Log in to a computer

Use your Citymail Username & associated password

jausten000@citymail.ccny.edu

WELCOME!

Entrepreneurship -- Prof. Hmaddi

RESEARCH

MARKET & INDUSTRY

PROFESSOR SARAH COHN

HEAD OF REFERENCE

September 16, 2025

Agenda

  • Citation

  • Types of Sources

  • Googling & Evaluating

  • Library Resources

  • Getting Help

What is the purpose of citation?

  • Engage in scholarly conversation or to situate your work in the relevant context

  • Relate your own ideas and analysis to existing scholarship, writing, or reporting

  • Give credit to authors whose ideas, words, data you use

  • Allow your reader to find the original article

How?

  • Anything you cite needs to be in 2 places

    • An in-text citation

    • A works cited or bibliography

  • Your sources need to be legit & linked or otherwise findable

    • No fake LLM generated sources!!!

In Text

Recent data indicates that more students with depression or anxiety are seeking therapy, 61% of students in 2024, up from 59% in 2022 (Zhou et al. 2024).

Works Cited

Zhou, Sasha, Mac Murphy, Erin Voichoski, and Julia Bell. 2024. The      

          Healthy Minds Study. https://healthymindsnetwork.org/wp-

          content/uploads/2024/09/HMS_national_report_090924.pdf.

 

 

Types of Sources

  • Government or non-profit data sources
    • Raw or interpreted data
    • Consumer & target market demographics
    • Problem numbers
  • Industry & Market reports
    • Historical overviews & trends
    • Current numbers, areas for growth
  • News
    • Public perception of a problem or solution
    • Interviews with people outside of your circles

Open web & Library databases

Library databases

Open web & Library databases

(and where to find them)

Googling

  • Be specific with your search terms
    • sad college students
    • college students mental health statistics 2024
  • Quotation marks to glue phrases together
    • college students "mental health"
  • Don't rely on the AI-generated summary
    • You can't cite it, it might be making stuff up
  • Use the site search function
    • site:nytimes.com "mental health" college students

 

Evaluating

Investigate the source

  • Who is providing the information and why?
    • Be aware of folks trying to sell you stuff
  • Look up the author and organization publishing the information. What can you find about the author/website creators? ​
  • Use lateral reading. Go beyond the 'About Us' section on the organization's website and see what other, trusted sources say about the source.​
  • What is their mission? Where does their funding come from? Who do they partner with? ​Would their assessment be biased?
  • Do they have authority in the area?​ Why?

 

 

Evaluating

Trace the information

  • Attempt to locate the original source of the information.​ Do they provide links or a bibliography you can access?
  • Was the claim, quote, or media fairly represented?
  • Does the extracted information support the original claims in the research? ​
  • Is information being cherry-picked to support an agenda or a bias?​
  • Is information being taken out of context?​

 

 

Library Resources

  • Business Insights

    • International & US market, industry & company reports

    • SWOT analyses

    • NAICS searching

    • News & scholarly articles

  • Social Explorer

    • Interactive demographic data in the United States, 1790-2023

    • Datasets are available in tables or maps

Getting Help

Professor Sarah Cohn

Head of Reference

scohn@ccny.cuny.edu

ccny.libcal.com/appointments/scohn

Reference Desk: Cohen Library

Monday-Thursday 10am-7pm

Friday 10am-4pm

library.ccny.cuny.edu