1. Please log in to your computer and open umanitoba.ca/libraries

2. Select Subject Guides and scroll through to Education

3. On the guide, select Librarian

4. Find today's workshop and open the link

Research in Education

Janice Winkler
Education Librarian
Elizabeth Dafoe Library

Adapted from slides created by Kyle Feenstra

EDUA 7580

Sept 20, 2018

What we will talk about today...

1. Where to start
2. Basic & advanced search techniques
3. Citation management
4. Try it out

Getting started

Starting points:

The Subject Guide for Education will help you identify the resources relevant to your research.

The journal databases identified by the Subject Guides and Database A-Z are great places to start your search for articles. ERIC is a go-to database in education.

The advanced search for basic article and book searches

Where to locate information

Books
Print
Online

Scholarly articles

'Grey literature'
Policy documents
Govt publications

Library search bar (filter for Books)

Library search bar (filter for Peer Reviewed)
Databases (ERIC is the go-to; find more)
Google Scholar

Check multiple locations

What are scholarly journals?

1. The journal publishes current research in a particular academic field.
2. Articles are written for an academic audience in a scholarly community.

Identifying scholarly articles

1. The article presents original research or new analysis.
2. Resources used to write the article are adequately cited.
3. The author has academic credentials.
4. Language used indicates the intended audience is academic.

What do we mean by "peer review"?

Articles submitted to the journal are reviewed by independent scholars prior to publication to ensure they meet the standards for research in that field.

Identifying Peer Reviewed Journals

1. The catalogue or database where it is found identifies the journal as a peer reviewed source. (Example)
   Tip: Most databases have filters that show only PR results.
2. The journal editors identify the publication as
   peer reviewed.

Search Skills

Keywords

Subject Headings
(Taxonomy)

Language used in the literature of a field of study

Language used to organize a field of study for the purpose of retrieval

Natural Language

Language as it's really spoken.

Language used is arguably the most important part of a successful search

Examples

Google:
academic journals about second language acquisition

ERIC:

second language acquisition

ERIC:

second language learning

Subject Headings 

results are based on a match with the subject heading field in the library or database record.

Subject headings are useful for identifying related materials. 

A combination of subject headings and keywords often produce the most precise search results.

When you search with...

Keywords

results are based on frequency of word use in the library or database record and in some cases the document text. 

Book Subject Headings

The Library of Congress assigns subject headings for all monograph publications

Article Subject Headings

Databases organize subject headings in a thesaurus.
ERIC offers a comprehensive thesaurus for education.

Basic Search Techniques

Here are some tips to get better search results in the catalogue and databases.

How should you know which search techniques to use?

Read the search results!

Start with a broad search, and narrow down based on your results.

Activity #1

Example in ERIC

Does the relationship between student and teacher impact second language acquisition?

Idea 1

the relationship between student and teacher

Idea 2

second language acquisition

• Student teacher relationship
• Teacher student relationship

• Second language acquisition

Citation Management

Citation Management

There are many citation management apps available and
workshops* to help you learn how to use them.

Getting started with Zotero

1. Create account
2. Download Zotero & add account info to app
                 Edit > Preferences > Sync
3. Download Zotero Connector browser plug-in to add items

APA Style Guides

UM Library copies of recommended APA Guides

Handouts from this Workshop

• Activities 1-2
• Identifying Search Terms Worksheet (Activity 1)
• Creating an Effective Search String (for reference)

Questions?

Janice Winkler
Education & U1 Librarian
Elizabeth Dafoe Library
Janice.Winkler@umanitoba.ca