Research methods &

Annotated Bibliographies in APA

Style

1

Today’s session…

Focus on your research assignments

Brief library overview

Search strategy for your literature review

Finding articles (especially academic (peer reviewed) journal articles) and reports

Primary vs. Secondary sources

Primary sources: Qualitative vs. Quantitative methods of data collection

Annotated bibliography with APA style documentation

2

Your assignment

Choose a research question relating to student

success (e.g. What factors impact student

success?)

Do a literature review on your research question to

learn some answers – what is generally known

and accepted, what is debated, etc.

Create an annotated bibliography using a

minimum five (5) relevant sources, using APA

formatting. Sources should be books, periodicals,

newspapers & other library materials

library.centennialcollege.ca

Distance Access

4

You need an active library account to use the

library; e.g. borrow books, access full text e-

resources from off campus, renew books

online, etc.

Come in person to the Library with your

Student Card and staff will activate it for

library use.

Ashtonbee Library, Room L-202

LIBRARY RESOURCES

Centennial Libraries homepage

http://library.centennialcollege.ca/

START YOUR

RESEARCH

Search all Library

Resources

&

Check your Library

Account

LIBRARY SERVICES…

• Tutoring

• Ask the Library - help with

assignments

• Study rooms and tech studios

• Equipment loans

• Course Reserves

• Guides and info on the website

• RESEARCH – Library Classes

handouts & resources

• etc.

LIBRARY SERVICES…

Guides you likely want to use…

• Annotated Bibliographies

• APA style

• The Literature Review

• Etc.

Guides

menu

LIBRARY RESOURCES

You have access to resources at all 4

campus libraries.

Libraries website lists in detail what

each library has.

LIBRARY HOMEPAGE

http://library.centennialcollege.ca/

Access to all library resources

9

Search Strategy for your

Literature Review

It is always helpful to have a search

strategy before you start searching –

and necessary when you have a

complex topic.

[word doc]

ON HOW TO DEVELOP YOUR SEARCH STRATEGY:

Step 1: Think clearly about your research topic. Expressing it in a full sentence helps.

Step 2: Identify the main concepts in your topic .

[word doc]

Step 3: Be prepared to search using a variety of keywords & phrases. People often use different terms

for the same concept

Language matters!

NOTE: Use the Subject Headings help in library E-Resources (“databases “) to find terms similar in

meaning

LIBRARY HOMEPAGE

http://library.centennialcollege.ca/

E-Resources & E-Books / Journals (Full Text)

– click on this link to search directly in databases

13

Go to E-Resources by Subject – Education for a

list of databases you can search for articles and

reports on your topic….

Direct Database Search Tools

The following sample searches illustrate some of the precision tools

you can use to get results you need when searching directly in

databases.

Some tools and techniques will limit (“refine” or “filter”) your results to

give you fewer results with greater relevancy

Some tools and techniques will expand your results to give you more

results

Most databases give you options to manage your results (print, email,

save) and many provide APA citation help

The research question used as an example is “What are the symptoms

of heart disease?” You can use the tools and techniques illustrated

here to your own research questions, whatever they may be.

Alt HealthWatch database: a typical

search …

3,480 records found (with Full Text

limit)

Go

Use another

row for terms

relating to

another

concept (to

make search

more specific)

Information about the the

article is entered in

FIELDS.

Title field

Subject field

Abstract field

• all 3 are powerful field

limits to use to get

fewer records and

more relevancy.

Sample detailed record in a database,

showing FIELDS

LIBRARY database tools

Direct searching in

databases provides you with

many tools.

Use field limits to get fewer

records and more relevancy

Abstract

Field

limit

Subject

Field

limit

LIBRARY database tools

Direct searching in

databases provides you with

many tools.

Use limits (“refinements”) to

get fewer records and more

relevancy

Abstract

Field

limit

Subject

Field

limit

Peer

Reviewed

(Scholarly

article) limit

Full

Text

limit

LIBRARY

More Limits

typically available in a

database :

• Scholarly (Peer

Reviewed) journals

• Publication date

• Document Type

• Publication Type

• Image content

10 Important

for your

assignment!

NOTE:

The Scholarly (Peer Reviewed)

Journals limit will normally provide

you a selection of articles that are

write-ups of original research done

(“primary sources”) – important for

your student success assignment

Peer

Reviewed

(Scholarly

article) limit

Subject field terms (Thesaurus)

check for preferred terminology used

in the database

Subject field terms

Including these terms in your

searches increases the number and

quality of your results:

• Use exact phrasing, and

• add Subject field terms with similar

meaning recommended in the

database thesaurus

Example of a search using the

Subject Terms recommended

Results list produces twice as many

records as before

11

More ways to get more:

• Remove some or all limits

• Use more related terms (your own

terms or subject heading terms)

Here: 333 records (only Full Text limit

used) – over 10X more than last

search

(NOTE: You can also get more by searching

more than one database at a time – click on

Choose Databases, and add more… (You

can do this with EBSCO, ProQuest, and

Gale vendor databases. Not demonstrated

here.)

LIBRARY more database tools

You can print, save, email the

document – and get APA citation

help

12-13

Help screens available in databases

14

PAGE OPTIONS…

Another database tool you can

use when browsing your

results…-

Default

page

option is

“Brief”

display

Use the

Page

Options

menu to

get

“Detailed”

display

(that

includes

the

abstract)

askON Chat with library staff on your desktop or laptop

Direct E-Resources (“databases”) searching

Scholarly journal articles are often write-ups of primary

research done…

Primary source:

In the context of academic research or

writing: designating an original

document, source, or text rather than

one of criticism, discussion, or summary.

-Oxford English Dictionary Online

Examples?

Primary (“original”) sources

Some examples:

Scholarly (peer reviewed) journal articles that are write-ups of original research done

Statistics or other data collected using accepted research methods (e.g. surveys, questionnaires, etc.)

Other original documents or accounts: interviews with individuals who have direct first-hand experiences or eye witness status, diaries, letters, photographs, art, maps, some newspaper articles, video & film, published first-hand accounts or stories

Secondary (“not original”) sources

Some examples:

Works of criticism

Literature reviews - gathering together statistical data provided by other primary researchers

Summaries of others’ work

Opinion pieces

Discussion lacking research support

Library research - gathering together statistical data provided by other primary researchers

Methods used by primary researchers to collect data…

Your annotated bibliography assignment &

research methods…

If you have chosen a scholarly journal

article that is a write-up of original

(“primary”) research done, you will be

expected to include some discussion

about how information was collected

Quantitative vs. Qualitative

Research Methodologies

What’s the difference?

Qualitative methods – some examples

In-depth interview

Focus group (an unstructured, free-flowing but moderated interview with a small number of selected individuals on a specific topic)

Case study (an intensive investigation of specific situation that can provide insight to the problem at hand)

Focus Group Facilitation. M. J. Barney & Associates

http://www.mjbarney.com/focusgroups.html

Quantitative methods – some

examples Observation technique

(the systematic recording of behaviour patterns of the subjects or occurrences without questioning or in any way communicating with them)

Experimentation (research that allows for the isolation of one variable at a time while the others are being kept constant to test a hypothesis about cause and effect)

Survey techniques (telephone, self-administered questionnaires, structured interviews with some form of statistical sampling)

Survey. Tecvh & Gadget

http://www.bypassbrowser.com/the-new-speech-analytics-

method.html/speech-analytics-method-survey

Library has many books on

research methods…e.g.

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Qualitative research techniques

“…research methodologies used in the analysis of data that is not easily reduced to numbers, i.e. quantified….concerned with the subjective understanding & interpretation of social behaviour”

(Source: ‘Qualitative Research Techniques’,

World of Sociology, Credo Reference database.)

Qualitative vs. Quantitative

Quantitative research techniques: “…differ from qualitative techniques in

that they are more data-centered [using statistical methods, numbers] than individual-centered and are more detached and descriptive than in-depth and probing.”

(Source: ‘Qualitative Research Techniques’,

World of Sociology, Credo Reference database)

Content & Form…

Annotated bibliography - page

format (APA style here)

Entry in an annotated

bibliography with a simple

annotation that provides a

brief summary…

By viewing the abstract here,

can you tell whether this article

is a primary or secondary

source?

By viewing the abstract here,

can you tell whether this article

is a primary or secondary

source?

Guides reminder…

Go to Centennial Libraries

homepage for help with

Annotated bibliographies, APA

style, etc.

…

Using the Libraries’ Google-like Search Everything

search engine

Search Everything…

Type in your keywords relating to

your topic…

Results are displayed….

Use the Refining tools (“limits”) on the

left column to narrow your search results.

Example, if you want only books /

ebooks, click the “Book /eBook” limit

under Content Type. You will get 416

results.

Some Google search tools you may find useful:

Google Basic & Google Advanced Search

Google Scholar & Google Advanced Scholar

Google Images & Google Advanced Image Search