Task:
Referencing Styles
Go to the library and access the following resources for your research project:
1. A print book
2. Two Journal articles
3. A website
4. A list of potential sources from college databases
4. A list of potential sources from Google scholar
5. Proof that you have signed up to JStor for an individual account
Recommended Databases
We use the Harvard style in the AB English & History. See http://qub.ac.uk/cite2write/harvard.html for further detail. Although there are many other styles: MHRA, MLA, Oxford, Vancouver, OSCOLA etc. dependng in the subject matter
Jstor: http://www.jstor.org/
you can get access thorugh your SRC account however it can be limited to whatever journal SRC subscribes to. You can also try this individual account sig nup that allows 3 articles a month:
http://about.jstor.org/jstor-help-support/individual-access-support
Google Scholar - all articles a peer reviewed to a certain degree
Homepages of academic staff
SRC library databases and my iLibrary
Why do we have to research and cite references?
It's really important to find out what other people have done in the field you are researching for several reasons:
if you write something that uses concepts and wording written and published by someone else, whether you know that pre-existing material or not, it is plagiarism.
Engaging with academic material is one expected outcome of studying at university
Ethical engagement with that material requires you to reference and cite that source when using it.
Plagiarism policy at Ulster Univeristy: http://www.ulster.ac.uk/academicservices/student/plagiarism.pdf
Effective Research Skills
APS Year 1
Databases
These are great places to start finding material for your essay. The abstract of an article is included in your search returns so you can see if you want to download the article and read it in full.
When writing your essay plan and essay, we expect that you will use journal articles, as well as your websites and other forms of books.
Reference material types
Research Skills - expected outcomes
At the end of this week’s tutorial you should be able to:
Identify the difference between journals, books and other types of information.
Journal articles provide the most up-to-date reference material that has been through a rigorous peer-review process. This means that anything published in journals is closely reviewed by experts in that field of research. After publication, it is considered an authoritative source.
In an academic context, books can be classified as monographs, edited collections, handbooks or textbooks. They often take several years from concept to product.
Use the library website and databases available, and be aware of the limitations of relying on search engines such as google for research.
Understand the principles of referencing and academic honesty, and be aware of referencing requirements for APS
Databases vs Google
Everyone knows how to use Google, and perhaps Google Scholar too, but there's much more to effective researching than just punching a few key words into Google and hoping it spits out some relevant journal articles - or 'papers' as we call them sometimes.
For starters, Google doesn't necessarily think academically, it's made for a general population to consume, and it is based on an algorithm called PageRank - it detects links to various sites and ranks popularity rather than quality. Wikipedia, via Google, told me that.