WEEK 2 (LAB) Flashcards
Scholarly sources
Scholarly sources present original research (in an article or thesis) or compile research (in a textbook, dictionary or encyclopedia). They are written by researchers or scholars and are designed for an academic audience. Scholarly resources use specialized, scientific vocabulary. Scholarly resources contain references to back up information and they are considered to be reliable resources.
Popular sources
Popular sources present information with the intent of informing or entertaining. Popular sources do not contain original research but can summarize or report on original research. They are written by non-experts for a wide audience. Popular sources use accessibly language. Popular sources to not usually contain references and they are not considered to be a reliable academic source.
What are the basic characteristics of scholarly and popular sources?
What is peer review?
Scholarly articles are sometimes called peer reviewed articles as they go through the peer review process.
In peer review, journals uses experts (peers) to review potential articles. When an author submits an article to a journal, that journal sends the article to experts in the field for review. Reviewers assess the accuracy and validity of the research methodology.
Peer review sets a high standard of research quality and reliability, so peer reviewed articles are considered to be the highest quality source of information on your subject. This is why you should use peer reviewed, scholarly articles in your work.
The peer review process:
Steps to peer review
- Researcher writes a manuscript based on their original research
- Researcher submits the manuscript to a journal
- The journal editor sends the article to experts (peers) in the researcher’s field for review. Reviewers evaluate the quality and validity of the research.
- Article is accepted, accepted with revisions or rejected based on the reviewers suggestions
Primary Sources
Primary sources present original findings or research. Authors describe their research and their conclusions
– Journal articles describing original research
– Theses and dissertations
Secondary Sources
Secondary sources analyze, summarize or synthesize original research. They comment on information presented in primary sources
– Review articles (often have review in the title)
– Books (including textbooks)
Note: Biotech companies often have review articles on their websites. Though they are designed to sell products, they can contain useful information and figures. This type of review article is also considered to be grey literature (see end of page for more information).
Tertiary Sources
Tertiary sources index, abstract, organize, compile, or digest other sources
– Dictionaries and encyclopedias
– Handbooks and guidebooks
What Source Should You Use?
Primary Sources – Use primary sources to provide credible evidence for your arguments and to back up specific claims. As primary sources provide authoritative, first-hand research information, they are important to use in your work.
Secondary Sources – Use secondary sources to gain an overview of your topic. As secondary resources summarize or synthesize a number of primary resources, they are useful to understand the various aspects of your research topic.
Tertiary Sources – Tertiary sources are used to provide technical information or general background information. Refer to tertiary sources when need definitions or basic information about a topic.
Grey Literature
Grey literature is research that is either unpublished or not commercially published. Grey literature can be published by governments, NGO’s, industry and academic institutions.
Even though grey literature can present original research, it is not peer-reviewed. Though it is not peer-reviewed, grey literature can still have useful, reliable information.
Examples of grey literature include:
- Government publications
- Maps
- Conference Proceedings
- Theses and dissertations
- Research reports
- Newsletters and bulletins
Note: academic materials like theses, dissertations and conference proceedings are both primary literature and grey literature as they present original research, but do not go through the peer-review process.
Identifying Reliable Resources
Use the CRAAP test to evaluate the information you find. Ask yourself the following questions about the resources you find
Currency – Is it timely or up to date?
Relevance – Useful for your purposes?
Authority – Who wrote it? What is the source?
Accuracy – Are there references to back it up?
Purpose – Why was it written? Is there a bias?
Journal articles / Scholarly Article
Journal articles are scholarly sources that represent original research:
Journal articles can also be called scientific articles, peer reviewed articles, or scholarly research articles
Articles in a particular field are collectively referred to as the literature
Parts of a Journal Article
Title: a concise and descriptive title. This lets you know what the article is about.
Author Information: All authors who contributed to the article are listed. Often their affiliated institutions are included here or as a footnote.
Abstract: a short summary of the article. The abstract should share the research findings.
Introduction or Background: an overview of the research area that lays the foundation for the articles research.
Methods or Methodology: This describes how the research study was performed.
Results: a description of the results obtained. It presents the results without providing an interpretation. This often includes figures and tables.
Discussion: This section analyses and interprets the results presented in the Results section. New data is never presented.
Conclusion: This is a short section that summarizes the findings and significance of the article. The conclusion is omitted in some articles.
References: A list of all articles cited in the article. This section is sometimes labeled Bibliography, Works Cited or Literature Cited.
Supplementary Materials
Supplementary materials are information or data that a researcher makes available that was not included in the printed version of an article. This information is omitted for space and is not essential to the article, but is still relevant to readers. Supplementary materials can include data, expanded explanations, equations and more.
Supplementary materials can help you better understand an article. Supplementary data can be used to verify an article’s findings
How do you read a scholarly article?
First you should read the abstract and evaluate whether the article is relevant to you, then you take a closer look at the rest of the article.
- Abstract – is this article relevant to you?
- Introduction – what is the goal of this research?
- Results – what did they find?
- Discussion/conclusion – what are the author’s conclusions?
- Methods – how did the authors conduct their research?
- Stop reading the article if you do not understand it. If it does not make any sense to you, search for another article that will be easier to read and understand
- Skim the article the first time, then read more closely the second time and take notes
- Look at the article’s references to find other articles that might be useful to your work
Citing Information
- If the information comes from the author’s statements or observations ⇒ cite the article author
- If the information comes from a source cited in your article ⇒ cite the original source
- Always cite the original source of information
- Make sure to look at the original article to confirm the information you want to cite
Citing Information
- If the information comes from the author’s statements or observations ⇒ cite the article author
- If the information comes from a source cited in your article ⇒ cite the original source
- Always cite the original source of information
- Make sure to look at the original article to confirm the information you want to cite
Finding Information for Biological Sciences
The Biological Sciences Subject Guide is the best place to start your research
https://guides.library.ualberta.ca/biology
In text citation
a shortened citation that appears in the body of your work and points readers to the reference list
In text citation
a shortened citation that appears in the body of your work and points readers to the reference list
Reference list citation
longer citations that appear at the end of a paper and provide enough information needed to describe and find your source again, physically or online.
What goes into a citation?
itations consist of standard elements. A citation contains all the information necessary to identify and track down publications, including:
- author name(s)
- titles of books, articles, and journals
- date of publication
- page numbers
- volume and issue numbers (for articles)
- DOI (a unique identifier for each article)
Citations may look different, depending on what is being cited and which style was used to create them.
What information do you cite?
You must cite:
- Facts, ideas, or other information that comes from a resource or publication
- Figures, images or tables that were created by another person
- Any exact wording or quotations that come from a resource or publication
You do not need to cite:
- Information that is common knowledge for your subject area (ie. DNA has a double helix structure, squids are a type of mollusc)
When in doubt, be safe and cite your source!
