Sociology: Research Assistance

A few quick tips for getting the most bang for your buck from library databases:

• Keep it short and sweet. Long phrases or entire sentences don't work as well in most databases as they do in Google.  For the best results, limit your search terms to just a few words.
• Break out the thesaurus! If you find yourself getting few or no useful responses, brainstorm some synonyms. For example, is there another word(s) you could use that means the same thing?
• Be specific. Although you don't want your search term to be too wordy, be sure to include specific language if you find your results are too broad.  For example, you may want to include a person's full name, the name of a country, or a date in order to properly narrow your search.
• Use the search limiters provided. Most databases allow you to narrow your search in many ways (by publication date, publication type, author, subject, country/state/region, etc.). These tools are great for those times when your search gives you thousands of results, and you need to narrow things down.
• Try Boolean Operators or quotation marks. Use Boolean Operators (AND, OR and NOT) to link search terms (ex. obesity AND children, oil NOT petroleum), or try putting search terms in quotation marks (ex. "Alice in Wonderland") to limit results and search only an exact phrase.

In today's modern world of rapid technological advancement, we are constantly bombarded with more information than we can consume. Yet, not all information is good information. So, how does one decipher what exactly is good information?

First and foremost, it is important to know if the source is primary or secondary.

Primary sources are direct, firsthand accounts about a topic of interest, be it a person, work of art, event, or even an object. Primary sources generally are created at the same time as the topic of interest. An example of a primary source in the social sciences is typically empirical research (an experiment is conducted and a direct observation is made) but also can be an authoritative historical work that has greatly influenced the field such as The Interpretation of Dreams by Sigmund Freud. 

Secondary sources refer to primary sources either by describing, discussing, examining, investigating, reviewing, analyzing, evaluating, or critiquing them. An example of a secondary source in the social sciences is a monograph written by a professor about how Freud's The Interpretation of Dreams influenced the field of neurology or the surrealist artistic movement.

Once you have determined the source type, there are a few considerations to make when evaluating if it is a good source of information: 

I. Authority. What are writer's qualifications for writing on the topic? What references does the author use to support his or her material? In what resource is the material published (blog, newspaper, peer-reviewed journal, commercial website)?

II. Accuracy. Is the information in the source verifiable beyond one source (the information can also be found elsewhere)? Is the authority of that additional source legitimate? 

III. Objectivity. Is the material free of bias, advertising, and/or a hidden agenda? Is the material fact, opinion, or propaganda? How emotional is the language? How credible is the data? 

IV. Currency. How recently was this material published? Is the material up-to-date or outdated? 

V. Coverage. Is the topic covered comprehensively? Is there important information about the topic missing or does the work seem complete?

For the purposes of your assignments, always review and use sources that are credible, reliable, trustworthy, and scholarly. 

Being able to read scholarly articles is an essential skill to master within academia. Scholars not only share and debate ideas through these types of communications but also advance their respective fields through publishing their research. Initially, scholarly articles can be difficult to comprehend even for the most enthusiastic reader as the writing style is highly formalized. This formality means that they follow a different structure than popular reading materials and that that structure is formed to communicate the same types of information in a standardized fashion.

The key components of scholarly articles are: 

I. Abstract: A brief summary of the article’s contents.

II. Introduction: Introduces the article’s topic (including the author’s research questions, hypotheses, or claims) and details how the research contributes to existing knowledge or fills in gaps in knowledge.

Answers the question: What is this research about?

III. Literature Review: A precise overview of existing literature that relates to the topic and that places the new research into context. Can be included in the introduction or present as a separate section.

Answers the question: Why was this research conducted?

IV. Methods: A descriptive outline of the procedures taken to conduct the research and a summary of the information collected as a result of those procedures.

Answers the question: How was this research done?

V. Results: A report on the data and the kind of analysis that was used to decipher the data.

Answers the question: What was the outcome of this research?

VI. Discussion: An interpretation of the significance of the results as they relate to the selected research topic including how they answer the author’s research questions and/or if they support the author’s hypotheses or claims. The researcher typically will emphasize the implications of the results for their discipline.

Answers the question: Why are these outcomes important?

VII. Conclusion: The final section that explains how the research fits into the larger context of the discipline, the importance of the research, and offers ideas for additional research on their topic.

Answers the question: Why should others in this field care about this research? 

VIII. References: A list of all literature considered by the author that influenced their research. Provides a level of authority and credibility to the author’s claims.