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Bibliographic Skills in Social Research

Bibliographic Skills in Social Research. Sveta Milyaeva School of Social and Political Science s.milyaeva@ed.ac.uk. Finding sources Basic Search Strategy ‘Snowballing’ How to Follow up on Studies II. Referencing III. Managing your records Zotero. Session Outline.

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Bibliographic Skills in Social Research

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  1. Bibliographic Skills in Social Research Sveta MilyaevaSchool of Social and Political Science s.milyaeva@ed.ac.uk

  2. Finding sources • Basic Search Strategy • ‘Snowballing’ • How to Follow up on Studies II. Referencing III. Managing your records • Zotero Session Outline

  3. What do databases offer? Citation - publication details Abstract - summary of the article Full text E-journal articles E-books Newspaper articles Dissertations Archives

  4. Databases: What and How? • Access through EASE - MyEd • Databases A-Z list

  5. Basic Search Strategy Given your research question (define one first): Define subject keywords and synonyms Use appropriate truncation and wildcards Use Boolean operators(AND, OR, NOT) to refine your search

  6. Keywords • Be clear about the topic • Think of related terms • Variation in word endings • Synonyms, abbreviations (e.g. SSPS) • Variant terminology and spelling (UK/US) • Don’t use long descriptive phrases

  7. Truncation and Wildcards • Truncation allows to look for all forms of a keyword: plurals, variant endings, etc. Type in start of word plus truncation symbol (depending on the database: * or ?) wom?n = woman or women employ* = employ, employer(s), employed, employee(s), employment • Wildcard allows for variation in a letter in the middle of a word, not at the end (usually a ? mark) organi?e =organise and organize

  8. Boolean Searching Record contains either A or B Record contains both A and B Record contains A but not B

  9. ‘Snowballing’ One useful reference can lead you to more • Search for other writings by same author • Follow up on references used by author in bibliography • Note keywords assigned to it and use them to runa new search

  10. Following up on StudiesSherman and Berk (1984) ‘The Specific Deterrent Effects on Arrest for Domestic Assault’,American Sociological Review To find other authors discussing the study AND to see how influential the paper is • MyEd • Searcher • Databases A-Z (tab) • S - Social Sciences Citation Index • Web of Knowledge - Web of Science (tab) • Cited Ref Search • SHERMAN L* and 1984 • Select all those in the AM SOC REV and click ‘Finish Search’ Result: Get a list of over 400 articles citing the paper

  11. Other Searching Strategies • E-Journals (MyEd - Library) • Google - Google Scholar focuses on academic sources only • Research = Re-Search

  12. Referencing: Rationale (1) Rendering authority to your claim ‘The difference between technical [scientific] and non-technical [fictional] literature is not that one is about fact and the other about fiction, but that the latter gathers only a few resources at hand, and the former a lot of resources, even from far away in time and space.’ Bruno Latour, Science in Action (1987: 33)

  13. Referencing: Rationale (2) Allowing follow up: • Is it so? ‘As Latour (1987) argues, scientific writing, unlike fiction, is based on facts, thus represents reality.’ • Interesting!

  14. Referencing: Rationale (3) Ideas are possessions. Avoid plagiarism.

  15. Methods of Referencing • The Harvardsystem - parenthesis (within the sentence punctuation) - most subjects in SSPS • The Cambridge system - footnotes (at the bottom of the page) or endnotes (at the end of the text)

  16. Harvard Citation

  17. Cambridge Citation

  18. Electronic Sources Can my readers access the document I used from the reference I have given? Websites - the date you accessed the source in Bibliography: Bank for International Settlements (BIS). 2007. Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity. <http://www.bis.org/triennial.htm>, accessed January 8, 2008 in your text: Currency forwards constitute the major part of Forex market; for instance, in 2007 they accounted for about 66 per cent, whereas spot transactions for 31 per cent of the total $3.2 trillion a day turnover (BIS 2007: 4, Table B.1)

  19. (some) Useful Sources on Referencing • Turabian, Kate. 2007. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations. Chicago: University of Chicago Press. • Bibliographic and Citation Skills (SSPS, Edinburgh University): http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/47627/Expandingyourbibliography.pdf

  20. Managing Records: Zotero Free reference management software - add-on for the Firefox browser Collect - Organise - Cite - Share: - get a reference off the web and onto Zotero - use it for referencing  www.zotero.org - Documentation: Getting Stuff into Your Library Word Processor Integration

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