SOCI 409
Fall 2024 library workshop
Grad student guide with lots of today's stuff:
RESOURCES FOR YOU
Google: sociology concordia library
2. Statement of research topic and initial bibliography:
...convincing statement of your proposed research topic in three parts: 1) a contextualisation of your topic, including its relevance in both the academy and society at large; 2) an outline of your topic, including your preliminary research question(s); and 3) an initial bibliography comprised of your “golden articles” (3-4), which will set the stage for your preliminary bibliography. For library assistance, please contact Susie Breier by email or see her in office hours: Tuesdays, 15h30-17h30, Zoom, or by appt.
today's context
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 Tuesdays 1-3
most Fridays 4-5
ask questions - GET HELP:
at the AskUs desk
via chat
via email
by phone
Agenda
- ZOTERO bibliographic management [zotero slides]
- LITERATURE REVIEW sources & examples
- Subject-Specific databases for your topic
- Search Strategies & KEYWORDS (boolean operators, wildcards)
- Ensure articles are academic / PEER-REVIEWED / scholarly
- ACCESS STUFF at Concordia & beyond using Sofia
- Referencing and bibliographies (Chicago)
Where can you find a set of academic articles that situate and summarize important sociological or social science scholarship around past and current topics, with titles such as:
- Language Policies and Language Rights
-
Nationalism in Settled Times
- On the Streets, Under Arrest: Policing Homelessness in the 21st Century
-
Punishment, support, or discipline? Taking stock of recent debates about homeless governance in neoliberal cities
- Intersectionality and feminist movements from a global perspective
-
The social movement for reproductive justice: Emergence, intersectional strategies, and theory building
-
The Society of Algorithms
- Artificial intelligence, algorithms, and social inequality
- Theorizing Sexuality Politics of Neoliberalism
- Hook-Up and Dating Apps
Literature Review Sources!
Try it for yourself!
Did you find anything??
Save it to Zotero!!
More Lit review sources: Theses
Did you find anything??
Save it to Zotero!!
"Cited by" or Cited Reference searching
once you have found a relevant article, use
"cited by" to find more recent, related material
1
2
3
Findit@Concordia set-up section at 4:00 mins
Google Scholar how-to video on "cited by" searching [for SOCI 612 course]
Did you find anything??
Save it to Zotero!!
Google Scholar competitors:
think of YOUR relevant (or 'golden') sources and give it a try!
Did you find anything??
Save it to Zotero!!
Search strategies
& keywords
| 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 databases
handout to download:
search strategies
Example of a keyword
combination in SocINDEX
example of a search in "standard"
EBSCO Article Databases
what about
Google Scholar?
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)
("police brutality" OR "police violence" OR "police shootings")
AND
(racis* OR discrimination OR bias or profiling)
AND
(defund OR aboli* OR reform)
IN EBSCO ARTICLE DATABASES
IN GOOGLE SCOLAR:
("police brutality" OR "police violence" OR "police shootings") (racism OR discrimination OR bias OR profiling) (defund OR abolition OR reform)
GOOGLE SCHOLAR findit@concordia TIP:
(YouTube, 7 mins)
Developing your search strategy: VIDEO
from our Library Skills Tutorial- Search Strategies:
Subject-specific databases for your topic
why use them?
(why not just the Sofia/Concordia Library homepage)
where can I FIND them?
what are they?
Subject-specific databases: what are they?
Subject-specific databases:
where can I FIND them?
or:
or:
Subject-specific databases: why use them?
Try it for yourself:
- "climate change"
- "capital punishment"
- homelessness
Enter one of the above search queries in Sofia (or Google Scholar) and SocINDEX (or another subject-specific database) and compare results
Did you find anything??
Save it to Zotero!!
subject-specific databases can help you focus your search and take advantage of specialized search features.
Subject-specific databases: why use them?
but also....
where you search affects
what you find and how you find it
reminder of another example:
Sociology subject database:
Sofia Discovery tool:
I need to find articles on climate change for my assignment. What difference will it make, if any, whether I search in Sofia, Google Scholar, Anthropology Plus, Indigenous Studies Portal, PsycINFO ...or SocINDEX?
where can I FIND all these databases?
Subject-specific databases for various topics
My climate change searches:
climate change in Sofia:
climate change in Google Scholar:
climate change in iPortal:
climate change in Anthropology Plus:
Go see for yourselves!
Did you find anything??
Save it to Zotero!!
use multidisciplinary library article databases & Google Scholar to broaden your search across disciplines and find connections
use subject-specific ARTICLE DATABASES like SocINDEX or MEDLINE to focus your search using a disciplinary or thematic lens
my advice:
Accessing resources at Concordia & beyond
using Sofia
Search for library books, ebooks, articles and films
what if the library doesn't have it ONLINE?
request a book and pick it up later....
or use the call number and locate button to find it
what if the library DOESN'T have it at all?
search for it in any library worldwide:
... and simply request it!
but you CAN'T borrow
eBOOKS from other libraries!!
FIND:
Duina F. Consciousness in Classical Sociological Theories. Journal of Consciousness Studies, v. 25, no. 9-10, 2018, pp. 99–124.
TIP: go back the last slide to see how to find and request it via Interlibrary Loans!
JOURNAL finding/browsing option:
Use the E-journals search
FIND:
Canadian Review of Sociology
still unsure or CONFUSED ?
use library article databases & google scholar to search for literature on a topic
use Sofia to search for and access items like (e)books, journals and films, but:
Accessing items -final words of advice
SCHOLARY /ACADEMIC / PEER-REVIEWED SOURCES
peer-reviewed articles checklist
test yourself - which one(s) is/are peer-reviewed?
still not quite getting it?
Here are some tips & tools.....
Concordia video
In many Library Databases you can use a checkbox:
VIDEO: peer-review in 3 minutes
Referencing & Bibliographic Management
BUT FIRST.
WHY SHOULD WE CARE ABOUT CITING & CITATIONS????
some different perspectives
This is a challenge for all of us: Reflect on the way you approach referencing the work of others in your own writing, presenting and thinking. Whose work do you build on to make arguments ... Who are you citing, and why do you cite them (and not others)?
Eve Tuck, K. Wayne Yang, Rubén Gaztambide-Fernández,"Citation Practices" Critical Ethnic Studies, April 2015
I believe that bibliographies and endnotes and references and sources are alternative stories that can, in the most generous sense, centralize the practice of sharing ideas about liberation and resistance and writing against racial and sexual violence.
Katherine McKittrick,"Footnotes (Books and Papers Scattered about the Floor)", Dear Science and Other Stories,2021
Start by picking a
citation style:
Reference formatting & management good practices
use a citation style guide:
CHICAGO STYLE: typical examples:
in-text citations
People from any ideological background are open to hearing about climate change (Hakkinen and Akrami 2014)
Hakkinen and Akrami (2014) found that “individuals are receptive to climate change communications, regardless of ideological position” (65).
CHICAGO style: typical examples:
Bibliography
Doherty, Thomas. J., and Susan Clayton. 2011. “The psychological impacts of global climate change.” American Psychologist 66, no. 4: 265-276.
Hakkinen, Kristi, and Nazar Akrami. 2014. “Ideology and climate change denial.” Personality and Individual Differences 70: 62-65.
McCright, Aston M., and Riley E. Dunlap. 2011. “Cool dudes: The denial of climate change among conservative white males in the United States.” Global environmental change 21, no.4: 1163-1172.
References
What about automatic citation tools?
take your pick:
a) citation generators*
b) citation management tools*
Make sure to double check your generated citations - they are not always correct! Use those citation style guides to make sure all the required elements of the citation are present and correctly formatted.
*
a) citation generators
Many library databases (for example: Sofia Discovery tool, EBSCO and ProQuest databases) as well as Google Scholar will provide you with formatted citations in the style of your choice that you can copy and paste into your bibliography, reference list or works cited list!
b) citation management tools
Sometimes also called bibliographic management tools, these allow you to:
- Download citations you find in library catalogues, databases, Google Scholar, and on the web.
- Store and organize citations, and prepare a bibliography or reference list automatically.
-
Automatically format and insert in-text citations and a bibliography into papers you are writing with Microsoft Word, for example.
There are several citation management tools available. Concordia Library provides support for Zotero...........