soci 310

library research workshop

Fall 2023 - for  Profesor Zhifan Luo

concordia.ca/library/guides/sociology/soci310.html

your subject librarian: susie.breier@concordia.ca (she/her)

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

Text

ZOOM office hours: most Tuesdays

3:30-5:30 pm

OR by appointment

AskUs Desk
Webster Library most Mondays 3-5 pm

concordia.ca/library/guides/sociology.html

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

Text

Google: concordia library sociology subject guide

YOUR ASSIGNMENTS:

where does the

library come in?

 

  1. A title of your proposed research project
     
  2. A statement of the research question and rationale for its significance and relevance to the scientific community and society at large (1-2 paragraphs),
     
  3. A mini literature review (2-3 paragraphs),
     
  4. A plan for data collection that specifies the methods you plan to use, justification of this methodological choice, and your plan to collect data (2-3 paragraphs).

your Research Proposal & the Library

  1. FIND research related to YOUR TOPIC(s)
  2. Ensure research is PEER-REVIEWED
  3.  LITERATURE REVIEW examples and how-tos
  4. CITATION STYLE GUIDES &  ZOTERO 

planned Agenda items

also good to cover

BUT FIRST:

NEED ASSISTANCE WITH ANY  of those items or with other LIBRARY STUFF?

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

 ask questions - GET HELP:

icon of person asking a question
speech bubble icon for chat
email icon
phone icon

 

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 (she/her)

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

Text

ZOOM office hours: most Tuesdays

3:30-5:30 pm

OR by appointment

AskUs Desk
Webster LB building: most Tuesdays 1-3

concordia.ca/library/guides/sociology.html

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

Text

Google: concordia library sociology subject guide

under the "Help & How-to" menu, the option Subject and Course guides is highlighted
menu bar from the library web site, with the "Help and How to" tab selected
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

back to agenda

finding research

related to your topic

Back View Of Man In Hoodie Walking On Pedestrian Lane Beside Yellow Building by Scopio from NounProject.com

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

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:

*see also: Google Scholar tips to find more recent articles

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

back to agenda

or move on to Google Scholar tips?

 google scholar ANYONE?

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

peer-reviewed articles checklist

In many Library Databases you can use a checkbox:

test yourself - which one(s) is/ARE peer-reviewed?

 

Racist policing is making Black and White

Americans question police authority

Disband, Disempower and Disarm: Amplifying
the Theory and Practice of Police Abolition

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

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

Racist policing is making Black and White

Americans question police authority

Disband, Disempower and Disarm: Amplifying
the Theory and Practice of Police Abolition

still not quite getting it?

VIDEO: peer-review in 3 minutes

still not quite getting it?
view our video

back to agenda

entering your keywords

SEARCH STRATEGIES

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

handout to download:

search strategies

example of a 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

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). In his examination of the social relations between whites and blacks in the 21st century, Feagin (2010) finds that whites have limited social class cues to tell differences among black men (i.e., professor, lawyer, delivery man, criminal) .... Psychologists document that some whites 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.

Sociology Compass

examples of literature review journals:

Annual Review of Sociology

examples of literature review articles:

Sociology Compass article: The unstudied reference neighborhood: Towards a critical theory of empirical neighborhood studies

examples of literature review articles:

Annual Review of Sociology Article: Is Racism a Fundamental Cause of Inequlities in Health?

back to agenda

referencing &
citationS


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

 

ASA Citation Style Guides

typical examples:

in-text citations (ASA 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 communications (Hakkinen and Akrami 2014:65).

 

typical examples:

reference page (ASA style)

see these examples for journal articles from  from an ASA Style Guide

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 citation style guides to make sure all the required elements of the citation are present and correctly formatted.

automatic citation tools

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

Accessing resources
at concordia & beyond
 

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

ONLINE

books

from

other

libraries

back to agenda

SOCI 310

By susie breier

SOCI 310

Library Workshop slides for SOCI 310 Research Methods course, Concordia, Fall 2023, Professor Zhifan Luo

  • 255

More from susie breier