Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library staff

Citing Your Sources

Really, the hardest part of doing research is finding the best sources and completing your paper or assignment using those sources. Citing them should be the easy part. But students tend to get pretty stressed out when it comes to citations. No worries, though, we can help.

First, why is it important to cite? There are really 2 main reasons:

1) Readers of your paper or research should be able to find where you got your information, even if your information came from online videos, podcasts, or social media. If you use or refer to images, sound, or music, your readers should be able to find those sources. By citing your sources, you give your readers a chance to utilize those same resources out of interest, or even to check your facts. 

All citation styles, e.g. MLA and APA, try to include all the information needed for someone to track down that source.

2) You need to give credit to the creators/authors of the information you use. This is key to academic integrity and avoiding plagiarism.

For information on formatting, in-text citations, and reference lists, take a look at the style guides below:

• NOVA MLA Citation Style Guide
• NOVA APA Citation Style Guide
• NOVA Libraries: Citing Media

You can also see the following sites for more help:

• Purdue OWL MLA Formatting and Style Guide
• Purdue OWL APA Formatting and Style Guide
• FAQs about the MLA Style Manual
• APA Style Blog

Upcoming Citation Webinars (THIS WEEK!):

Go to the ELI Webinars schedule at http://eli.nvcc.edu/webinars.htm to sign up for the following

citation webinars:

Citation Basics--APA Style

Make sure you’re citing your work correctly!  This 30 minute webinar will go through the basics of the APA citation style. We will cover general formatting, in-text citations, and the reference list.

Tuesday, March 18, Noon - 12:30 pm

Thursday, March 20, 6:00 - 6:30 pm

Citation Basics--MLA Style

Make sure you’re citing your work correctly!  This 30 minute webinar will go through the basics of the MLA citation style. We will cover general formatting, in-text citations, and the reference list.

Monday, March 17, 6:00 - 6:30 pm

Thursday, March 20, Noon - 12:30 pm

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library staff

Evaluating Websites

A couple of weeks ago, we talked about using Google for your research. Of course, NOVA Libraries has access to thousands of newspaper, magazine, and journal articles through the library databases. But that doesn’t mean that there’s not good and useful information out on the web as well.  You just need to be critical.

So how can you decide if a website has good information that would be appropriate to use in your assignments? You’ve heard of the 5 W’s, right? Well, they can also be applied to evaluating information, on the web and elsewhere. 

WHO – Who wrote or published the information? Is it someone you have heard of? Is it an

organization that you are familiar with?

WHAT – What are the author’s credentials? Are they clear about their experience in the subject

and how they relates to the topic they are writing on?

WHEN – When was the information published? Is it the type of information that changes over

time (Think: Medical Information)? Or is it the type of information that stays the same (Think:

History)?

WHERE – Where did the author get their information? Are they properly citing their sources?

Are they clear on where their facts, statistics, graphs, etc. are coming from?

WHY – Why are they publishing this information? What is the author’s motivation? Are they

showing a bias?

Take a look at the NOVA Libraries’ 5 W’s to Determine Good Information for more tips! And as always, if you’re not sure about a website, ask us! ELI-Library@nvcc.edu

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library Staff

Finding Articles in Library Databases

Did you know that NOVA Libraries gives you access to thousands of journal, newspaper, and magazine articles that are housed in over 100 databases? The good news is it's pretty likely that we have information on the subject you are researching. The bad news? I could be a little overwhelming.

This short 5 minute video will introduce you to library databases and give you some search tips.

http://youtu.be/9aScFPAN7FE

And, as always, if you need help finding information or using any library resources, we're here to help. E-mail your ELI Library staff at ELI-Library@nvcc.edu.

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library staff

To Google or Not to Google? And “My professor told us we can’t use Wikipedia.”

Google is your key to all information, right? Google can connect you to anything on the internet, right? Well, not really. There is a lot of information, and some that you might really need, hiding behind passwords in what is called the “deep web.” If you are looking for journal articles, for example, you won’t find most of them by searching Google. Even if you find them using Scholar Google, which searches academic literature, you will often be asked to pay before you can access the article.  Luckily, NOVA Libraries has already paid for access to thousands and thousands of articles and other resources. And often, these resources will have higher quality information that what you can find searching Google.

This is not to discount web sources altogether. Much government information is freely available on the web. And many organizations, such as news organizations and non-profits, put out some great information on the web. Take a look at the 5 W’s to Determine Good Information for ideas on how to evaluate information you find on the web.

And when searching Google, try out their Advanced Search which gives you more control over your search.

What about Wikipedia? The short answer: DO use Wikipedia to get ideas for a research topic or to give yourself some background information on the topic you have chosen. DO NOT use Wikipedia as a source in your research papers and assignments.  Wikipedia should not appear in your Works Cited page. Look for more reliable sources, some of which you could even find in the “References” section at the end of a Wikipedia entry.

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library staff

What is Peer Review?

Cann, A.J. (2008, May 23). Peer Review. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/47353092@N00/6735929719/

An important feature of scholarly journals is that they are written by experts in their field--scholars, professors, and researchers.  Most importantly, the articles in scholarly journals are peer reviewed.  Peer review is a process by which other experts will review the journal article before it can be published.  They are making sure that the research is sound and that the idea presented is original.

Watch this video from North Carolina State University Libraries to learn more.

For more on Peer Review and how to find peer reviewed journal articles, take a look at this NOVA Guide: How to...Find and Identify Peer Reviewed Journals.

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library staff

Scholarly vs. Popular Sources

Your professor only wants you to use "scholarly journals" for your research paper.  What does that mean?

If this is the first time you're hearing the term "scholarly journal," that's okay.  Most of us don't sit around reading journals for fun.  But now that you're starting your academic career, you'll begin to see how important these journals are.  It's through scholarly journals that experts in a field share new research and new ideas. So while you may read a great story about ground breaking research in a newspaper or magazine, chances are that those researchers published their original results in an academic, or scholarly, journal.  That's what makes these journals so important to your research.  You can go right to the source without anyone else's opinions getting in the way. 

This is not to say that newspapers and magazines, or so-called "popular sources," cannot be helpful to your research.  Newspapers can give you precise details about a particular event as well as how people reacted to that event around the time that it occurred.  Magazines can offer interesting and varying viewpoints on a single topic. But be careful how you use these sources. And you’ll want to steer clear of them all together if that’s what your professor has instructed.

So how can you tell the difference between a “popular” source and a “scholarly” source? Take a look at the NOVA Libraries guide How to Find and Identify Peer Reviewed Journals (http://nova.libguides.com/peer-reviewed).

Wait…What is “peer review?” That will be the topic of next week’s post.  Happy reading!

Research Skills: A Blog Series from your ELI Library staff

You’ve made it to college!  Now what?

The transition from high school to college is easy for some, not so easy for others. As an online student, you may not need to worry as much about the “freshman 15,” but you will still need to worry about all of those research papers.  In high school, you probably had some experience finding sources, organizing information, and putting everything down on paper.  But expectations are higher in college, and often the expectations feel different than they did in high school.

The first piece of good news? Your professors care what you think!  In high school, your research papers were probably just an amalgamation of all of the information you could find in your school library on your topic.  But in college, you’re expected to take in all of that information and form an argument about the topic.  Your job is to find an interesting, and hopefully original, slant on a subject and convince your readers that your claim is sound.  How do you convince your readers? With evidence and information from reliable sources.

This brings us to the second piece of good news.  ELI Library staff are here to help you find those reliable sources.  Not only can we help you find them, but we can teach you to decide which sources are best. Not all sources are created equal, and not all sources will help to convince your readers that your argument is worthwhile.  The point of this blog is to present topics and information that will help you hone your research skills and meet, or exceed, your professors’ expectations.  These are skills that you will use throughout your college career.

Check back over the next several weeks for a new post.  Topics will include Scholarly vs. Popular Sources, Using Google and Wikipedia, Searching Databases, Citing your Sources, and more.  Don’t forget to take a look at the NOVA Libraries website to browse what kinds of sources are available to you.  And if you need to contact us, e-mail ELI-Library@NVCC.edu.