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POL 101W: INTRODUCTION TO POLITICS AND GOVERNMENT LIBRARY RESEARCH AND RESOURCES For Brian ThomasSpring 2014

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

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

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

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

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

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Popular Journals 7 Goals are to entertain the general public and to sell! Photographs and ads Attention-grabbing headlines Relatively short articles and opinion pieces No bibliographies Authors may be anonymous Examples: magazines, newspaper articles, etc.

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Scholarly Journals 8 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.

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Find Journal Articles Recommended databases: PAIS International, Political Science Complete, Columbia International Affairs Online, International Political Science Abstracts (e-journal)PAIS International Political Science CompleteColumbia International Affairs OnlineInternational Political Science Abstracts 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

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Political Science Complete

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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 o Use to broaden your search and retrieve more search results Women AND Globalization o Use to narrow your search and retrieve fewer search results

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

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Evaluating sources 13 1. Authority: Who is the author? What are the authors credentials? 2. Content: Is the information factual? Is it suitable for your topic? 3. Scope: Who is the intended audience? 4. Currency: How recently was the resource published or last updated? 5. Objectivity: Is the information consistent with other scholarly sources? Is there evidence of bias? Are the authors sources clearly cited? Can they be verified?

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Cite your sources 14 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: o to identify other people's ideas and arguments used within your essay o to inform the reader of your paper where to look to find the same sources

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Manage Your Sources RefWorks 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

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Help! Ask anyone at the Ask Us Desk in all three campus library branches Use our Ask a Librarian services http://www.lib.sfu.ca/he lp/ask-us/Ask a Librarian 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?