soci 310

library research workshop

Winter 2025

TO FIND THESE SLIDES & MORE:

Google: soci 310 concordia library

https://library.concordia.ca/help/questions/

ask questions - GET HELP:

at the AskUs desk

via chat

via email

by phone

orange "chat with us" icon from the library web site pages

Need assistance beyond a quick chat,
and have a bit of time to plan?

your subject librarian: susie.breier@concordia.ca

ZOOM office hours most Tuesdays 3-5, or by appointment

Text

ZOOM & H-1132 office hours: most Tuesdays

3:30-5:30 pm

OR by appointment

AskUs Desk
Webster LB building:

most Fridays 3-5

Google: sociology concodia library

AskSusie, every Tuesday 3:30-5:30 pm, ask any question under the sun about research or the library

pronouns: she/her/elle

you CAN find me here:

screenshot of subject & course guides page at: https://concordia.ca/library/guides.html

under sociology see:

screenshot of sociology subject guide page at: https://www.concordia.ca/library/guides.html

https://concordia.ca/library/guides/sociology.html

FIND research related to YOUR TOPIC
Enter & combine KEYWORDS (SEARCH STRATEGIES)
Ensure research is SCHOLARLY & appropriate
APA CITATION STYLE + ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY
ZOTERO
LITERATURE REVIEW examples and how-tos

STUFF YOU MIGHT NEED

Accessing resources at Concordia and beyond
AI TOOLS for research and lit reviews

also good to know

finding research

my topic:
reasons for (not) walking

my tentative research question:

What factors affect university students' decisions about walking outdoors in their neighbourhood and how do these factors relate to race, racism or socioeconomic inequities?

person walking in a city, at a crosswalk

hAVE YOUR SAY:

better KEYWORDS AND results

https://bit.ly/3tTfEp7

where should i enter my keywords and search for

research on this topic?

tell your classmates

Search for specific library books, ebooks, articles and films

but go beyond sofia to search for topics

use your
soci 310 LIBRARY tips page

Reminder:

see the first section:

socindex search

...more examples

*see also: search tips & strategies

...interesting results might include:

Race and Ethnicity Differences in Walking and Associations with Neighborhood Perceptions among Older Adults in California

A Qualitative Exploration of Factors Associated With Walking and Physical Activity in Community-Dwelling Older Latino Adults.

Black people don't exercise in my neighborhood: Perceived racial composition and leisure-time physical activity among middle class blacks and whites

Racial/ethnic and educational differences in perceptions and use of a
New urban trail

Covid-19 restrictions: An opportunity to highlight the effect of neighbourhood deprivation on individuals' health-related behaviours

now how can you access / download articles you found?

*see also: Accessing material at Concordia and beyond

what might this look like in google scholar?

back to agenda

or move on to entering & combining keywords??

entering your keywords

SEARCH STRATEGIES

("police brutality" OR "police violence" OR "police shootings")

AND

(racis* OR discrimination OR bias or profiling)

AND

(defund OR aboli* OR reform)

in library article databases:

in google scholar:

("police brutality" OR "police violence" OR "police shootings") (racism OR discrimination OR bias OR profiling) (defund OR abolition OR reform)

TIP	WHAT IT DOES	EXAMPLE
AND	Combines concepts. Limits how many results your search produces	police AND violence
OR	Allows for synonyms or alternative terms. Increases the number or results your search produces.	violence OR brutality
*	Near the end of a word, retrieves all words that start with the letters entered. Increases the number of results a search produces	Canad* (retrieves Canada, Canadian)
“ ”	For two words or more, search for an exact phrase only, rather than each keyword separately. Limits how many results your search produces	“systemic racism” (retrieves systemic racism, but not systemic oppression related to racism)

search tips & tricks
standard library article databases

google scholar strategies:

use OR for alternative terms
use quotation marks " " for phrases
DON'T use AND (it is implied)
DON'T use * ( happens automatically)

google scholar findit@concordia TIP:

example of a simple keyword

combination in socindex

(YouTube, 7 mins)

Developing your search strategy: VIDEO

search strategy test yourself

from our Library Research Skills Tutorial:

back to agenda

or move on to Google Scholar tips?

google scholar "cited by"

once you have found a relevant article, use

"cited by" to find more recent related material

1

2

3

google scholar findit@concordia TIP:

back to agenda

IS IT SCHOLARLY/PEER-REVIEWED/ACADEMIC?

In many Library Databases you can use a checkbox:

scholarly articles checklist

test yourself -

which one(s) count(s) as a
scholarly reading?

Racist policing is making Black and White

Americans question police authority

Public Criminology and Media Debates Over Policing

is it a scholarly research reading? name 3 things

Racist policing is making Black and White

Americans question police authority

Public Criminology and Media Debates Over Policing

This IS an academic/scholarly/
research article. Important clues: published in an peer-reviewed journal, academic language, distinct sections including methodology, long bibliography of references.

This blog entry reports on an interesting study which involved many academics, but it is NOT an academic/scholarly/ peer-reviewed article

Ok, it's scholarly.

but is it a research article?? or is it theoretical?

anatomy of a typical
scholarly research article

graphic showing typical sections in a scholarly article, in this order: Journal/publication name/info, Article Title, Authors, Abstract, Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, Results, Discussion, Conclusion, Bibliography

Introduction/Literature Review
Research Question(s)/Thesis statement
Methods
Key concepts/theories
Findings
Conclusion/Limitations/Further research

some elements of a scholarly research article

back to agenda

annotated bibliographies

apa format

see your soci 310 library guide

google: soci 310 concordia library

screenshot of the annotated bibliography section of the soci 310 library guide

screenshot of annotated bibliography help guide, secton with sample of APA style entry

concordia library guide

sample apa entry:

back to agenda

apa referencing &
citationS

FROM YOUR assignment guidelines:

For all your assignments, you need to use the APA citation style.

APA Citation Style Guides

typical examples:

in-text citations (APA style)

Hakkinen and Akrami (2014) found that “individuals are receptive to climate change communications, regardless of ideological position” (p. 65).

Research shows that people from any ideological background are open to hearing about climate change (Hakkinen & Akrami, 2014).

typical examples:

Bibliography (APA style)

example of a list of References. see link below for accesible version: https://onedrive.live.com/View.aspx?resid=9E1D26621EA2350E!922&wdEmbedFS=1&wdo=2&authkey=!ACb0W46RTUEyCPk

see this sample paper with a reference list on p. 17

What about

automatic citation tools

instead of style guides ?

automatic citation tools

Quick Citation Generators
(for example MyBib, Citation Machine, or those provided within databases like EBSCO, Google Scholar, Sofia)

* Make sure to double check your generated citations - they are not always correct! Use the Library's APA citation style guides to make sure all the required elements of the citation are present and correctly formatted.

automatic citation tools

screenshot formgoogle scholar with 3 search hits, with the "cite" link highlighted

Concordia Library provides support for Zotero.

automatic citation tools

Citation Management SOFTWARE
(for example RefWorks, Mendeley, EndNote, Zotero....)

for full instructions see Zotero slides

back to agenda

what about

THAT literature review?

Most peer-reviewed articles include a literature review within their text, even when it is not separately labeled as such

this paragraph is part of a literature review:

Research on black men in public spaces asserts that predominately white environments lead to a heightened level of visibility and racial profiling for black men that may result in less community engagement (Feagin and Sikes, 1995; Houts Picca and Feagin, 2007; Feagin, 2010; Ray and Rosow, 2012)..... [Researchers] document that white people are more likely to perceive black men as aggressive and are more likely to pull the trigger of a gun on an unarmed black man compared to an unarmed white man, and even at times an armed white man (Eberhardt et al., 2004; Correll et al., 2006; Trawalter et al., 2008). Consequently, most black men become criminalized, even middle class black men who live next door to whites in middle class neighborhoods.

Ray, R. (2017). Black people don’t exercise in my neighborhood: Perceived racial composition and leisure-time physical activity among middle class blacks and whites. Social Science Research, 66, 42–57. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ssresearch.2017.03.008

You can also consult literature review journals. Articles in these journals consist of long and comprehensive literature reviews, with tons of useful references.