Bibliographic Skills in Social Research

Bibliographic Skills in Social Research

Sveta MilyaevaSchool of Social and Political

Science s.milyaeva@ed.ac.uk

Session OutlineI. Finding sources

• Basic Search Strategy

• ‘Snowballing’

• How to Follow up on Studies

II. Referencing

III. Managing your records

• Zotero

What do databases offer?

• Citation - publication details

• Abstract - summary of the article

• Full text E-journal articles

• E-books

• Newspaper articles

• Dissertations

• Archives

Databases: What and How?• Access through EASE - MyEd • Databases A-Z list

Basic Search Strategy

Given your research question (define one first):

• Define subject keywords and synonyms

• Use appropriate truncation and wildcards

• Use Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT) to refine your search

Keywords

• Be clear about the topic

• Think of related terms

• Variation in word endings

• Synonyms, abbreviations (e.g. SSPS)

• Variant terminology and spelling (UK/US)

• Don’t use long descriptive phrases

Truncation and Wildcards

• Truncation allows to look for all forms of a keyword: plurals, variant endings, etc.Type in start of word plus truncation symbol (depending on the database: * or ?)

wom?n = woman or womenemploy* = employ, employer(s),

employed, employee(s), employment

• Wildcard allows for variation in a letter in the middle of a word, not at the end (usually a ? mark)

organi?e =organise and organize

Record contains both A and B

Record contains A but not B

Record contains either A or B

Boolean Searching

‘Snowballing’

One useful reference can lead you to more

• Search for other writings by same author

• Follow up on references used by author in bibliography

• Note keywords assigned to it and use them to run a new search

Following up on StudiesSherman and Berk (1984) ‘The Specific Deterrent Effects on Arrest for Domestic Assault’, American Sociological Review

To find other authors discussing the study AND to see how influential the paper is

• MyEd• Searcher• Databases A-Z (tab)• S - Social Sciences Citation Index• Web of Knowledge - Web of Science (tab) • Cited Ref Search• SHERMAN L* and 1984• Select all those in the AM SOC REV and click ‘Finish Search’ Result: Get a list of over 400 articles citing the paper

Other Searching Strategies

• E-Journals (MyEd - Library)

• Google - Google Scholar focuses on academic sources only

• Research = Re-Search

Referencing: Rationale (1)

Rendering authority to your claim

‘The difference between technical [scientific] and non-technical [fictional] literature is not that one is about fact and the other about fiction, but that the latter gathers only a few resources at hand, and the former a lot of resources, even from far away in time and space.’

Bruno Latour, Science in Action (1987: 33)

Referencing: Rationale (2)

Allowing follow up:

• Is it so?

‘As Latour (1987) argues, scientific writing, unlike fiction, is based on facts, thus represents reality.’

• Interesting!

Referencing: Rationale (3)

Ideas are possessions.

Avoid plagiarism.

Methods of Referencing

• The Harvard system - parenthesis (within the

sentence punctuation) - most subjects in SSPS

• The Cambridge system - footnotes (at the bottom

of the page) or endnotes (at the end of the text)

Harvard Citation

Cambridge Citation

QuickTime™ and a decompressor

are needed to see this picture.

Electronic SourcesCan my readers access the document I used from the

reference I have given?

Websites - the date you accessed the source

in Bibliography:Bank for International Settlements (BIS). 2007. Triennial Central Bank Survey of Foreign Exchange and Derivatives Market Activity. <http://www.bis.org/triennial.htm>, accessed January 8, 2008

in your text:Currency forwards constitute the major part of Forex market; for instance, in 2007 they accounted for about 66 per cent, whereas spot transactions for 31 per cent of the total $3.2 trillion a day turnover (BIS 2007: 4, Table B.1)

(some) Useful Sources on Referencing

• Turabian, Kate. 2007. A Manual for Writers of

Research Papers, Theses and Dissertations.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

• Bibliographic and Citation Skills (SSPS,

Edinburgh University):

http://www.sps.ed.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/00

08/47627/Expandingyourbibliography.pdf

Managing Records: Zotero

• Free reference management software - add-on for the Firefox browser

• Collect - Organise - Cite - Share:- get a reference off the web and onto Zotero- use it for referencing

www.zotero.org - Documentation:Getting Stuff into Your LibraryWord Processor Integration