SOC101Finding Sociology

Information

Martin J. Crabtree - MCCC library

Agenda

• Finding books• Periodicals

– What makes a periodical scholarly?– Periodicals available through the library

• Electronic searching strategies• Sociology databases at the MCCC

Library• Database info ≠ Webpage info• Giving the author credit

Finding books in the libraryThe online card catalog

• The catalog is available online. Used to find books, videos and other material both in the MCCC collection and the Mercer County Public (MCL) libraries.

• You can have materials from MCL brought to the college. Deliveries arrive Tuesday and Friday afternoons. (DVD’s not available from MCL)

• You will need to have your student ID card to borrow books or use the computer lab in the library

Link to the catalog is on the library’s web pages.

Periodicals

• Periodicals include:– scholarly journals– newspapers– magazines

• Periodicals represent the bulk of published scholarly information.• The library has a number of periodicals available in

print, on microfilm, and especially via electronic databases.

• The library staff can help determine if a specific

periodical is available from the library.

So just what is a scholarly (or peer reviewed) periodical?

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

Scholarly• Purpose is to inform the

scholarly world of original research in a given field

• Has a serious format

• Contains many graphs & charts few photos

• Regularly uses footnotes and bibliographies

• Written by scholars or researchers

Popular/General Interest• Purpose is to inform,

entertain and/or sell to a wide audience

• Attractive/slick appearance

• Frequently uses photos and a few graphs & charts

• Rarely uses footnotes or bibliographies

• Written by staff or freelance writers

Scholarly vs. Popular Periodicals

Scholarly• Uses the terminology and

jargon of the subject, assumes reader knows it

• Published by professional or educational organizations

• Contains little if any advertising

• Examples: Annals of Microbiology, Journal of Abnormal Psychology

Popular/General Interest• Rarely uses subject

terminology or jargon, when used, contains explanation

• Published by commercial enterprises for profit

• Extensive inclusion of advertisements

• Examples: Newsweek, People, Psychology Today

Periodicals in the MCCC Library

• The Library subscribes to a number of periodicals including:– American Sociological Review– Journal of Social Issues– Social Problems

• Also available are a number of electronically accessible databases of articles.

Searching Electronic Databases

And The Web Too

Starting An Electronic SearchKeywords

• Keywords are used when searching electronic databases and web search engines

• First step - Generate a list of words (keywords) that describes or is commonly used when discussing your topic. For example:– Ozone– Layer– Depletion– Atmosphere– Hole

Starting An Electronic Search

Boolean Searching/Logic

• Boolean searching - Connecting keywords with the terms– and– not– or

• For example– eagles NOT football– (car or automobile) and exhaust

• More Terms = Fewer “Hits”

Searching More Than Just Keywords

Phrases & Truncations• To search for a phrase, use quotation

marks– “survival of the fittest”

• Truncations allow for searching related words all at once– The * is usually used. For example:

• “sociolog*” would include: sociology, sociological, sociologist, etc.

Searching More Than Just Keywords

Field Limiters• Database field limiters allow you to

specify your search within varied parameters for example:– Only full-text articles– Only peer reviewed/scholarly journals– Date (or date range)

Let’s take a quick look at how Boolean searching can help

Electronic Databases at the Mercer Library

Electronic DatabasesIn General

• Over 60 databases available• Not every article is available full text

though many are.• Abstracts (summary) is often

available when full text is not.

Electronic Databases - In General

• Accessible at any computer on the MCCC/JKC campus network

• Most are available off campus.

• Can print/e-mail/download articles

• Need acrobat reader for some articles in PDF format.

Accessing Databases Remotely

• You can access most of the databases from any computer with internet access.

• Use your student ID number (no dashes) and your last name to log into the databases. i.e.

• If you are already using an issued password and ID number, they are still valid too.

Remote Login Screen

Use your student ID number & last name Use your previously

issued User ID & password

Some of the databases

• Proquest Social Science Journals– Articles in the Social Sciences field including

scholarly articles.

• EBSCOhost - Academic Search Premier– Broadest of the databases covering everything

from science to the humanities including many scholarly journals

– Not every article full text– Need Acrobat Reader for some articles

Database information vs. web information

What is a databases?

• A collection of electronically searchable information (frequently, but not limited to, periodical articles) that is accessible via the internet

• Access to this information is by paid subscription only (paid by the library).

• It is accessible via the internet, but it is not truly web information.

Database info ≠ Webpage info

• Though both use a browser (like Netscape or Explorer) the information is not the same.

• Database info comes from known sources of information such as Newsweek or The New York Times.

• Web information can be put up by anyone hence the quality of this information varies greatly from site to site.

Database info ≠ Webpage info

• Accuracy: Editors & fact checkers insure this for periodicals, can’t tell if it’s done for many websites.

• Authority: Journal articles are written by experts, with web info it can be hard to tell if the writer is an expert or not.

• Objectivity: Journals strive to give an unbiased presentation of information, some websites can be very opinionated

Database info ≠ Webpage info

• Currency: Journals always have a given date (i.e. Spring 2002, January 2005), often you can’t tell how old web info is.

• Coverage: Journal articles cover their subject thoroughly (though the subjects can be very narrow), web info tends to be abbreviated (20 page journal articles are common, 20 page web pages are not).

Using the information you find

...and giving credit where credit is due.

Using the Information You Find

• Always give credit to the author or creator of the information that you use.

• This includes not only the actual facts, conclusions, and ideas that an author presents but also the words that he/she has used.

Plagiarism can take many forms

• Plagiarism is the presenting of someone else’s intellectual work as your own.

• It may be done deliberately, but it may also be done without your realizing it.

• The copying, word for word, from a book or an article is the most blatant form of plagiarism.

Plagiarism when paraphrasing or writing a

summary• Incomplete paraphrasing or summarizing another’s work could cause plagiarizing without your realizing it.

• To prevent this, you should avoid: Using the original sentence structure. Simply substituting a few words here and

there. Using any of the author's key words or

unusual words.

• Let’s look at an example...

Good paraphrasing

• It takes some effort to do a good job of paraphrasing.

• One helpful method is to: 1. Read the original sentence

2. Without looking at the sentence, try writing the idea of the sentence in your own words

3. Look back at the original sentence again to see it you haven’t used too much of the original language

-Adapted from “Avoiding Plagiarism”, at the University of the Sciences in Philadelphia webpage: http://www.usip.edu/writing/plagrsm.shtml

Giving credit using the APA format

• You will be using the APA (American Psychological Association) style.

• The latest APA manual is available in the library: – The Publication Manual of the American

Psychological Association, 5th ed. at: BF76.7.p83 2001 (in the reference collection & on reserve).

• The manual is not available on line.• For more help with the APA style, go to:

– http://www.mccc.edu/student_library_guides.shtml (click on APA)

– http://www.psywww.com/resource/apacrib.htm

Now it’s your turn…