Introduction

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Research can be defined as both a noun and a verb. It means to methodically study materials and reach new conclusions. Research involves work, thinking and discretion, and the ability to make and draw conclusions as well as understanding and interpreting information.

In order to have solid research skills, students need to learn and practice Information Literacy.

WHAT IS INFORMATION LITERACY?

The American Library Association defines Information Literacy set of skills needed to find, retrieve, analyze, and use information. The beginning of the 21st century has been called the Information Age because of the explosion of information output and information sources. It has become increasingly clear that students cannot learn everything they need to know in their field of study in a few years of college. Information literacy equips students with the critical skills necessary to become independent lifelong learners.

WHY IS INFORMATION LITERACY IMPORTANT?

The skills developed through Information Literacy are recognized as critical to success in every subject discipline and curriculum by the American Library Association and by higher education accreditation bodies throughout the United States including in NCC’s region, NEASC (New England Association of Schools and Colleges).

Choose a Topic

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Lay the Foundation

Here is a Research Plan that you can download to your computer and print out for any research assignment in any course.

Define the Topic

Pick a topic about something you are interested in or know something about. Write down a few questions that you have about your topic in order to narrow down your field of interest. For example, if you are writing a research paper about marriage (a very broad topic), you might ask, “are marriages still arranged in the U.S.; and which cultures still practice arranged marriages?” The answer to these two questions would be the thesis statement and basis of your research paper. For example, one thesis statement that could be, “The practice of arranging marriages in the 21st Century is primarily based on financial status, rather than on traditional reasons such as cultural or religious heritage.” The bulk of the research paper would then explain why (through your research) this thesis statement is true or false.

Begin your plan by reading background information about a broad topic. Try using newspapers, reference books, the Credo Reference database, or talk to the reference librarians. Topics often need to be limited to manageable concepts from “broader terms” to “narrower terms.” Carefully consider the professors’ written assignment, and check in with your professor frequently to ensure that your topic applies to the assignment. Examples of Broad Terms narrowed down to Narrow Terms:

Remember that information found in a background resource, such as a dictionary or encyclopedia is not scholarly research. It is information that is commonly known and used by scholars and students to explore a general subject area. Therefore do not use or cite information found in a background resources within your paper (i.e., do not cut-and-paste paragraphs from Wikipedia or any other encyclopedia).

Plan Your Search

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Get control of your time, use an Assignment Calculator. implemented by University of Minnesota.

3.1 Prepare your search by identifying the concepts of your theses statement.

Most computers use a string of words and don't understand when you type in a question such as "Why should people be worried about second-hand smoking?" In order to find what we need, we have to clarify our request to the computer by using specific search terms called keywords.

3.2 Boolean Searching

Boolean search techniques may be used to perform accurate searches without producing too many irrelevant results or, on the contrary, to open up possibilities for more hits when needed.

When you perform a Boolean search, you search the computer database for the keywords that best describe your topic. The power of Boolean searching is based on combinations of keywords with connecting terms called operators. The three basic operators are the terms AND, OR, and NOT.

Operators	Examples	The search will find...	Venn Diagram
AND	Internet AND Security	The search of the database retrieves every record containing both of the words Internet and security, only the records from the intersecting, red shaded area will be retrieved.
OR	Weightlifting OR bodybuilding	The OR search is particularly useful when there are several common synonyms for a concept or variant spellings of a word. the computer searches for all documents containing weightlifting (left circle) and all documents containing bodybuilding (right circle). All documents represented by both circles will be retrieved.
NOT	Gambling NOT lottery	The diagram illustrates the search by retrieving documents including the keyword gambling (left circle) and excluding documents with the term lottery (right circle). Retrieved documents are shown in the red shaded area.

For more information, see the Boolean chart

Scholarly vs. Popular Resources

When college professors assign a research paper, you can be sure that they will require that most of your resources are scholarly. There are at least two other terms that are applied to “scholarly” resources, and these are “peer reviewed” and “refereed.”

Scholarly resources are works (books, articles and other bodies of researched information) that are written by experts in an academic field for other professionals and experts in their discipline. Scholarly resources have a whole set of criteria (listed in the table below) that are usually easily identified.

There are many types of popular magazines that are published today, both in print and electronically. Research that involves popular magazines often requires that the resources are published by a reputable publisher. Reputable magazines are those that have a history of reporting or printing authoritative, fact-based information.

Characteristics	Scholarly	Popular
How do you tell the difference between scholarly and popular resources when all you see is the article?
Author(s)/Writer(s)	As an expert on the subject of the article, the author’s name and credentials (academic position, education, other works) are always provided. Often there is more than just one author, but everyone’s credentials are listed.	Often articles are written by a free-lance journalist, staff writer or an entire department. Name and credentials are not consistently listed.
Credits	Footnotes, in-text citations and bibliographies are always provided to document research thoroughly.	In-text citations to reports or outside references might be made within the article, but bibliographies/works cited pages are rarely provided.
Editors	A panel of experts in the subject field reviews and critically evaluates the articles before approving them for publication (refereed/judged).	Articles are edited and evaluated by an editor on staff at the magazine.
Format/Structure	Articles must follow academic structure that usually includes the following sections: abstract, literature review, methodology, result, conclusion and bibliography.	Articles are written in essay formats without a specific research structures (such as an abstract).
Language/Audience	Technical language/jargon of the discipline is used throughout the article for a scholarly audience (professors, researchers, graduate students).	Written in language that the general public can understand.
Length of Article	Typically longer than five pages, allowing in-depth analysis of topics.	Typically shorter than five pages, providing a broader overview of topics.
Special Features	Charts, tables, statistics, graphs, maps and technical photographs that support the thesis of the article.	Glossy or color photography that support both the storylines as well as advertisements within the magazine.

Keep in mind what kinds of sources are required by the professor for the assignment. How many scholarly resources are required? Do you need to include print resources (such as books and newspaper articles) as well as electronic resources (databases)? Are you allowed to use the open Internet to gather information?

Quiz about Doing Searches

Locate Your Sources

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Background Resources

Again, remember that background resources such as encyclopedias, dictionaries and thesauri are excellent resources for understanding more about the topic of your research project. They only contain general information, however, so they are not to be quoted or cited in any other way within a research project.

Books

• Use NCC's Library online catalog to find books, DVDs, videos, and more...
• Use our tutorial on how to use our online catalog.
• What happens if the item you want is not in NCC Library
? You can use reQuest, an all Connecticut Libraries database to find your books
or if you are a NCC student, staff or faculty, you may fill a request for an interlibrary loan.

If you are not sure on how to read Library of Congress Classification, call numbers that provide a unique location in our collection, here is a very useful video from University of Arkansas. If you still have question, feel free to ask NCC Reference Librarians at the Information Desk, via phone (203) 857-7379 or via meebo on the Library’s website.

Quiz your knowledge on how to find books

The Differences Between the Databases and “the Internet/World Wide Web”

The Webster’s New World Computer Dictionary defines the term, “database” as follows:

            A collection of related information about a subject organized in a useful manner that provides a base or foundation for procedures,
             such as retrieving information, drawing conclusions, and making decisions. Any collection of information that serves these purposes
            qualifies as a database, even if the information is not stored on a computer.

Whereas the Internet is defined by Webster’s New World Computer Dictionary as follows:

            An enormous and rapidly growing system of linked computer networks, worldwide in scope, that facilitates data communication
             services such as remote login, file transfer, electronic mail, the World Wide Web, and newsgroups.

The databases that are available to you from the College Library are collections of scholarly journal articles, reputable magazines and books. Many of the resources are paid for by the College with a yearly subscription, which means that the sources have been written and published by scholars and academic publishing houses.

The Internet is a network of computer systems through which anyone can publish anything he or she wants. There are many venues through which ideas are published and read, such as wiki’s (e.g., Wikipedia), blogs, and websites. Most of the information that can be found on the Internet or Web has not been evaluated by scholars, professors or librarians, therefore those who use information found on the Internet must evaluate carefully the information for themselves.

Sources that are listed on the College Library website are connections to freely accessible sites on the open Internet; however, they have been evaluated by scholars and librarians and are therefore valid resources for research.

Articles

• Articles can found in periodicals (newspapers, magazines, journals, etc...) and can be searched in Databases.
  Although those articles come to you electronically, THEY ARE NOT FROM THE INTERNET.
• You may start with a general database, or select a subject-specific one, for example CINAHL for nursing or Westlaw for law.
  Go to: Database Tutorials on the library's home page, it will give you hints on how to search different databases.
• If your professor asked you to use "academic" or "scholarly" journals, that means articles in journals that have been published by a scholarly society and/or reviewed before publication by an editorial board of scholars.
  For reviewed articles, check the box "refereed" or "peer reviewed". You may start with a general database, or select a subject-specific one, for example CINAHL for nursing or Westlaw for law. Go to: Database Tutorials on the Library’s home page, it will give you hints on how to search different databases.
• Go to myCommNet if you want to access Databases when you are not on NCC's campus.
  

Go to our tutorial for more information about finding journal articles

Quiz about databases

Internet

• Start with NCC Library's Internet Resources pages.
• When searching for other sites, keep in mind that not all websites are trustworthy, evaluate each site for accuracy and currency.
• Consult the next chapter on how to evaluate your Internet resources

Evaluate Your Sources

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The five criteria for evaluating web pages are:

Accuracy: Is the information correct?

• What is the purpose of the resource information and why was it published? You can find this information in the following:

✔The abstract of a scholarly journal article;

✔The Preface or Introduction to a book, or on the book jacket; or

✔The “About Us” page of a website.

Authority: What gives the author(s) of this site authority or validation?

• Who is the author?
• What are his/her credentials (profession, publications, position, and education)?
• Does he/she have sufficient authorithy to speak on the subject (how much has the person published – either electronically or in-print – on the subject)?
• Is there any way to reach him/her her (Either through the publishing house or a link)?
• Is there an organizational or corporate sponsor (a university press or reputable corporation)?
• Is this page authentic, or is it a hoax (if it is an Internet site, check out snopes.com or Alexa.com)?
• Is there a reference list?

Objectivity : Is the information on the website neutral?

• Does the content reflect a bias (one “side” of the story)?
• What goals or objectives does this resource meet?
• Is the bias explicit or hidden?
• Does the identity of the author or sponsor suggest a bias?
• How does the bias impact the usefulness of the information?

Currency : Is the information current and is it relevant?

• Is the information on the page up-to-date?
• Can you tell when the page was last updated?
• Are there dead links?

Coverage : Does the site throroughly cover and explain the material?

• Are the links (if any) evaluated and do they complement the document's theme?
• Is there a balance between test and images?
• Is the information presented cited correctly?

When in doubt, type in www.alexa.com, it will reaffirm the content of your site. Here is an example on how it works.

Quiz on websites evaluation

How to Avoid Plagiarism

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What is plagiarism?

Plagiarism is the act of taking credit for or turning in work that is not your own. Thoughts, concepts, research that a person has published are considered to be intellectual property. So if you use someone else’s intellectual property without giving the person credit, then you are actually stealing someone else’s intellectual property. In an academic setting, plagiarism is usually demonstrated by the following:

NOT Citing Sources, and/or

NOT showing the reader where the ideas originated.

The Norwalk Community College community abides by the following code of conduct as applied to plagiarism:

Academic Honesty/Dishonesty

Students of Norwalk Community College are expected to do their own work on assignments, laboratory exercises, quizzes, examinations, and any other academic work. Academic dishonesty ultimately injures the individualand depreciates the value of grades received by other students. Cheating in any form is viewed by the faculty, the students, and the administration as a most serious offense.

Definition of Academic Dishonesty

1. Cheating on examinations and/or quizzes.

2. Collaborating with others in work to be presented if contrary to the stated rules of the course.

3. Plagiarizing, including the submission of others’ ideas or papers (whether purchased, borrowed or otherwise obtained) as one’s own work.

4. Stealing or unauthorized access to examinations or course materials.

5. Falsifying records, laboratory or other data.

6. Submitting, if contrary to the rules of a course, work previously presented in another course.

7. Knowingly and intentionally assisting another student in any of the above, including assistance in an arrangement whereby any work, classroom performance, examination, or other activity is submitted or performed by a person other than the student under whose name the work is submitted or performed.(Student Handbook 27)

The act of plagiarizing might be intentional (one knows that one is not citing a source correctly) or unintentional (when a writer is unaware of what needs to be cited). Whether or not the plagiarism is intentional or unintentional, it is still illegal.

Other examples of plagiarism include:

• Copying, quoting, paraphrasing, or summarizing from any source without adequate documentation.
• Purchasing a pre-written paper.
• Letting someone else write a paper for you.
• Paying someone else to write a paper for you.
• Submitting as your own someone else's unpublished work, either with or without permission.

What needs to be cited?

• Quotation : copying a passage exactly as it is.
• Paraphrase : translating the source into your own words.
• Summary : condensing a writer's complete argument and stating it in your own words.

What does not need to be cited?

• Your own original research, such as the results from experiments, surveys or questionnaires that you developed and conducted for your research paper;
• Your own photographs, artwork, videos, creative writing (fiction, poetry, etc.); and
• Your own original ideas (thesis statement, conversations, concepts that have not been noted anywhere else).

Works Cited

Norwalk Community College Student Handbook. Norwalk Community College. Web. 14 October 2010.

Take the quiz to test your knowledge

Cite Your Sources

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Whenever you quote, paraphrase, summarize, or otherwise refer to the work of another, you are required to cite the source, either by the way of parenthetical (in text) citation or by means of a footnote. It is also necessary for students to complete a works cited page or a bibliography at the end of the paper. There are two common forms of this: MLA style and APA style. There are several other subject speficic citation manuals such as AMA.

What is MLA?

The MLA citation style refers to the rules and conventions established by the Modern Language Association for acknowledgeing sources used in research papers. (MLA handbook for Writers of Research Papers, 7th ed., New York, Modern Language Association, 2009). The MLA style is commonly used by writers of papers in the subjects of Liberal Arts, English, Languages, Art, History and Philosophy.

In the MLA style, parenthetical references are placed in the text of the papers in order to briefly direct your reader to the detailed information about the sources in the WOrks Cited list at the end of the paper. These parenthetical references should be kept as brief and as clear as possible.

For details see MLA Handout created by NCC's librarians or, consult the MLA Questions and Answers Page

What is APA Style?

"The Publication manual of the American Psychological Association" (6th ed., 2009) is the standard writing guide for psychology and other disciplines in the social sciences. See details in APA handbouts created by NCC's Librarians or consult the APA Frequently Asked Questions page

What is AMA Style?

AMA is a style recommended by the American Medical Association (AMA), and is often used for scholarly writing about medicine, physical therapy or health related subjects. See details in AMA handbouts created by NCC's Librarians or consult the AMA Frequently Asked Questions page

Quiz on citing sources