Objectives:
If you are at this Lecture #4 site and reading this text, I hope you have already completed Quiz #4 as well as the chapter from the e-textbook - chapter 7. It is important that you have done so. This chapter would have introduced you to locating and evaluating articles. Your 2nd draft of your annotated bibliography requires you to find three articles from three different databases: Nexis Uni, Opposing Viewpoint, and Academic Search Complete. You were introduced to these databases last week in Lecture #3 and this week's lecture will show you how to search these databases.
Following the above objectives, this lecture will introduce you to search strategies and techniques for locating and retrieving articles in databases for newspapers, magazines, and journals. Please pay attention so that you may mimic these exercises [demonstrated] when you are ready to begin research on your chosen topic for your annotated bibliography.
You will also be introduced to RADAR, a framework developed to judge or critique the quality of sources. You will find this framework very helpful to use in other courses that will require you to do research papers.
Lastly, this lecture will review the parts of a citation. Please note the ones to be used for books.
We are half way through the course!
Any questions you may have, please do not hesitate to email me or drop by my virtual office hour.
Opposing Viewpoints provides articles on current controversial issues such as abortion, capital punishment, climate change, cloning, immigration, and more. Available material on each topic includes viewpoint essays, scholarly articles, newspapers & magazine articles, statistics, and links to related websites. Please watch this video to learn how to search the database, Opposing Viewpoints. Please click on the LINK to start the video (4 mins).
Later on, when you are ready to search for articles in this database, you may locate it at the CSI Library's homepage by following these instructions:
Academic Search Complete is a multi-disciplinary database the includes scholarly and general interest sources in business, news, medicine, humanities, social sciences, and science and technology. Examples of some of the periodicals include: TIME Magazine, Science, Business Week, National Geographic, Journal of Modern History, Journal of Popular Culture. Coverage: 1887-present.
Please click on the hyperlinked title, Academic Search Complete, to watch a video about searching this database to find articles.
Later on, when you are ready to search for articles in this database, you may locate it at the CSI Library's homepage by following these instructions:
The interactive tutorial in this LINK will reinforce what you have just watched and help you understand what you read about periodicals and databases in Chapter 7. Please click on the link to start the tutorial. As soon as you click on the link, you may need to adjust your browser so that it accommodates two(2) browsers. The interactive tutorial guide will be on your left and the interface of the database, Academic Search Complete, will be on your right. As you read through the tutorial, please participate in the mini-quizzes throughout. At the end, please insert your instructor's email when prompted to do so in order to be graded. Worth 25 points.
Includes an extensive array of full-text articles from daily news agencies and networks (i.e., newspapers, wire services, tv transcripts, and newsletters), business literature, industry and company information, legal, biographical, and reference resources. Please watch this video to learn how to search the database, Nexis Uni, to find newspaper articles. Click on this LINK to start the video. (4mins)
Later on, when you are ready to search for articles in this database, you may locate it at the CSI Library's homepage by following these instructions:
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Read the description of the three publications below and think about, as you read, how different they are and how each may meet any or all of the criteria of relevance, quality, objectivity, and coverage.
Journal of Science teacher (JSTE) is the flagship journal of the Association foe Science teacher Education. it serves as a forum for disseminating high quality research and theoretical position papers concerning pre-service and in-service education of science teachers. The journal features pragmatic articles that offer ways to improve classroom teaching and learning, professional development, and teacher recruitment and retention at pre K-16 levels. Coverage: 1989-2002; 2005-present. |
Scientific American is the world's premier magazine of scientific discovery and technological innovation for the general public. Readers turn to it for a deep understanding of how science and technology can influence human affairs and illuminate the natural world. Its readers are not primarily scientists; to the extent that they have technical backgrounds, they read Scientific American for information about areas outside their expertise. In every issue, leading scientists, inventors and engineers from diverse fields describe their ideas and achievements in clear and accessible prose; the work of select journalists rounds out the offerings. The graphics are rich in content and visual style. Coverage: 1948-1950; 1958 - present. |
Science is a leading outlet for scientific news, commentary, and cutting-edge research. Through its print and online incarnations, Science reaches an estimated worldwide readership of more than one million. Science's authorship is global too, and its articles consistently rank among the works most cited research. Science seeks to publish those papers that are the most influential in their fields or across fields and that will significantly advance scientific understanding. Selected papers should present novel and broadly important data, syntheses, or concepts. They should merit recognition by the wider scientific community and general public provided by the publication in Science, beyond that provided by specialty journals. Science welcomes submissions from all fields of science and from any source. The editors are committed to the prompt evaluation and publication of submitted paper while upholding high standards that support reproducibility of published research. Science is published weekly; selected papers are published online ahead of print. Coverage: 1880 - present. |
When deciding whether or not an information source (e.g. a newspaper article, a magazine article, a chapter in a book, or a scholarly journal) is useful in context of your research, you will first need to evaluate each source to see if it matches your topic. RADAR is a framework that can help you remember what kinds of questions you should be asking about an information source as you evaluate it for quality and usefulness in your research.
RATIONALE |
Rationale is important because books, articles, and web pages are made to serve a purpose. They can educate, entertain or sell a product or a point of view. Some sources may be frivolous or commercial in nature, providing inaccurate, false, or biased information. Other sources are more ambiguous about potential partiality. Varied points of view can be valid if they are based on good reasoning and careful use of evidence. |
AUTHORITY |
Authority is important in judging the credibility of the author's assertions. In a trial regarding DNA evidence, a jury would find a genetics specialist's testimony far more authoritative compared to a testimony from a random person off the street. |
DATE |
Date or currency is important to note because information can quickly become obsolete. Supporting your research with facts that have assignments require the most current information; other materials can provide valuable information such as a historical overview of your topic. In some disciplines, the date of the source is less important. |
ACCURACY |
Accuracy is important because errors and untruths distort a line of reasoning. When you present inaccurate information, you undermine your own credibility. |
RELEVANCE |
Relevance is important because you are expected to support your ideas with pertinent information. A source detailing Einstein's marriage would not be relevant to a paper about his scientific theories. |
In terms of evaluating an author, credentials include degrees received, titles held, professional affiliations, years of activity in a field, publication history, fields of inquiry, and characteristics of publication in which their work has appeared.
Similar to judging an author's credentials, knowing more about a publishing company can help you understand potential biases. Keep in mind that publishing standards vary for each publishing house. XYZ Publishing may print anything that may bring a profit, whereas QRS University Press may screen all information they publish to ensure the validity of the content protecting their reputation.
CATEGORIES of PUBLISHERS
Self-Quiz on Usefulness |
Instructions: Select one of the following sources as most useful for a research paper on the current use of primates in scientific laboratories: |
a. "Monkeys in our Labs," by Scott Gottieber, a USA Today staff writer. Published in the newspaper, USA Today, Dec 15, 1989. Includes chart, "Number of Test Primates in the US, 1975-1985." |
b. Laboratory Primate Advocacy Group website. LPAG is a nonprofit organization. Website last updated, 2001. " LPAG believes that the lab is no place of monkeys and nonhuman great apes." |
c. "Record Number of Monkey being used in U.S. Research." by David Grimm. Published by the American Association of the Advancement of Science. Appeared in Science, a scholarly publication on November 2, 2018. |
As you do your research, don't forget to keep a list of sources you anticipate to use in your annotated bibliography --books, periodicals, Websites, etc. You will need this information later to correctly present the source of every annotation your write up. Below is at least one type of information you will need to write down with each of its important parts labeled for sources in this week's assignment:
EXAMPLE SOURCE | EXAMPLE CITATION |
Book: | ![]() |
Article in a periodical: | ![]() |
Sources on the web: | ![]() |
Online Article | ![]() |
Click on the hyperlinked title to see how you can cite Images and Other Multimedia from MLA 8th edition.
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Click on the following hyperlinked titles to see how to cite information from a Webpage from a News Website, Television, Video & Podcasts, and Social Media from APA 7th edition.
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Please log in to BlackBoard to complete the following listed in Lesson#4 for the Week of Sept 16 - Sept 22. Any assignment, quiz, or tutorial given in this lesson MUST be completed on or before September 22, 2020 and submitted by 12 noon.
CREDIT: With permission, partial content on this web page was adapted from the University of Idaho Information Literacy Portal.
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