Architecture (2024): Ask Me: Research Help

DO THIS: go back and read your assignment. Answer the following questions:

1. Is this information really relevant to the assignment and to my topic?
2. Does this information help me shape the questions I have about this topic? Does it help me consider answers?
3. Does this source lead me to other sources I can use?

Who is/are the authors? Are they qualified to write on this topic? Does their background, resume or current activity make them more or less credible on this topic?

DO THIS: Do a quick search for an author's bio or cv (= academic resume). You can also check to see whether the author has written any other articles, papers or books on the same topic.

Make sure websites provide you with the name of the actual author (not just the webmaster).

Can't tell who the author is? You should never use information that you can't verify in an academic paper.

DO THIS: find a description of the publisher of your book or article, or find their website. What is their mission? What types of things do they publish, and who is their audience?

OK to use: art history book by Yale University Press.
Why? University publishers produce academic-quality books that have been written by experts in the field, and have been fact-checked before they are published.

Questionable: book on Susan B. Anthony by Scholastic Publishing.
Why? Scholastic is a publisher that produces books for K-12 schools. The information in the book will be accurate, but for a college paper you should find a book that's written at the college level.

Questionable: book on the Civil War published by Author House.
Why? Author House is a website that helps people self-publish: anyone can write a book and publish via Author House. No fact-checking, no guarantee of subject expertise.

Online:

• .com = business
• .org = organization
• .gov = government agency
• .edu = school
• .edu/~morgan = Mr. Morgan's personal page at Unnamed University.

DO THIS: find a publishing date. Ask yourself:

1. is there more recent information on your topic?
2. is it important to your paper that you use the most recent information? IDepends on the subject)

• On web pages, find the date the material was originally written, and when the page was last updated.
• Journal article in a database: make sure you know when the article was originally written (don't confuse that with the date it was added to the database).

DO THIS:  use information about the author and publisher to determine whether they may have a bias about your topic.

If they do, you will have to make this clear in your paper when you use any information from their writing. Ask yourself:

• Is the information fact, or opinion?
• Is it supported by evidence? What sort of evidence?
• What is the purpose? What do the authors want to accomplish?
• Is there an implicit or explicit bias?

DO THIS:

1. check for sources. Do the authors use citations, do they provide references and/or a bibliography?

2. check a few facts from the information against a reliable source, for example, an encyclopedia. The library subscribes to Credo Reference, Oxford Reference Online, and has encyclopedias in the first-floor reference section.

Peer reviewed articles (also sometimes called refereed articles) require that experts in the field must first examine the article before it is accepted for publication. This ensures that the research is sound, current, and of high quality.

Be careful: even if a journal is peer reviewed, that does not mean all articles in it are! Some article types, such as editorials, letters, and book reviews, may not be peer reviewed even if the other articles in the journal have been reviewed.

Tips for finding peer reviewed journals:

1.    Look the title up in the Ulrich's Periodicals Directory: look for the black and white shirt ("Refereed") icon.

2.    Select the Peer Reviewed limiting option (available in most databases).

3.   Ask a librarian for help in determining whether journals and articles are peer reviewed: email us at library@hollins.edu, or ask for help at the library's front desk.

Your assignment may require you to use scholarly, or peer-reviewed, journal articles for your bibliography. What are these articles, and what makes them different from articles from magazines like Time?