Researching Literacy

Doug Bolden

Some links to keep in mind

http://uah.edu/library Library website

http://libguides.uah.edu/databases List of databases sorted by major and alphabetical order http://www.ed.gov Department of Education website
https://nces.ed.gov/ National Center of Education Statistics

Peer Reviewed Articles

Also called Scholarly or Academic articles. In brief, articles written by people in the field for people in the field, edited and reviewed by people in the field. Advantage: Focused research, cutting edge, written in dedicated language, formal structure, involves specific issues in the field. Disadvantage: Language can be hard to read for outsiders, searching takes practice, bias can trickier to spot.

Stages of Research
1. Gathering the Concepts 2. Initial Searches 3. Narrowing Results 4. Finishing the Research

Gathering the Concepts

Ultimate Goal: To have a grasp of the field.
Steps (any order, and go back and forth):

Consult reference sources to familiarize self with the field. Try broad web searches to see what organizations/sites exist.

View authoritative websites (such as ed.gov) to find statistics and current research trends.
Opposing Viewpoints (database) has a section on Education controversy, etc.

Opposing Viewpoints, what is it?

Gales collection of articles (peer-reviewed, news, and trade) and reports and statistics and discussions from both sides of debate on controversial topics. Browse Issues to find Literacy in list.

Finding Databases
Opposing Viewpoints ERIC JSTOR

(from uah.edu/library)

OneSearch

Opposing Viewpoints

Opposing Viewpoints

Initial Searches
Ultimate Goal: To get the initial stages of actual research completed Steps (will take a couple of attempts)

Try a few searches using a couple of different ways of phrasing topic

Pay attention to patterns (same authors showing up, same areas of focus)
Adjust accordingly

Pay attention to subject terms and abstracts

OneSearch, What Is It?

Ebscohosts multi-resource searching tool. Searches nearly everything that we offer at the UAH library, from physical books to articles to conference papers.

OneSearch, The Main Tips

1. Try out Advanced Search 2. Under Limit Your Results a. Check Full text b. Check Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Articles c. Set Date to previous 10 years 3. Click on articles that fit your interest and view their subjects/authors. Click on those things to bring up related articles.

OneSearch, Limiting Results

OneSearch, Related Articles

Click for other articles by same authors

Click for other articles from same journal

Click for articles with same subjects/etc

And so forth

Ebscohost Folder/Account
Allows you to save research between sessions. Click sign in at the upper bar, and then make new account if you need. Make sure you are signed in before you save stuff to folder, by clicking the folder icon.

Ebscohost Folder/Account

Narrowing Results
Ultimate Goal: To have a core group of articles/sources
Steps:

Return to your most successful searches using additional information youve learned from less successful ones See what articles other articles are citing Look for blanks in your research, adjust accordingly

Questions to ask about Sources

1. Is it consistent? 2. Is it rigorous (does it actually test what it says its testing)? 3. Does it have an obvious bias? 4. Does it cite well? 5. Is it cited well (do any of your other sources mention it)? 6. Does it fit into the bigger picture or is it an outlier?

An Interjection about PermaLinks

Make sure you are saving permanent links for the articles. Do not just copy and paste the URL from the address bar. Look for the permanent/persistent link feature. OR, cite well and use citation to find the article again. see http://libguides.uah.edu/persistent

Wrong Way vs Right Way

Wrong: Copying straight from Address Bar
Right: Use permalink feature

An Interjection about Citation

A full-discussion about citation is beyond the scope of these notes, but things to keep in mind:

1. If you use it, cite it.

2. Good citations include at least the author, the title, the date, and the source. They may also include page numbers from the source, date you accessed it, and how you accessed it. 3. Purdues Online Writing Lab (OWL) has good information, for instance, their page on MLA:
https://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/747/ 01/

An Interjection about Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not just the taking of someones work without credit, though it is also that. Plagiarism is any time you copy someones work, including just paraphrasing or lifting their concepts, and use it as your own. It also includes citing someone for a concept/idea that they did not have (false attribution).

The Four Big Things to Keep In Mind

GIVE YOURSELF TIME (dont learn the database and the topic both in the last minute) BE PLAYFUL WITH THE SEARCHES (try some unusual phrasing, click through a few citations, read a few abstracts of out-there articles, go back and forth) GO PAST THE FIRST PAGE (do not trust the database/search engine to give you exactly what you need, dig a little deeper to see the first few pages [at least]) TRUST NO ONE (well, sort of...but at least hold the articles to standards)

Other Databases to Use

ERIC: Focused on Education JSTOR: General/Multi-, less overwhelming than OneSearch find @ http://libguides.uah.edu/databases

Logging in from Off Campus

Your ChargerID is the same thing you use to log into Angel and [now] register.uah.edu (aka, Banner) and the campus wi-fi and, as some people call it, the first part of your email address. The password is the same as Angel/wi-fi/Banner.

Search Term Tips, 1: AND/OR/NOT

When searching, use AND, OR, and NOT [note: UPPERCASE] to combine search terms together. AND: both words/phrases must be in the document before it will return as a result [use to search for linked terms]. OR: either word/phrase must be in the document, or both [use to search for equivalent terms].

NOT: finds documents in which the first term, but not the second one, shows up [use to to help weed out ambiguous terms].

AND/OR/NOT - examples

AND [necessary relations] o learning AND styles o poverty AND stress OR [equivalent terms where one or both might show up in article] o teaching OR educating o discipline OR punishment

NOT [helps to weed out ambiguous terms] o stress NOT fracture o grade NOT slope o literacy NOT computer

Search Term Tips, 2: Quotations

Use double quotes or single quotes to bracket off words when you want the whole phrase to be searched as written. Without these quotes, the default behavior is to find documents where the words are near one another.

Research/Reference Help
Chat Email Phone Text/SMS http://libanswers.uah.edu erefq@uah.edu, or doug.bolden@uah.edu (256) 824 - 6529 (256) 286 - 2368

for others, see libanswers.uah.edu