Research + the Libraries

Key skills and resources for Summer Scholars

S3P 08-21-2023

Andrea Baruzzi (she/her)
Science & Engineering Librarian
 

Simon Elichko (they/them)
Social Sciences & Data Librarian

+ Introduction to the libraries

+ What is research?

+ How do we find it?

What are we doing here?

Resources

Advice

Services

Spaces

The Libraries

(+ a lot more!)

What is Research?

process

(something you do)

stuff

(something you find)

Kinds of resources

• Print books
• Print journals
• eBooks
• Online journals
• Articles
• Book chapters
• Data and Statistics
• Maps
• Magazines and Newspapers
• DVDs and streaming video

Where do we find research (articles, books, etc.)?

Some useful tools:

• Tripod    (tripod.swarthmore.edu)

• Research Guides

• Databases (Web of Science, JSTOR)

• Google Scholar (scholar.google.com)

Research skills we'll go
over in this session:

• Following leads in other scholars' works

• Recognizing different types of sources

• Finding research articles about a topic of interest

• Evaluating whether a source may be useful for you

Following leads in other scholars' works

Let's take a look at an example from Niobe Way and Joseph Nelson's book chapter, "The Listening Project: Fostering Curiosity and Connection in Middle Schools."

When you're exploring a topic, you can often find helpful leads by looking at the articles, books, and other sources cited by other scholars.

To follow these leads, it's helpful to recognize what kind of sources are being cited. You can learn to recognize these patterns.

Following leads: recognizing different types of sources

Journal Articles

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of Article. Title of Journal, Volume # (Issue #), Page #s, doi:xx.xxxx/xxxxxx

Carol Gilligan, "The Listening Guide Method of Psychological Inquiry," Qualitative Psychology 2, no. 1 (2015): 69-77

Alisha Ali, "A Framework for Emancipatory Inquiry in Psychology: Lessons from Feminist Methodology," Race, Gender, and Class 13, nos 1-2 (2006):1-14.

Author, A. A. (Year). Title of Article. Title of Journal, Volume # (Issue #), Page #s, doi:xx.xxxx/xxxxxx

Following leads: recognizing different types of sources

Carol Gilligan, Joining the Resistance (Cambridge: Polity Press, 2011).

Book Chapters

Author, A. (Year). "Title of chapter," in Title of book, ed. Editor(s). Location: Publisher, pages.

Books

Author, A. (Year). Title of work. Location: Publisher.

Other common source types: Conference Presentations, Videos

Niobe Way and Leoandra Rogers, “Resistance to Dehumanization during Childhood and Adolescence: A Developmental and Contextual Process,” in New Perspectives on Human Development, ed. Nancy Budwig, Elliot Turiel, and Philip David Zelazo (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2017), 209–228.

To read an article or book, search Tripod (unless you'd rather pay for it!)

So how would you go about citing this article in your own work?

1. You can get a quick automatically-generated citation in Tripod - but you'll need to verify that it's accurate.
    
2. ZoteroBib is a citation generator that lets you generate and change styles for multiple citations at once. (Let's try citing
    
3. You can find the official style guides on the Libraries' Citation Guide: bit.ly/trico-citations

Finding research articles about
a topic of interest

Evaluating if a source
will be useful to you:

 the B/E/A/M model

B / E / A / M

Writers rely on background sources, interpret or analyze exhibits, engage arguments, and follow methods.

Bizup (2008)

Exhibit (Evidence)

Background

Argument

Method (Model)

B/E/A/M examples 

(See the handout)

Practice using BEAM

Informed by the social science method of semi- structured interviewing and drawing explicitly from the science of human connection, transformative interviewing aims to disrupt stereotypes by fostering curiosity and connection. (20)

1

Practice using BEAM

Middle schools in the United States exhibit some of the most egregious signs of a “crisis of connection.” High rates of suspensions, detentions, stereotyping, bullying, and discrimination from peers and adults are typical, and have even become how American society characterizes the middle school years. (1)

2

Practice using BEAM

The responses to this crisis have included blaming students for not being interested in learning, or having low levels of motivation and/or grit; parents for not valuing education or providing enough structure at home or being involved in school; and teachers for being ineffective, particularly at classroom management. (4)

3

Practice using BEAM

The newly emerging science of human connection points to our common need for caring communities and to the integration of our cognitive, social, and emotional capacities and needs: teachers and students are more motivated, successful, and fulfilled when they feel listened to, when their natural curiosity about each other and their desires to learn are nourished, and when they are connected to each other and to their communities. (33)

3

BEAM your draft

The BEAM framework can help you clarify your goals while writing and inform your next steps.
 

1. Open your drafts
2. Identify places where you have done the following, or where you might need to while revising.
   
   - Provided background information
   - Responded to arguments
   - Used exhibits
   - Discussed methods
    

Citation Guide

Thank you!

Andrea Baruzzi (abaruzz1)

Science Librarian

Simon Elichko (selichk1)

Social Sciences and Data Librarian

questions?