GNED 1301/1303 - M. Haile - General Education - MRU Library Website at Mount Royal University

Activity: Is this source credible?

As a group, take a look at your assigned source and discuss the following questions for the next 5 minutes.

What type of source is this? (e.g. scholarly peer reviewed journal article, article from a news website or newspaper, think tank website, or an intergovernmental or government website)
How confident are you that this is a credible source? Why?

Source #1 - Climate change is already fueling global migration. The world isn’t ready to meet people’s changing needs, experts say

Source #2 - Why care about climate migrants in an era of loss and damage (you can evaluate this video by skimming the transcript and reading the description of the talk)

Source #3 - Climate Change and Migration: Developing Policies to Address the Growing Challenge of Climate Induced Displacement

Source #4 - Planetary specters : race, migration, and climate change in the twenty-first century

Source #5 - Climate change and displacement: the myths and the facts

How do I know if something is credible?

Celia Brinkerhoff, Doing Research, CC-BY-4.0

Summary of Tips for Searching for Scholarly Articles and Books

LibrarySearch (search box on Library's home page)

Good for searching for scholarly articles and books across disciplines
Use the limits provided (peer reviewed and resource type: article) to limit your results
Quotation marks "" around two or more words will search it as a phrase "global citizen"
Asterisk * searches for different endings on a word develop* will find development, developing
Advanced search allows you to specify where a word is located e.g. the title of the resource

Google Scholar

Good for searching for scholarly articles across disciplines
Look out for non-scholarly content
If you are looking for books, use LibrarySearch instead
intitle: in front of a word looks for it in the title of the article e.g. intitle:global citizenship
Be sure to use date limits - many of the first articles listed are dated

Subject Specific Databases

Sometimes it can be helpful to use a databases created for a specific discipline. You can find a list of these databases on the Library's subject guides. Here are some databases that might be helpful

Leadership? Try the business database ABI Inform.
Global environmental issues? Try Environment Complete

Using Google Scholar at Home

If you are using Google Scholar at home, you will have to adjust the settings to see which articles are available full text through MRU library.

Click on the Stacked Menu in the Top Left Corner and Choose Settings

Select Library Links. In the search box, search for Mount Royal. Be sure to hit save!

Articles that we paid for access to will be flagged in your search results

Searching for Reports from NGOs and Intergovernmental Organizations

Policy Commons
Policy Commons is a one-stop community platform for objective, fact-based research from the world’s leading policy experts, nonpartisan think tanks, IGOs and NGOs.

You can also do a targeted Google search of a particular website - for example:

strategy global health site:who.int

Use the Google Tools to limit to a particular date range e.g. past year

What about Think Tanks?

A think tank is:

[A]n interdisciplinary body of experts such as scholars or former politicians that crafts opinions on regional, national or international policy and strategic direction, typically related to areas such as commerce, the military, immigration or social welfare. Often independent, some think tanks are known for certain political leanings and their reports and findings are interpreted accordingly. (Yusufali, 2015)

Before using research produced by a think tank, consider:

Where is their funding coming from?
Do they have a stated or implicit connection with a particular political party or movement?
Who works at the think tank? What are their areas of expertise?