Researching Sustainability in Context

PSRF / ENVS 089A

Andrea Baruzzi (she/her)
Science & Engineering Librarian

Simon Elichko (they/he)
Social Sciences Librarian

• Sustainability Brainstorming
• Research topic → research question
• Exploring academic disciplines + conversations
• Zotero
• Work on your research

Agenda

Sustainability Brainstorming

A more sustainable __________

would be (more/better) __________

through ________.

Research Topic → Research Question

Good research questions:

• Permit a range of possible answers that you can examine to see if certain answers are better than others
• Explore something analytically: research questions usually start with describing something, but they don't end there.
  • How did things come to be this way? 
  • Why is ABC this way, given XYZ?
• Often propose some kind of relationship between two (or more) things
  • How does this change in X impact the future of Y?
• Strong research questions have stakes
  • They give you space to explore something that matters
  • They let you make an argument based on what you have learned.

Pay As You Throw
Unit based pricing for waste disposal

• Social sciences
  • Behavioral economics: How do different price levels, waste disposal options, or communication approaches impact customer behavior?
  • Political science: How can municipalities address the needs of low-income residents when implementing unit-based pricing?
• Sciences
  • Engineering: How do you design reliable systems for implementing unit-based pricing at different points in the process? (e.g. residential pickup vs. drop-off sites)

More resources on asking good research questions:

• Salsa Dancing into the Social Sciences - Kristen Luker
• Developing a Thesis Statement - Swarthmore Writing Program
• Analysis vs. Summary - Swarthmore Writing Program

For any given topic, there are many potential research questions. How do you know which one to pursue?

• How do you want to spend your project time?
• What feels important to you?
• Which intellectual reference group seems most compelling?

What do you need to know more about?

Relevance

• Is it on topic?
   
• What are you looking for?
  • Background information
  • Evidence / data
  • Arguments
    • Other scholars' arguments that you can critique and build on
  • Methods
    • Ideas for how to approach studying your specific question

Quality

• Is it scholarly?
  • Does it cite other research?
  • Author expertise
    • Author/contributor bios
    • Try searching:  first name last name cv
  • Publisher
    • Article: was it published in an academic journal?
    • Book: published by a university press?
      • Routledge, Springer
• How often is this article cited? An imperfect metric, but can be roughly helpful (look up article in Google Scholar)

How do you know if a source is any good?

Let's take a break!

Exploring academic disciplines + conversations

Exploring academic disciplines + conversations

Searching a Database

Web of Science

Search Tips

Finding more relevant articles

Research Mapping

• Consider your project and what directions you could go in for the research paper

• Take a few minutes to create a research map (aka mind map)
  • Coggle.it
  • pen and paper

Resources for exploring topics

Handbooks

What /  Focus more on providing overviews than making arguments

Why /   Understand the central questions in an academic discipline, and how scholars have approached particular topics of interest

How to Find:

1. Go to Tripod -> Advanced Search
2. Choose Books & Media
3. Enter keywords:
        Any field/title  sustainability
        Title                handbook

Resources for exploring topics

Review Articles

What /  Generally narrower in scope than handbooks, review articles explore how different scholars in a discipline have approached a particular question.

Example: "Three Faces of Climate Justice" published in the Annual Review of Political Science.

Why /   Roadmap for understanding how scholars in a discipline have approached a certain topic

How /   Find using article databases (e.g. Web of Science) or specialized resources (e.g. Annual Reviews website)

Resources for exploring topics

Information Timeline Graphic by adstarkel. Used under CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Gray Literature

For example: policy research from think tanks, reports from governments, non-profit organizations, and companies

Gray Literature

In Tripod: National Academies Press

Consensus reports

FindPolicy

Gale Environment In Context

Government Information Research Guide

Links to these resources
are on the PSRF Research Guide

Zotero

What is Zotero?

Zotero.org Account

Sync your PDFs and read from anywhere

What can Zotero help you do?

Keep your research materials together

Organize readings and notes by project, course, purpose, etc.

Create your Zotero account

If you don't have one yet, create a free Zotero account.

• Use your Swarthmore.edu email address

• Recommended: Add a second personal email address

Let Elizabeth know when you have an account, so that she can add you to the class Zotero Group.

Working on your research

Today

Spend the remainder of class working on your project

By Nov. 5

Meet with one of the ENVS librarians:

• Andrea Baruzzi (Science & Engineering Librarian) - abaruzz1@swarthmore.edu
• Simon Elichko (Social Sciences Librarian) - selichk1@swarthmore.edu

You can find our appointment schedulers on the
PSRF Research Guide: https://guides.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/psrf 

Review Articles

Annual Reviews

Insect Declines in the Anthropocene (Entomology, 2020)

Good for:

• Up-to-date and reliable information about environmental problems
   
• Substantial, research-based overviews for broad categories of interventions
   
• Overviews of how a topic has been studied by scholars in a discipline

Green Infrastructure and Health
(Public Health, 2021)

See also: Web of Science (if you limit results to Reviews)

Start with:

Environmental, Economic, and Social Consequences of the Oil Palm Boom

(Resource Economics, 2020)

Climate Change Disinformation and How to Combat It (Public Health, 2021)

Sociology and the Climate Crisis
(Sociology, 2020)

Living in a Toxic World
(Anthropology, 2020)

Discipline-Specific Databases

GreenFile

Start with:

See other databases listed on the class research guide: https://guides.tricolib.brynmawr.edu/psrf

Discipline-specific databases often have a built-in vocabulary
that can make searching easier.

Compare results in GreenFile for:

compost
AND university OR college

compost
AND university OR college (select field: Subject Terms)

Filtering & Refining Results

Web of Science

3. Improve your search results by...

Start with:

This strategy works across research tools (JSTOR, Google, Tripod, etc.)

Adding search terms that help differentiate your interests from those represented in the results.

TOPIC: energy consumption

AND TOPIC: (program OR initiative)

AND TOPIC: higher education

Limiting your results by year

You can filter results to review articles (including Annual Reviews)

Filtering & Refining Results

Web of Science

Example: Looking for evidence on sustainability interventions at other institutions.
 

1. Search for  TOPIC: energy consumption

2. Look over results- some will be irrelevant. (Why?)

3. Improve your results by adding terms that help

    differentiate your interests from those represented
    in the results

Start with:

This strategy works across research tools (JSTOR, Google, Tripod, etc.)

Web of Science

19,400

Google Scholar

2,890

⟵ Research Tool

How to improve your searches
1. Choose the right research tool

Cross-Disciplinary
Web of Science • ProQuest
Google Scholar • JSTOR

Discipline-Specific
PubMed • EconLit
GreenFile • PsycInfo • ERIC

Research Tools:

TriCo Libraries

Research Guides

Find Research Tools:

19,400

Google Scholar

2,890

How to improve your searches
2. Use search operators to combine your keywords

Search Operators

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

19,400

Google Scholar

Search Operators:

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

Phrase Search

To search for articles with a specific phrase, enclose it in quotation marks:
"exact phrase"

hydrofracking OR hydraulic fracturing

215,000

19,400

Google Scholar

2,890

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

hydrofracking AND "hydraulic fracturing"

14,440

hydrofracking "hydraulic fracturing"

14,440

Search Operators:

OR and AND

To find articles matching either keyword, combine with OR

To find articles matching both, combine with AND  *usually this is automatic

19,400

Google Scholar

hydrofracking OR "hydraulic fracturing"

How to improve your searches
3. Combine groups of topics

Need help finding sources?  Want to talk over your research?