Course Number: GG700-800Subject: Geography and Environmental Studies To book a research consultation Use my Appointment booking calendar Who to contact at University of Waterloo Marian Davies, Geography and Environmental Management Librarian UW Library Research contact form for Marian Davies First steps: research question and literature review Planning a literature review: video (5:10) with tips on searching, analysing, and organizing sources for your literature review Generating research questions and keywords: How to become a literature searching ninja (the Thesis Whisperer) Developing a research question: for graduate students (a short, general video) Healey, M. and Healey, R. L. (2015). "How to conduct a literature review," in Clifford, N.J. et al. (eds). (2015). Key methods in geography. London: SAGE Publications. (short chapter (6.4.4), available in Google Books) White, P. (2009). Developing research questions : A guide for social scientists. Basingstoke [England] ; New York: Palgrave Macmillan. The Library System Omni: use to access print books and e-books; individual journals; best for scholarly books 3 search scopes available: 1) Laurier Libraries; 2) Laurier+Waterloo+Guelph Libraries; 3) Laurier+Omni Libraries Details on delivery times available here Databases: access to the greater “information ecosystem"; best to use for peer-reviewed articles WLU Subject Databases UW Research and journal Databases UW Special Collections & Archives/WLU Archives: for local “restricted” collections Interlibrary Loan (RACER): to request wide print materials outside Omni libraries; use for both books and journal articles NOTE: Some of these services are limited our unavailable due to Covid-19 pandemic Unique things to know Use Omni primarily for books Omni IS case sensitive = use AND, OR, NOT to connect your search terms You can "virtually browse" the shelves using the Virtual Browse link on an individual title Constructing a search string Most databases: Use connectors (Boolean operators) to combine terms Watch our video Better Searching using AND, OR NOT AND = use between search terms to retrieve ALL the words in each record OR = use to search related terms/synonyms on the same topic NOT = excludes words or phrases, but should be used judiciously " " = phrase search, exact words in a particular order * = truncation, searches for different forms of a word (variant spellings) ? = wildcard, searches for variant spellings of one letter, e.g. colo?r searches for color, colour Most databases have good "Help" resources on Boolean/Advanced searching; good to check these out before you start; they have advance features not discussed in detail in class How to tell if a journal is scholarly/peer-reviewed/refereed? Many databases, e.g. ProQuest; EBSCO, allow limit to peer-reviewed articles by check box Other databases, e.g. Web of Science, Scopus, Geobase, do not have peer-reviewed check box limiter In this case, you should limit results to "Articles" on the left side menu; this usually removes non-peer-reviewed materials such as conference proceedings, chapters, book reviews, opinion articles, and letters to the editor If in doubt whether an article is from a peer-reviewed journal Use Ulrichsweb Global Serials Directory - do a title search and look for the "referee" symbol Visit the web site of the journal, check their "About" section to determine if it is peer-reviewed, and what the process is For a definition and discussion of "predatory journals see Grudniewicz, A., Moher, D., Cobey, K. D., Bryson, G. L., Cukier, S., Allen, K., ... & Lalu, M. M. (2019). Predatory journals: no definition, no defence. Nature 576, 210-212. doi: https://doi.org/10.1038/d41586-019-03759-y Citation Metrics/Impact of Research Journal Impact Factor: from InCites Journal Citation Reports, through Web of Science Eigenfactor: alternate metric showing "article's importance to the scientific community" from Eigenfactor.org SciMago Journal and Country rank: publicly available portal showing journals and country scientific indicators developed from information in the Scopus database Create a "controlled vocabulary" AKA: Index, Thesaurus, list of Keywords, Subject Headings You need to identify centrally important concepts in your research area and create fixed definitions for them (Abbott, 2014) Assists you in searching, categorizing, analysis and write up Especially important when doing systematic reviews or being careful in replicating research One database every graduate student should know: Dissertations & Theses This is a database of Doctoral dissertations and Master's theses Laurier access - see the Theses and Dissertations page - look for the 1st link to the ProQuest database U. Waterloo access - see the Dissertations and Theses page - it's the 1st result listed Every dissertation should have a literature review section A thesis will often provide a more comprehensive "review" of the literature Managing Citations Getting started with Zotero (video) Using Mendeley's plug-in for Word (video) Using Zotero's plug-in for Word (video) Zotero or Mendeley: which one is best? (video) Services for Graduate Students Click relevant links below for more information on additional Research Workshops, information on the Joint Programme, Graduate Commons Study Space, and more. Note: some services are limited or cancelled due to Covid-19 pandemic. Services for graduate students from the Laurier Library Services for graduate students from the UW Library List of Ontario University Libraries Note: University of Toronto has limits on who may use materials; External researchers (Grad Students, Faculty, or staff from other Canadian Universities) must purchase a Direct Borrower card Reading research articles How to read a scientific paper. From Elsevier. How to read and understand a scientific article. From University Affairs. How to read a scientific article. From Rice University GG700/800 YouTube Video Tutorials (with contents) Online Graduate Library Research Workshop: Introduction 2:30 How to contact 4:05 UW Geography Librarian contact information Part 1.2: Academic Information Ecosystem Part 2.1: From Research Question to Search Strategy 0:10 Topics 0:36 Research questions 1:05 Generating research questions and keywords 2:42 Research question example: mapping 6:53 Creating a research thesaurus/controlled vocabulary 10:04 How to create? Part 2.2: Research Database demo 0:03 controlled vocabulary search in ProQuest 2:33 controlled vocabulary results in Web of Science Part 2.3 Creating a Controlled Vocabulary and Search Strategy 0:00 Intro 0:36 Thinking about concepts 2:08 Search example 2:15 Creating a search strategy 2:19 Purpose of a search strategy 3:42 Steps in creating a search strategy 5:27 Example 7:43 Documenting your research Part 3.1: The Mechanics of Search 0:00 Introduction 1:05 Important caveat! 3:18 Boolean operators 6:19 Phrase searching 7:10 Wildcards and truncation 9:09 Keywords vs. Subject Headings 10:29 Limiters Part 3.2: The Mechanics of Search, Examples 0:06 Geobase 5:10 Web of Science 6:14 Omni outlier 7:20 Help in databases Part 4.1: Managing your Information, Saving searches to a database 0:24 Assumptions 0:47 Topics 1:54 Saving searches to a database 2:06 Saving searches in ProQuest 4:43 Saving searches in Geobase 5:10 Saving results in Web of Science Part 4.2: Managing your Information, saving references to a database 0:19 Saving references in ProQuest 1:57 Saving records in Web of Science Part 4.3: Managing your Information, saving references to a reference manager 0:05 Intro 0:42 Downloading records from Geobase 1:55 Saving records to Mendeley Reference Manager 5:29 Saving records to Zotero 8:10 Working with pdfs in Mendeley 10:35 Working with pdfs in Zotero Part 4.4: Managing your Information, managing info with a reference manager 0:11 Managing information in Zotero 0:48 Removing duplicates in Zotero 2:06 Creating a bibliography in Zotero 3:31 Mendeley update 4:20 WLU Online workshops Further Reading Faculty/Librarian recommendations: Graduate School in General Haggerty, K., & Doyle, A. (2015). 57 ways to screw up in grad school : perverse professional lessons for graduate students. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. print - UW Copy ebook - WLU Copy Berdahl, L., & Malloy, J. (2018). Work Your Career: Get What You Want from Your Social Sciences or Humanities PhD. University of Toronto Press. ebook - UW copy ebook - WLU copy Heard, S. (2016). The Scientist’s Guide to Writing : How to Write More Easily and Effectively throughout Your Scientific Career. Princeton University Press. ebook - WLU copy Graduate Theses Manuals Parsons, T. and Knight, PG. (2015). How To Do Your Dissertation in Geography and Related Disciplines. Routledge. Intended for Undergraduates but still has good information for all stages of writing a dissertation. ebook - UW Copy ebook - WLU Copy Dollinger, M. (2019). Getting the Most Out of Your Doctorate. Bingley: Emerald Publishing. ebook - WLU Copy Blair, L. (2016). Writing a Graduate Thesis or Dissertation. Boston : Brill. ebook - UW Copy print - WLU Copy Oliver, P. (2014). Writing your thesis. (Third edition.). SAGE. Contains a chapter on writing a literature review ebook - WLU Copy print - UW copy Biggam, J. (2015). Succeeding with your master's dissertation : a step-by-step handbook. Berkshire, England : Open University Press print - UW Copy ebook - WLU Copy Geography/Environmental Studies Research Manuals These deal more with non-library related components of the research process. Clifford, N.J. et al. (eds.). 2015. Key methods in geography. London: SAGE Publications. (multiple editions available) Gomez, B. and J. P. Jones. (eds.). 2010. Research methods in geography : a critical introduction. Malden, MA: Wiley-Blackwell. Hay, I. 2016. Qualitative research methods in human geography (Fourth ed.). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press. Kanazawa, M. 2018. Research methods for environmental studies : A social science approach. Abingdon, Oxon ; New York, NY: Routledge. Montello, D. R. and P. C. Sutton (eds.). (2013). An introduction to scientific research methods in geography and environmental studies. 2nd ed. London: SAGE Publications. Northey, M., Draper, D., & Knight, D. B. (2015). Making sense : a student’s guide to research and writing : geography and environmental sciences (Sixth edition.). Don Mills, Ontario: Oxford University Press. Link to Laurier copy and other copies in Omni General Library Research Manuals Abbott, A. (2014). Digital paper : a manual for research and writing with library and internet materials. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. Abbott is an expert Sociologist and provides a great narrative (Ch. 2, A Library Ethnography) of what detailed library work consists of. Mann, T. (2015). The Oxford guide to library research. 4th ed. New York: Oxford University Press. A comprehensive look into the entire gamut of library research; covers database searching at the intermediate to expert level. Indigenous Research Indigenous Research Guide: Developed at UW "jointly by Indigenous students from the Graduate Students Association, the Office of Research, and the Library..." The guide "is intended to identify Indigenous-related resources that have been marginalized, erased, and ignored because of dominant Western practices in education, scholarship, and library science."