Resources for Researchers
Research Literacy, Commonwealth College

The Research Question

A good research question will focus your research and writing. “To Research” means to find out about something; you must first ask a question in order to discover or develop any idea. It has been said that a good research question is the “Keystone” of good research and writing. A very common research problem is beginning with the answer before asking the question. A research question is not the same as a thesis statement. In other words, a research question is an open-ended beginning not an endpoint.
What is a research question?

The Research Log

Research logs prove invaluable at every stage of the research process from locating and evaluating sources, to composing your paper or literature review, to documenting sources and compiling a works cited list or bibliography. Basic research logs provide informal yet detailed records of sources, including author, title, journal or site, and URL. They include as well brief summaries of important points and potentially useful quotations. The expanded research log contains all the information of a basic log plus a record of the researcher's thought process while evaluating sources and using the research process to focus the initial research question.

Evaluating Sources

Source evaluation means that you assess print and online publications for information relevancy, accuracy, and reliability. What is the type of source (e.g. an Internet Website or a scholarly article from an academic journal)? Why were these particular sources chosen? How do the sources work together to produce a response to your research question? How do the sources relate to one another and to your research question.
A Google search for source evaluation turns up 6,740,000 links. Most of them have the same basic information asking you to evaluate sources from Internet Search engines for accuracy, objectivity, validity, and creditability. Websites vary greatly in quality and stability. Many are maintained by academic institutions, professional organizations, and individual scholars that uphold rigorous and carefully documented standards. However, any individual or organization can create a Web site without having to be reviewed by an editor or a publisher. Remember that the Library Online Databases have already been evaluated for some criteria.

Iona College Libraries: Evaluating Websites
Virtual Salt: Evaluating Internet Research Sources
Though launched in 1997, Robert Harris’s site is the basis for the UMass Merlin site, and provides quicker access to similar information and guidelines for evaluating sources.
Greater Boston Cooperative Library Association Web Tutorial Contains links to a number of information and tutorial sites pertaining to the evaluation of on-line sources.
What Is a Scholarly Journal?
This site from Minnesota State Colleges and Universities – MnSCU PALS offers an easy guide to distinguishing between scholarly and popular sources.

Search Strategies

Getting just the information you want and not a whole lot more or a whole lot less can be tricky. It depends on the search words you use and the ways you cluster and connect them. The sites below provide strategies for limiting your search without eliminating potential useful sources.

The Literature Review

A review of the literature is not an annotated bibliography. Written in the style of an expository essay, it not only tells your reader what professional literature exists on your chosen topic, but also organizes and evaluates that information.

Documenting Your Sources

Various disciplines rely on various styles of documentation. Writers in the arts and humanities usually follow the forms of the Modern Language Association (MLA); social scientists typically adhere to the American Psychological Association (APA) guidelines; many writers in the natural sciences as well as mathematics follow the Council of Science Editors (formerly the Council of Biology Editors or CBE) style. Historians traditionally follow a fourth guide, The Chicago Manual of Style, often referred to as “Turabian” for Kate Turabian, dissertation secretary at the University of Chicago from 1930 to 1958. Some book and journal editors produce their own individual style guides as well.

Two of many excellent handbooks provide MLA, APA, and Chicago citation information:

Gibaldi, Joseph. MLA Handbook for Writers of Research Papers.
     6th ed. New York: MLA, 2003.
Lunsford, Andrea A. The Everyday Writer. 3rd ed. Boston:
     Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2005.
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association.
    5th ed. Washington: American Psychological Association, 2002.
The Chicago Manual of Style.
    15th ed. Chicago: U of Chicago P, 2003.

The sites below provide MLA citation information, models and helpful tools as well:

All citation styles from Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center

MLA from Purdue Online Writing Lab

APA from Purdue Online Writing Lab

UMass Amherst Library RefWorks Bibliography Manager

Links to a variety of library online databases are available from the Library Database Research Guide.

Obtaining Copyright Permission

Asking for permission to use the ideas and images of others is an increasingly important skill in today’s digital society. These clear guidelines from the Copyright Management Center, Indiana University-Purdue University-Indianapolis provide information about fair use along with worksheets for making decisions about copying, educational use, and pubic domain.

http://www.copyright.iupui.edu/index.htm