Christopher Cox, Dean of Libraries

Don’t understand why they are written

Don’t recognize the purpose of the literature review

Don’t associate the writing with real people

Don’t realize they take a lot of hard work

Start with finished productAnalyze and learn the structureExamine the process by which it was

accepted for publication

GOAL: Better understand how peer-reviewed articles are created and learn how their work fits into the scientific dialogue

Examine a particular mental process in depth Term paper proposal with research

question, annotated bibliography with 5 citations and descriptions of the experimental approaches

Term paper itself, structured like a peer-reviewed journal article▪ Sections include literature review, methods,

results, discussion, references

Teaching students how to search a database

Hitting students over the head with “We’re better than Google”

Defining “peer review” rather than showing it

Providing no prep prior to the sessionNot integrating the session into the

course

Article and Worksheet distributed prior to class via Blackboard

Discussion of article and worksheet answers

Brainstorm keywords Re-trace the author’s steps via

database searches Google PsycInfo PubMed Social Sciences Citation Index

Picking out the right article Peer-reviewed With headings to various sections… …and a good bibliography Something students will want to read Something students should aspire to

The true purpose of performing research is to learn and understand, not just to finish and get the grade.

Christopher Cox, Dean of LibrariesChris.Cox@wwu.edu