Google and Scholarly Research

During lectures I often note how useful google can be to find academic research. We talked about using google scholar and the advanced search function. With that in mind, I'm sure you'll appreciate this infographic from Jenica Rhee.








Created by: HackCollege

Lecture 23: Finding and Citing Scholarly Sources

Today's Lecture:

Lecture 23

View more presentations from Jessica Laccetti.

NOTE: Two databases that I mention in the lecture are:
Science Direct
Textile Technology Index

both are accessible via the University Library link to "databases".

During today's lecture you will be asked to find an RSS feed. For the purposes of this class, feel free to practise by using the feed from our class blog: http://feeds.feedburner.com/Ales204CommunicationTheoryPractiseWinter2012



Homework:

•Add a comment to today’s post with the name of a website that you will reference (with an RSS feed) and explain why it is of interest to you

•Note the website information in APA style

•Don’t forget to include your name or twitter alias for participation


Although I didn't mention this in the lecture, you probably will find this very useful to know. You can now set up your preferences in Google Scholar to allow you to import references directly into your RefWorks account.



Here's how to do it:

•Make sure cookies are enabled to allow setting of preferences in Google Scholar
•From the Google Scholar search screen click on Scholar Preferences.
•At the bottom of the screen, in the Bibliography Manager area, select RefWorks in the drop-down menu
•Save your preference
•Search results will now display an “Export to RefWorks link” 

Here is a google doc that librarian Diane Clarke made for us with some tips on how to cite some tricky sources.



Remember, APA style is the format you will use in your e-portfolios when you include images (and of course when you references sources in any of your other assignments for ALES204). You will also use this citation method if you include any images in your assignments (such as your science article assignment).

APA Style Reminder

As everyone knows, for the e-portfolio it is very important to cite all the images you include - even if you took the images yourself! Your reader won't necessarily know that and it's important to get into the habit of crediting work in an academic context.

We will have more in depth lectures on APA style but it is very simple and an excellent resource is the OWL Lab at Purdue which you can find here.

You will need to use APA style for all sorts of referencing but here is a bit about how to reference images (as figures!):

Drawings and photographs can be used to communicate very specific information about a subject. Thanks to software, both are now highly manipulable. For the sake of readability and simplicity, line drawings should be used, and photographs should have the highest possible contrast between the background and focal point. Cropping, cutting out extraneous detail, can be very beneficial for a photograph. Use software like GraphicConverter or Photoshop to convert color photographs to black and white before printing on a laser printer. Otherwise most printers will produce an image with poor contrast.

Photograph

Preparing Figures

In preparing figures, communication and readability must be the ultimate criteria. Avoid the temptation to use the special effects available in most advanced software packages. While three-dimensional effects, shading, and layered text may look interesting to the author, overuse, inconsistent use, and misuse may distort the data, and distract or even annoy readers. Design properly done is inconspicuous, almost invisible, because it supports communication. Design improperly, or amateurishly, done draws the reader’s attention from the data, and makes him or her question the author’s credibility.
The APA has determined specifications for the size of figures and the fonts used in them. Figures of one column must be between 2 and 3.25 inches wide (5 to 8.45 cm). Two-column figures must be between 4.25 and 6.875 inches wide (10.6 to 17.5 cm). The height of figures should not exceed the top and bottom margins. The text in a figure should be in a san serif font (such as Helvetica, Ariel, or Futura). The font size must be between eight and fourteen point. Use circles and squares to distinguish curves on a line graph (at the same font size as the other labels). (See examples above.)

Captions and Legends

For figures, make sure to include the figure number and a title with a legend and caption. These elements appear below the visual display. For the figure number, type Figure X. Then type the title of the figure in upper and lowercase letters. Follow the title with a legend that explains the symbols in the figure and a caption that explains the figure:

Figure 1. How to create figures in APA style. This figure illustrates effective elements in APA style figures. 

Captions serve as a brief, but complete, explanation and as a title. For example, “Figure 4. Population” is insufficient, whereas “Figure 4. Population of Grand Rapids, MI by race (1980)” is better. If the figure has a title in the image, crop it.