. Lindberg. Oxford University Press, 2010. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Stetson University. 28 July 2011 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t183.e1261368 ] Knowledge applies to any body of facts gathered by study, observation, or experience, and to the ideas inferred from these facts (an in-depth knowledge of particle physics; firsthand knowledge about the company). [The New Oxford American Dictionary, second edition. Ed. Erin McKean. Oxford University Press, 2005. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. ] Wisdom the quality of having experience, knowledge, and good judgment; the quality of being wise. ■ the soundness of an action or decision with regard to the application of such experience, knowledge, and good judgment: some questioned the wisdom of building the dam so close to an active volcano. ■ the body of knowledge and principles that develops within a specified society or period: the traditional farming wisdom of India. ["wis·dom n." New Oxford American Dictionary. Edited by Angus Stevenson and Christine A. Lindberg. Oxford University Press, 2010. Oxford Reference Online. Oxford University Press. Stetson University. 28 July 2011 http://www.oxfordreference.com/views/ENTRY.html?subview=Main&entry=t183.e1306725 ] It is clear that what you will be concerned with in college is not merely amassing information, but forming information into knowledge and, hopefully, eventually wisdom. 5 How Information is Produced Information can be produced by just about anyone (remember information doesn’t have to be true, or good information to still be information) through established channels or “on the fly” (as when standing in a ticket line and word comes down the line that tickets are sold out). Information can be produced by individuals, non-professional groups, or groups whose profession it is to produce information. And it can be produced in many, many formats (TV programs, books, journal articles, newspaper articles, just to name a few). One of the most important parts of education is learning to question who produced certain information and for what reason(s). Information Production Timeline What’s the timeline for producing information? Today the time it takes to learn about something that has just happened is very short, sometimes instantaneously. We have TV and radio and cell phones and text messaging and phone cameras, all of which can be used to transfer information almost immediately. However, scholars (while appreciating the speed of modern information sources) want to put some distance in time between when something happened and when they write about it. This time distance allows a scholar to research other things that might have influenced the original event or influenced how the event played out over time or how people reacted to an event. Time allows the researcher to see what some of the results of an event have been and what effects those results have had on people or subsequent events. Time gives scholars the opportunity to analyze and synthesize and to see the event from a larger perspective. There is, therefore, an information cycle. Events are first reported on TV, radio, via cell phones, or on the internet. In the next days, the newspapers report the event in more detail than the original TV newscasts or internet posts. Popular weekly magazines (like Time or Newsweek) then publish lengthier stories, and investigative TV programs then air longer programs on an event or subject. In a year or two, scholarly journals will begin to publish articles of scholars’ analysis of the event. And finally, anywhere from several months to many years later, books uploads/Litterature/ the-research-process-guide-2011-2012.pdf