Gathering Research
Finding and gathering research is hard. It takes a lot of time. It requires a lot of readings and includes a lot of "failure." You'll find that many articles you think might be helpful are not. You'll probably read or scan 5-10 times as many articles as you actually include in your report.
Choosing a Topic
Sources of research topics can come from many places
- Personal interest
- Information/Observation
- Practical Problems
- Fleeting thoughts
- Reading
- Theories
Choosing a topic can be one of the toughest hurdles to get over. Start with something broad and then choose just one particular aspect so your topic is manageable. e.g., You are interested in how memory works, but that is a huge topic! Possible aspects of this topic are:
- How are memories consolidated during sleep?
- What can you do to improve working memory?
- What are ways declarative memory contributes to other cognitive functions?
Start with the general resources below to familiarize yourself with a topic and come up with potential search words.
Search Strategy
- State your research question
- Determine 3 main ideas/related concepts
- Enter additional search words (synonyms, variant spellings, other sayings)
Search Shortcuts
- AND: cat AND dog will find material with both mentions
- OR: cat OR dog will find material with either (or both) of those words
- NOT: dog NOT puppy will find material with dog, but not material with puppy
- “”: Phrases indicate that words should be searched together
- *: Truncation let’s you cast a wide search by truncating your search word and automatically replacing it, e.g., psycholog* will search for psychologist, psychology, psychological, etc.
Databases
Databases are the main source for journal articles. However, depending on your institutions budget, you'll have access to more or less of these (even Harvard libraries can not afford all of the subscriptions requested)
Traditional Library Databases
PsychInfo (Requires a library subscription)
Web Of Science (Requires a library subscription)
Interlibrary Loan (ILL) For may older articles, you may need to plan ahead and request the article through ILL
Open Source Databases
European Joint Research Centre
Non-traditional Researcher Based Databases
Sci-Hub (“Pirated” paper resource that everyone is using) (If link doesn't work, the site often time has to change url so search google or twitter for new site).
Google You can sometimes find a paper through google if you type in the title with the operator filetype:pdf
Open Source Journals
How to find Information
Good VS Bad Refences
| Good References | Bad References |
|---|---|
| Come from a credible source | Come from a source with poor credibility |
| Not too old | Out of date |
| Not biased | Not objective and fair, biased towards one point of view |
| Free of errors | Prone to errors |
| Properly cite the original source of all information | Do not cite where the information came from |
| Easy for other people to find or obtain | Difficult for others to obtain |
When you use information sources in your work, they should be credible and appropriate. You will need to evaluate each resource you use for research, whether it is a journal article, website, book, or some other source.
Scholarly or Peer Reviewed Articles
- Generally focus on scholarly research
- Are written by experts in the field or discipline
- Are critically reviewed by other experts before publication
- Contain cited references to the information sources used
| Review Articles | Primary Research Articles | |
|---|---|---|
Review articles give an overview of the scientific field or topic by summarizing the data and conclusions from many studies
Include:
|
Primary research articles contain the original data and conclusions of the researchers who were involved in the experiments. | |
| Great summaries of the field with background information | These articles also contain details about how the experiments were run.
Generally contain:
|
| Review Articles | Primary Research Articles |
|---|---|
| A primary source is a firsthand report of observations or research results written by the individual(s) who actually conducted the research and made the observations | A secondary source is a description or summary of another person's work. A secondary source is written by someone who did not participate in the research or observation being discussed. |
| Individual reports that fill between 3 and 40 pages in journals and usually summarized in one to two sentences in secondary sources | Examples of secondary sources include textbooks that will summarize 5,10 or 50+ years of research in a few paragraphs and meta-analyses that provide an overview of an area by combining the results from a number of studies. |
Scholarly VS Popular Articles
| Criteria | Scholarly | Popular |
|---|---|---|
| Length | Longer articles, providing in-depth analysis of topics | Shorter articles, providing broader overviews of topics |
| Authorship | Author usually an expert or specialist in the field; name and credentials always provided | Author usually a staff writer or a journalist, name and credentials often not provided |
| Language/Audience | Written in the jargon of the field for scholarly readers, professors, researchers or students | Written in non-technical language for anyone to understand |
| Format | Articles usually structured, may include: abstract, literature review, methodology, results, conclusion, bibliography | Articles do not necessarily follow a specific format or structure |
| Graphics | Illustrations that support the text, such as tables of statistics, graphs, maps, or photographs | Illustrations with glossy or color photographs, usually for advertising purposes |
| Editors | Articles refereed or peer reviewed | Articles are not evaluated by experts in the field, but by editors on staff |
| Referencing | References always provided | References rarely provided |
Peer Reviewed Journal vs "Peer-Reviewed Journals"
Evaluating the authority, accuracy, reliability, coverage and objectivity of journals can be very difficult. Peer-Reviewed Science journals are usually a short-hand for quality information. However, there is a hierarchy of journals and some "science journals" that are no better than type-set blogs. Below are some ways to evaluate journals.
- Check the impact factor - The impact factor (IF) is the most widely recognized method for attempting to gauge a journal's rank/importance. It is calculated by dividing the number of citations over the previous two years by the number of articles published by that journal. The higher the IF, the more citations (impact) each article from the journal has (especially when keeping in mind that close to 50% of all articles aren't even read). A few things to keep in mind: 1. IF is limited to the indexing of citations. 2. IF citation says nothing about the quality or validity of the references themselves. 3.Journals that publish more "review articles" likely have higher IFs. 4. Newer journals take time to be added to the list
- Peer-Review - In order for a journal to be considered acceptable as a scholarly publication, it must have a peer review or referee process whereby papers submitted for consideration are read by at least two scholars knowledgeable about the paper's topic. Reviewers provide advice/feedback/criticism to the authors and advice to and editor about whether to accept, reject or suggest some level of revision.
- Altmetrics - Altmetrics are based on social web and explore the social readership, diffusion and reuse of articles on blogs, social media and reference management services. You can read more at the Altmetric Manifesto
- Acceptance / Rejection Rates - Acceptance rates for journals, like those for college, may provide some insight into quality.
- Open Access Journals (OA) - OA journals are a major boon for the distribution of knowledge. However, they have also been met with some challenges. A myth about OA is that they are not peer-reviewed and of low quality. While some OA journals are predatory (meaning that they solicit articles just so that they can charge Article Processing Charges (APC) and then don't peer-review the article. You can find a list of those journals here. You should treat those journals not as "peer-reviewed science journals" but instead like a blog. We see though that these journals are becoming more tricky. A number of stings in which scientists have submitted terrible research has demonstrated the predatory nature of some of these journals (Science Article here, Review of Science Sting, Midichlorian Sting.
Preprint Servers
Public preprint servers (often called archives) allow authors to make manuscripts publicly available before, or in parallel to, submitting them to journals for traditional peer review. This allows for the quick dissemination of work as well as quick feedback from the scientific public. The first and best known preprint server is arXiv, but has recently expanded to include other discipline specific servers like bioarXiv, psyarXiv, and PeerJ among others. Many are making the case for preprints especially with issues surrounding publishing. Time will tell if the academy will respect these forms of communication if they provide the benefits that many suggest.
Internet Resources
A quick note on internet resources. The internet is great, perhaps one of the most amazing interventions created by humankind. But, as Ben Parker says, "with great power comes great responsibility". It's easy to misuse the internet.
As with much of our cognition, it is biased
It is easy to find yourself only searching in particular ways. This can lead you to only finding a small amount of research that is helpful to you.
Wikipedia
An amazing resource and often first stop on the research train line. However, as a secondary resource, you need to leave Wikipedia and go to the primary resources cited. Yes, USE Wikipedia, but only as a connection to other things, it should not be a resource in your writing.
Internet Sites
Using a search engine like google isn't the best way to find academic discourse. This means that when you search for "effects of chronic cannabis use in adolescents on working memory and executive function" you'll see things like:
Independent Drug Monitoring Unit
One links to an academic paper, one links to a report submitted to a governmental agency and a third looks to be a report with a number of citations, but my search was fairly specific. Using a term like "cannabis and memory" or other less specific terms would likely return a number of pseudo-scientific non-profit, quasi-governmental websites. While non-profits and governmental white papers and even commercial websites can include a lot of good information, they are again usually secondary sources, and their quality is fairly dramatic. Just as a few bad apples spoil the bunch, a few bad websites means you should not include them in your report. They may be helpful in aiding your understanding and to finding other resources, but they are not the support you include in your projects.
Newspapers, Magazines and Pseudo-academic Writing
Newspapers, magazines and other places where people write about things can again seem to be very useful resources, but just as with websites above, these can be used to help you in your understanding, but should not be used in your evidence or research. They may be useful for anecdotes or examples, but not much else. Think about the purpose of these writings, generally it is to entertain. So think about these questions when reading things on-line:
- Authority - who is the author and what are their qualifications?
- Affiliation - who pays for this website, content. Is it a government, a non-profit, a PAC, a special interest group? Think about who has sponsored the research and if you need to find other views.
- Date - when was this written? Is it up-to-date? How fast is the field that you're studying changing?
- Content Accuracy - what are they using for citations, do they point you to other resources? Ask these same questions when you get to the resources? Do you see any blatant errors?
- Content Reliability - Are their grammatical or other language issues? Does there seem to be a tone or point of view that is heavily biased? Who does the author seem to be writing for?
- Coverage - Does the resources provide an in-depth review of the topic or is it superficial and broad?
- Objectivity - Is the material factual, unbiased and in depth? Do you detect any kind of "spin"
Evaluate the Problem
- Effectiveness (can I find an answer?)
- Significance (what is the need or importance?)
- Originality (has this already been done?)
- Feasibility (Am I competent, can I get access to data, how much cost is there, how much time will it take, what are the difficulties?)
Reading Research
Check out these resources for how to read research articles:
How to read a journal article in social psychology
Originally a book chapter, it works for all types of psychology.
How to read a scientific paper
Dr. Adam Ruben shares his early experiences and advice.
How to read and understand scientific papers
Dr. Jennifer Raff shares a step-by-step guide.
How to find and read carefully the psychological science literature
Dr. Morton Ann Gernsbacher's on-line research methods course. Check out Assignment 4 for 6 approaches to reading articles
How to seriously read a scientific paper
A follow-up to Adam Ruben's advice.
Format of a Journal Article
Title Page
Catchy, explains investigation - authors and other overview information
Abstract
Appears immediately after the title. Provides overview of the research problem, the methods use, the main findings, and conclusions.
Introduction
Describes the general issue. Reviews the related literature. States goals of the study. Usually states a hypothesis.
Method
Describes the participants used. Describes the material used. Provides the step-by-step procedure that was used.
Results
Presents the data. Describes the statistical analyses used. Often summarizes findings in tables or graphs.
Discussion
Evaluates and interprets the results. Draws conclusions. Proposes suggestions for future research.
Guides
Below are a number of guides to help you through the research process. They are organized loosely in chronological order.
This guide provides 6 guidelines to think about before you start your research (more focused towards empirical research) in order to carry out interesting research.
This article describes what research methods are used and why research is carried out. A great place to start if you have not had much experience with research before or if you have not taken a research methods class.
Finding a popular press article about your topic
This guide helps you understand how science is writing about in the popular press and helps you distinguish good from bad reporting on good and bad science. Since most outlets don't link you to the actual research article, this guide helps to save you time from trying to track down a paper that isn't actually about your topic.
This guide breaks down each of the sections of a journal article. While its written as a guide for when you are writing an article, its also really helpful when trying to understand the purpose of each section. It is also a nice guide for writing a literature review after you finish finding articles.
How to read a scientific paper
From Science Buddies - Target towards high school students pursing a science fair project, but provides a great introduction to the parts of the research paper.
How to read a research article
From UConn's Writing Center - gives a brief overview on how to read Psychology articles
How to read a journal article in social psychology
Similar to the UConn guide above, this breaks down a psychology paper, section by section.
How to read a research article
Similar to the two guides above, this breaks down a research paper, section by section.
Annotated Paper (download to read comments)
This is a brief psychology paper with comments that explain the different aspects of the paper. You can apply these descriptions to the papers you read.
Summarizing a scholarly journal article
This guide focuses on reading and taking notes on articles as you read them. This guide will help you get the most out of reading the article rather than having to read it over and over again.
How to write a scientific article
This paper takes you step-by-step from reading papers to writing a journal article. It is very detailed with an eye towards paleontology, but its concepts should be applicable to other fields.
Writing in science is often quite different from what you are used to writing in other disciplines. This article gives a section by section guide on how to write well when writing an article for a science publication.
References
Carpenter, K. (2001). How to write a scientific article. The Journal of Paleontological Sciences, 7, 1-9.
Ellis, T.J., & Levy, Y. (2009). Towards a guide for novice researchers on research methodology: Review and proposed methods. Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology, 6, 323-337.
Gray, K., & Wegner, D.M. (2013). Six guidelines for interesting research. Perspectives on Psychological Science, 8, 549-553.
Jordan, C.H., & Zanna, M.P. (1999). How to read a journal article in social psychology. In R.F. Baumeister (Ed.) The Self in Social Psychology (pp. 461-470). Philadelphia: Psychology Press.
Plaxco, K.W. (2010). The art of writing science. Protein Science, 19, 2261-2266.
Willingham, E. (2012). Science, health and medical news freaking you out? Do the double x double-take first. Retrieved from http://www.doublexscience.blogspot.com/2012/04/science-health-medical-news-freaking.html
How to read a research article. (June, 2014). Retrieved from http://writingcenter.uconn.edu/wp-content/uploads/sites/593/2014/06/How_to_read_a_reserach_article2.pdf
How to read a scientific paper. Retrieved from http://www.sciencebuddies.org/science-fair-projects/top_science-fair_how_to_read_a_scientific_paper.shtml
Summarizing a scholarly journal article. Retrieved from http://www.ufv.ca/writing_centre
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