This session is tailored to support your Assessment and Intervention Assignment. Scharie has asked you to complete a number of tasks involving core concepts learned in this course but the assignment also requires you to do a little research using the library and the web. You will need to understand how to find and read and cite a variety of information sources including:
Today I hope to make sure that everyone knows what they need to find and where they need to look to find it. I hope to:
Why Research?
When you endeavor to find sources related to a topic of interest for your academic writing, you are demonstrating a number of skills
Information is Constructed and Contextual
Information, in any format, is produced to convey a message and is shared via a selected delivery method. The iterative processes of researching, creating, revising and disseminating information vary, and the resulting product reflects these differences (ACRL par. 13).
Source: Project Cora - https://www.projectcora.org/assignment/information-spectrum
Types of Information Sources
Encyclopedias
Strengths: short, contains background information on a topic/introductory overviews, normally a great starting point when you are just learning about a topic
Weaknesses: too short, print encyclopedias are out of date quickly, Wikipedia has reliability issues
Books and Book Chapters
Strengths: Provides an in-depth investigation into a topic
Weaknesses: too long, sometimes hard to tell whether it is scholarly
Scholarly Journal Articles
Strengths: often based on research findings or extensive review, written by experts, reviewed by experts, provides evidence
Weaknesses: Sometimes written using discipline-specific language or terminology, hard to understand,
Media Sources (news, online magazine articles)
Strengths: Good for current information
Weaknesses: Sometimes biased, sometimes written to entertain, often not written by experts
Websites & Social Media
Strengths: Highly accessible, includes government info
Weaknesses: It is hard to assess credibility and reliability...anyone can post online or create a website
Primary Sources
Strengths: Original sources (include, but are not limited to recordings, diaries, autobiography, artifact, constitutions, acts, edicts, cases
Weaknesses: Hard to find, hard to cite, hard to remember if they fall within primary or secondary categories.
Take 3-5 minutes and sort these characteristics into the column that you think it would best fit (academic or not academic).
A scholarly publication contains articles written by experts in a particular field. The primary audience of these articles is other experts. ... Many of these publications are also referred to as "peer-reviewed", academic, or "refereed". They all mean essentially the same thing and refer to the editorial and publication process in which scholars in the same field review the research and findings before the article is published.
| Scholarly / Peer-Reviewed | Popular/Not Scholarly | |
| Author | Expert | Journalist / Professional Writer |
| Review | Reviewed by an editorial board or other experts ("peers") | Reviewed by an editor |
| Audience / Language |
Scholars and students / Academic Technical language |
General public Easy to understand |
| Content |
Original Research |
News and practical information Uses a variety of sources for background |
| Sources | Always cited | Sometimes cited |
| Examples | Peer-reviewed articles Scholarly books Literature reviews, systematic reviews, and meta-analysis Thesis and dissertations |
Magazine articles |
Examples of scholarly sources:
Before we search the Library...another quick activity
Figure 1. Copely, R. Huge stand in the market with a large selection of fruits [Photograph]. Pixy.org. https://pixy.org/143529/
There are a few routes you can take to look for information to support any academic writing assignment:
Terminology
Questions to consider
|
Broad Topic |
Synonyms (terms you could use with OR) |
Additional Terms (terms you could use with AND) |
Possible Search Strategy |
|
"physical abuse" "verbal abuse" "sexual abuse" "childhood trauma"
"Struggling to contain emotions"
"Alcohol and drugs"
"Domestic violence" |
"serious adverse childhood experiences" OR ACEs
alexithymia "personality disorder" "interpersonal relationships"
"substance abuse" addictions
"spousal abuse" OR "spousal assault" OR "intimate partner violence" |
trauma "intergenerational trauma" "post-traumatic stress" neglect "first responder" conflict coping "self esteem" "aberrant behaviour"
|
("childhood trauma" OR "child abuse") AND "adult violence" ("childhood trauma" OR ACE) AND addictions AND coping "first responders" AND "domestic violence" |
Things to remember when using Library Search:
Sign in to save searches, items, and to request materials.
Use the pin icon to save books and articles.
Use the filters on the right! Try using the "resource type" and subject to specify your results.
Some items won't be available. You can request unavailable items from partner libraries using by requesting an interlibrary loan.
When viewing an item record, scroll down to the Get It or Full Text section to get the item.
Tips for Searching
You can search in a way to combine or omit different terms by telling the search engine exactly what you want…this can help you save some time (and frustration!)
Use quotation marks to keep phrases together - "occupational stress injuries"
Use AND to combine search terms - addiction AND myths
Use OR to connect two or more similar terms - "domestic violence" OR "relationship violence"
Use NOT to omit unwanted results - myth NOT Greek
Use wild cards to substitute a letter or suffix with a symbol - Canad* (will search for Canadian, Canada, Canadians etc.)
Library Search Example
To define a term using an academic source you have some options. Check out some of the recommended resources I have put together on this guide under the "Background Resources" tab. Or search in LibrarySearch, and use the filters to access certain types of materials (reference=dictionaries and encyclopedias).
If you are looking for an article or information that is more in-depth, try searching for an article. Again, you can limit the type of resource by using your filters, and if you are looking for something scholarly, try the "peer-reviewed" filter.
Advanced Search
To include synonyms in your search, the easiest way is to use the advanced search option. But you can also use brackets eg: (occupational stress OR workplace stress) AND Canada using the LibrarySearch tool
Limit your search to scholarly articles by selecting Peer Reviewed and Resource Type - Articles. This limit is not perfect, so you may want to make sure that the article you want to use has the major characteristics of a peer-reviewed article (written by an expert in the field, uses vocabulary familiar to other researchers in this area, typically several pages or more in length with a formal layout and limited graphics beyond presenting data, references throughout to sources used)
Google Scholar is another great way to find peer-reviewed/scholarly material. Google Scholar has a nifty citation chaining function. The Cited by function will forward you to indexed scholarly material that has cited an article that you may be interested in. The Related Articles link will direct you to similar articles that may have the same metadata or keywords.
The Advanced Search is found by clicking the menu icon (top left).
Besides providing links to articles in MRU databases, Google Scholar links to online repositories that contain articles the author has been allowed to upload. Academia.edu and ResearchGate are among the repositories searched by Google Scholar.
By clicking on the Settings icon, you can select library links to show library access for up to 5 libraries (type in Mount Royal and click on save). If you are logged into the MRU library, links should automatically populate if you are running a Google search in another window.
CanLII (The Canadian Legal Information Institute) is a freely available database powered and supported by the Federation of Law Societies of Canada. Content focuses on Canadian primary law sources that include:
You can use the DSM-5 in two ways for this assignment. Use the manual to define any possible mental disorder identified from your case study. You can also search the DSM Library for secondary sources (journal articles) relating to your topic).
Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders - DSM-5 by Citation Example (entire work online): *don't forget hanging indents
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425787
Example of a chapter:
American Psychiatric Association. (2013). Anxiety disorders. In Diagnostic and statistical manual of mental disorders (5th ed.). https://doi.org/10.1176/appi.books.9780890425596.dsm05
Example of an article found in the DSM5 database
Nurnberg, H. G., Hurt, S. W., Feldman, A., & Suh, R. (1988). Evaluation of diagnostic criteria for borderline personality disorder. American Journal of Psychiatry, 145(10), 1280-1284.
*Note, there are many articles/secondary sources that appear to have "no access". Try clicking on the chapter OR copying and pasting the title in LibrarySearch or Google Scholar. We should have access directly or indirectly to most of these articles.
Some Google Searching Tips
Google Scholar is another great way to find peer-reviewed/scholarly material. Google scholar has a nifty citation chaining function. The Cited by function will forward you to indexed scholarly material that has cited an article that you may be interested in. The Related Articles link will direct you to similar articles that may have the same metadata or keywords.
The Advanced Search is found by clicking the menu icon (top left).
Besides providing links to articles in MRU databases, Google Scholar links to online repositories that contain articles the author has been allowed to upload. Academia.edu and ResearchGate are among the repositories searched by Google Scholar.
By clicking on the Settings icon, you can select library links to show library access for up to 5 libraries (type in Mount Royal and click on save). If you are logged into MRU library, links should automatically populate if you are running a Google search in another window.
Note: Google uses different commands: ~; -; +; but AND/OR also works
If you are searching Google (not Google Scholar), you can also limit your search to show specific websites. Eg:
Community Organization Information
Alberta 211 (Government of Alberta)
City of Calgary Community Services (City of Calgary)
Community Services (Salvation Army)
Association of Community Services (ALIGN)
Statistics
Juristat - In-depth analysis and detailed Canadian statistics on a variety of topics and issues related to justice and public safety
Statistics Canada - Stats Canada is the official national statistics site.
Crime and Justice - A sub-page of the Stats Canada site that focuses on crime
City of Calgary Community Crime Statistics - contains data exclusively pertaining to crime provided by CPS.
Canadian Centre for Justice Statistics- statistics related to crime and victims of crime prepared by the Canadian Association of Chiefs of Police (CACP). Note* this has not been updated since 2017
Statista is a database containing statistics on various topics across multidisciplinary categories. It includes dossiers, industry reports, studies & reports from third parties, forecasts featuring various industries and countries.
MRU Citation Resources
