PEP 455: Design & Analysis of Research
Group Research Project

Library resource guide

Librarian: Nancy Young

E-mail: nyoung@uidaho.edu

UI Library Website: www.lib.uidaho.edu

If you need additional help with your research, try:

 
Assignment #1

 

Goal: Coming up with 3-5 research ideas or problem statements

Sometimes the most difficult part of a project is to think of a topic and then refine it into a focused, usable research question. Here are some resources that might help with this:

--The University of Idaho Library’s Information Literacy Tutorial Module 2 covers all aspects of choosing a topic, narrowing or broadening your focus, and trying different approaches to general subjects.

--Opposing Viewpoints Database: Topics included here tend to be of a pro/con or controversial nature, so it’s a good place to get research ideas that will generate discussion. Try such topics as: Athletes, Eating disorders, Education, Medical care, Medical ethics, Nutrition, Youth.

--CQ Researcher: Each week this full text electronic publication focuses on a different issue that’s currently in the news. You can search by keyword or browse all reports by date or topic. The beauty of this source is that there is usually a pro/con section, a bibliography, chronology, and links to related topics and websites.

Assignment #2

 

 Goal #1: Finding Sources

Scholarly (also called peer-reviewed or refereed) journals are one of the primary means of disseminating ideas in academic scholarship.  To familiarize yourself with these concepts, take a look at Module 1.3 of the University of Idaho Library’s Information Literacy Tutorial.

How To Find Current Articles

Articles are located by searching for your topic in an article database (sometimes called an article index). For an overview of databases and how to search them effectively, see Module 3 of the Information Literacy Tutorial.

Databases Useful for PEP 455

Physical Education Index
Citations and abstracts to literature in the fields of physical education curricula, sports medicine, and dance. Other coverage includes sport law, kinesiology, motor learning, recreation, standardized fitness tests, sports equipment, business and marketing, coaching and training, and sport sociology/psychology. Coverage1970-present.

Leisure Tourism Database (CABDirect)
Over 70,000 research abstracts gathered from all over the world; 400 publications abstracted every year. An eclectic collation of article types including news, spotlights and analysis of specific subjects, and meeting reports. Here are the key subject areas:

  • Leisure and tourism policies
  • Tourism and leisure industries
  • Travel and transport
  • Facility management and planning
  • Recreation, cultural, entertainment and sporting activities
  • Urban regeneration
  • Sociology and behaviour
  • Education and training
  • Community development
  • Ecotourism, natural resources and the environment
  • Hospitality industry

Coverage: 1973 - present

Medline (EBSCO)
A comprehensive database providing citations and abstracts for articles in health, human biology, medicine, veterinary science and related fields. Many Medline articles are available only at other libraries and need to be ordered through interlibrary loan. Also see PubMed and FirstSearch Medline versions. Access funded by the State of Idaho through LiLI (Libraries Linking Idaho). Coverage1966 – present.

ERIC (Ebsco)
ERIC is the world's most widely used index to educational literature. The EBSCO version provides access to ERIC Document citations and ERIC Journal citations. Users can link directly to available full-text of some journal articles and some of the ERIC documents available from ERIC Document Reproduction Service (EDRS) from 1993 to present. Coverage1966-present..

Goal #2: Getting Your Hands on the Sources (Articles)

Many articles are available in full text in the databases. You will see links for HTML or for PDF Full Text formats. If the article in a database is not available in full text, look for the link or symbol for “Article Linker.” Article Linker Clicking on this link will automatically search our library catalog to find out if we have print or electronic copies of the article.  You can also use the “Journal List” (linked from the library homepage) to search for a specific journal title.   If we do not have the article you are looking for, Interlibrary Loan can almost always get the article for you from another library.

Google Scholar
Google has a specific search that takes you to a variety of more scholarly publications (not just articles, but many types of documents).  It is much less defined than the databases above. Some items retrieved are not strictly scholarly. Searching it results in a scatter of publications, all of which need to be scrutinized.  However, it is an impressive resource, sometimes pulling up articles not found elsewhere, old and new.  Sometimes you will see a link called “U Idaho Article Linker” to determine if the UI Library has the journal.

Database Accessible from Washington State University Libraries

Sport Discus (Note: You’ll have to travel over to Pullman and sit down at one of WSU’s computers to use this database, but it is a valuable source of information, so the short trip is well worth it.)

Goal #3: Citing and Annotating Sources

Citing Source

Make sure to copy all the relevant information about any source you might want to use in your paper: author, title, journal name, date of publication, page number, etc. For help in citing your sources (that is, telling the reader where you got your information), see Modules 6.2 and 6.3 of the Information Literacy Tutorial. Make sure to click on the “Online Resources” to get more details and test out your skills.
The ease of cutting and pasting from electronic resources can lead to putting your name on a work that is not really yours. This is both illegal and unethical. That is why the University of Idaho has a plagiarism policy. For more tips on what plagiarism is and how to avoid it, see Modules 6.4, 6.5 and 6.6 of the Information Literacy Tutorial.

 

Preparing An Annotated List or Bibliography

An annotated bibliography gives more information than merely a list of the authors, titles, publishers and dates of the works. For guidance on what you can choose to include in your annotations, see the following websites:
Cornell University, Olin & Uris Libraries, How to Prepare An Annotated Bibliography: http://www.library.cornell.edu/olinuris/ref/research/skill28.htm
OWL, Purdue University Online Writing Lab, Annotated Bibliographies: http://owl.english.purdue.edu/handouts/general/gl_annotatedbib.html
   
Assignment #3
 

Goal: Writing a Literature Review

Often the best way to learn how to write in a specific format or style is to look at models of how others have done it. To find examples of literature reviews in academic journal articles, add the phrase “literature review” to your searches in various article databases. Or use “literature review” as a subject search phrase. For example, the EBSCO database Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection allows you to search for all articles with the subject term: “Literature reviews.”

Another approach is to browse through recent issues of various scholarly journals. Numerous articles will begin with a “lit review” section to set the stage for the research being discussed in the article. Read a few to familiarize yourself with the proper tone and style of this essential introduction to your own research project.
 

All Assignments

Again, looking at other examples of research papers is a good way to see how it’s done. When searching the article databases, try including such search terms as “methodology,” “”research methods,” “qualitative data,” “quantitative data,” “survey analysis,” etc.
Another helpful source might be handbooks or guides on research methods. Try using the Subject Browse choice in the online catalog; useful subject terms are “research,”  “qualitative research,” “research methods.”

There is also a list of journals from PEP 455 Spring 2005 semester that might contain articles relevant to your topics.