ISF 190: Thesis Seminar - Holub

How to Avoid Plagiarism

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 07 Jun 2011 11:39:23 -0700

In order to avoid plagiarism, you must give credit when

You use another person's ideas, opinions, or theories.
You use facts, statistics, graphics, drawings, music, etc., or any other type of information that does not comprise common knowledge.
You use quotations from another person's spoken or written word.
You paraphrase another person's spoken or written word.

Recommendations

Begin the writing process by stating your ideas; then go back to the author's original work.
Use quotation marks and credit the source (author) when you copy exact wording.
Use your own words (paraphrase) instead of copying directly when possible.
Even when you paraphrase another author's writings, you must give credit to that author.
If the form of citation and reference are not correct, the attribution to the original author is likely to be incomplete. Therefore, improper use of style can result in plagiarism. Get a style manual and use it.
The figure below may help to guide your decisions.

This content is part of the Understanding Plagiarism tutorial created by the Indiana University School of Education.

The Research Process

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:30:01 -0800

1. State your problem as a question as succinctly as possible.

2. 'Brain dump': Write down what you already know about your topic, including

Names of people, organizations, companies, time period you are interested in, places of interest [countries, regions, cities], conceptual terms...

3. Decide what disciplinary methodologies you plan to use: e.g., sociology, political science, literature, psychology...

4. Fill in the gaps in your knowlege: get background information from specialized encyclopedias or other secondary sources. Wikipedia can sometimes be good here, or Google News.

5. Select the best places/ databases to find information on your topic from the Library's list of databases by subject. Or use a catalog like Oskicat or Melvyl to search for books and other resources.

6. Use nouns from your brain dump as search terms.

7. Evaluate what you find. Change search terms to get closer to what you really want.

8. Refine Your Search Words - Using the information you have gathered, determine if your research words should be narrower or broader. You may need to search basic resources again using your new, focused topics and keywords.

The Craft of Research [book]

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Sun, 22 Jul 2012 11:41:29 -0700

This classic book on writing a college research paper is easily skimmed or deep enough for the truly obsessed researcher, explains the whole research process from initial questioning, through making an argument, all the way to effectively writing your paper.

This link is to the Google Books preview. But buy a secondhand copy for yourself. It's worth the $8 bucks.

Library Workshop: Research 101

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Fri, 21 Sep 2012 14:08:25 -0700

Unsure how to start a paper or research project? Think maybe you could stand to brush up on search strategies?

If this sounds familiar, Library Workshop: Research 101 has you covered. This interactive tutorial explores six stages of the research process. You can view it from start to finish, or focus on specific sections as needed:

1: Begin Your Research

Starting strategies, from choosing a topic to finding the right keywords.

How is interdisciplinary research different?

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 11:57:24 -0700

How can you do truly interdisciplinary research, when most research sources are discipline-specific? Most of us learn to do research within a discipline, but you need to become adequate in multiple disciplines for this course.

Determine which disciplinary methods you will use- to know WHERE to search and how to use what you find.

How?
- Look in a specialized encyclopedia to get background information on research methods for a specific discipline. For an econ related topic, you could use An encyclopedia of macroeconomics.

Become conversant with the terminology of all relevant disciplines- to know HOW to search [i.e., which words to use as search terms]

How?
- look in a specialized encyclopedia to learn the terminology of a specific discipline. For a public policy related topic you could refer to Health care policy and politics A to Z

Understand what kinds of sources are considered legitimate by those disciplines- to know WHAT to search for.

How?
- specialized encyclopedia will probably have an essay on methods of research that will explain what sources are appropriate.

Learn what kinds of research questions are valid in the disciplines you are working with.

How?
- Reading other research articles in the discipline is the best way to learn about what questions are considered valid.

Find specialized encyclopedias for your disciplines:

Open Oskicat
Type encyclopedias and a word or phrase describing your topic, such as development
See what comes up.
If that doesn't work, try typing handbooks and a word or phrase describing your topic such as organizational behavior
If that doesn't work, ask a librarian.

Read more about doing interdisciplinary research. An excellent book is Interdisciplinary Research: Process and Theory by Allen Repko

News sources

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 18 May 2010 14:12:31 -0700

Find an Article from a Citation

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 06 Jun 2011 16:11:44 -0700

Here's a citation for an article...how do you find the whole article?

Gaultney, J. F. (2010). The Prevalence of Sleep Disorders in College Students: Impact on Academic Performance. Journal of American College Health, 59(2), 91-97.

This citation is for an article published in 2010 in the Journal of American College Health, a scholarly, peer-reviewed journal. There are several ways of determining if the article you're looking for is available at Berkeley:

Option 1: Use Google Scholar to locate a citation for the article, and UC-eLinks to retrieve the full text.

Paste or type the citation into Google and pull down the Google Scholar tool. Here's how:

Remember to set up off-campus access if you're off-campus. Here's what to do if you don't see UC-eLinks in your search results.

Note: Google Scholar does not cover all publishers, and many journals indexed by Google Scholar have partial coverage only (some years/volumes missing). Also, not all articles found through Google Scholar will be available online. If you can't find the full text of your article this way, read on for more options!

Option 2: Look up the journal title in OskiCat or Melvyl.

You can also search for the title of the journal (NOT the article title!) in either OskiCat or Melvyl. They will tell you:

if we subscribe to the journal you're looking for

which years we have

whether our subscription is print ("hard-copy") or online

what the call number is (for print journals)

where to find the journal online (for online journals)

what's the latest print issue we've received (OskiCat only)

Click this link for a 45-second demo.

Where's the PDF?

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Sun, 13 Nov 2011 21:45:13 -0800

Many article databases contain information about articles (citations or abstracts), not the entire text of the article. Once you've used an article database to find articles on your topic, you may need to use this button: in order to locate and read the full text of the article. The UC-eLinks button appears in nearly all the databases available from the UCB Library website.

UC-eLinks will link you to the online full text of an article if UCB has paid for online access; otherwise, UC-eLinks will help you locate a print copy on the shelf in the library. If UCB doesn't own the article in print or online format, UC-eLinks can also help you order a copy from another library.

For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 4 min.)

You can also set up UC-eLinks to work with Google Scholar. For more information, watch this video tutorial (about 2 min.)

Proxy server

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:57:07 -0800

To use library databases from off campus you have to set up the proxy server: this changes your browser settings.

Different browsers [Firefox, Chrome, Safari...] have different instructions- they are all here.
You can set it up on multiple devices
You log in with your CalNet ID
There's an alternative: the VPN

IT and New Media databases

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 11:46:45 -0800

For more possibilities, look at the Media Studies databases.

Economics and business databases

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 19:32:29 -0700

International topics databases

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 20 Jun 2012 12:26:53 -0700

These three databases are policy and political science oriented.

SMS and QR Codes in OskiCat

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 08 Sep 2010 10:43:02 -0700

You can now text yourself a call number or use a QR code reader to find the location of an item in the UCB Library. Just click on a title in your OskiCat search results, and both options will be displayed on the right.

Interlibrary Borrowing

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:55:37 -0700

As a Berkeley student you are eligible to use books and articles from other libraries around the United States.

Check OskiCat to make sure UC Berkeley does not own the material you want.

Provide a full and accurate bibliographic citation, including author, title, place and date of publication, and series. You can get citations from professors, from Melvyl, from other articles, from Google scholar. Verify your citations before submitting them for ILL.

Melvyl- the UC-wide catalog

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 12 Sep 2011 11:22:51 -0700

For most research topics, Melvyl is the best catalog to use, because you can request books from other UC campuses directly from the catalog. You can also use Melvyl to search Worldcat and find materials at libraries beyond UC. Assume it will take 2-3 weeks to get books from other libraries.

Searching Library Catalogs

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 16:54:25 -0800

Use OskiCat to locate materials related to your topic, including books, government publications, and audio and video recordings, in the libraries of UC Berkeley. OskiCat will show you the location and availability of the items that we own.

Using OskiCat (but not Melvyl) you can also renew your books online, look up course reserve materials by course number or instructor name, and place holds on items that other library users have already checked out.

Use Melvyl to locate materials related to your topic located at other campuses in the UC system, or worldwide. You can use the Request button to request an item from another library, if we don't own it.

Using Melvyl (but not OskiCat) you can find articles as well as books, easily format a citation for copying into a bibliography, and see images of book covers, when available. Melvyl will also show you the location and availablity of items that we own.

Melvyl has changed as of January 2012, and now includes many more articles. Detailed Melvyl help

Citation Management Tools

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 29 Sep 2010 10:01:56 -0700

Citation management tools help you manage your research, collect and cite sources, and create bibliographies in a variety of citation styles. Each one has its strengths and weaknesses, but any are easier than doing it by hand!

Zotero: A free plug-in that works exclusively with the Firefox browser: keeps copies of what you find on the web, permits tagging, notation, full text searching of your library of resources, works with Word, and has a free web backup service.
RefWorks - free for UC Berkeley users. It allows you to create your own database by importing references and using them for footnotes and bibliographies. Use the RefWorks New User Form to sign up.
EndNote: may be purchased from UC Berkeley's Software Central.

It's always good to double check the formatting -- sometimes the software doesn't get it quite right.

Using APA 6th? Purdue has produced this very handy quick guide. The fulltext of APA 6th is not available online, but we do have print copies in the EdPsych Library in reference and short term reserve at BF76.7 P83 2010

RSS Feeds and Alerts

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 13 Jun 2011 10:03:35 -0700

Suppose you want to keep current with a specific journal that you don't have a personal subscription to. You can do it with a RSS feed from the journal. Let's take the US Energy Information Administration's Annual Energy Outlook.

First, subscribe to an RSS feed reader. Google has a free one called Google Reader [there are many others].

Then, use the feed reader function to 'add a subscription' to the journal you want to see updates for. Or, if the journal has its own RSS feed this icon will appear in the URL box. Just click it to set up your journal alert.

ticTOCS | The ticTOCs Journal Tables of Contents service makes it easy to keep up-to-date with newly published scholarly material by enabling you to find, display, store, combine and reuse thousands of journal tables of contents from multiple publishers.

Sometimes you want alerts for new articles on a particular set of search parameters. Web of Science databases can create these alerts for you. [video tutorial]

Google Scholar

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 18 Apr 2012 13:23:08 -0700

Google Scholar is an easy way to do interdisciplinary research, and with some settings changes can become even more useful. You need a Google account to use these features.

Set up a Google Scholar Alert to be automatically notified when new articles are added to Google on topics of interest:

Do your search in Google Scholar. Look in the green toolbar for the envelope icon, and click it. New items will be sent to your email account as they are found by Google.

Make Google display links to full text of articles that Berkeley subscribes to:

Open Scholar. Click on the gear icon in the upper right corner, and choose 'scholar preferences'. In the new window, scroll down to 'Library Links', type the word Berkeley. Choose University of California, Berkeley-- UC eLinks, and Open Worldcat Search.

Ever wanted to trace an article’s impact? Google now permits searching within citing articles.

Do a Google Scholar search. Click on the "Cited by" link under a citation and select the "Search within articles citing..." checkbox.

Research Advisory Service

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 13:40:21 -0800

Research Advisory Service for Cal Undergraduates

Book a 30-minute appointment with a librarian who will help refine and focus research inquiries, identify useful online and print sources, and develop search strategies for humanities and social sciences topics (examples of research topics).

Schedule, view, edit or cancel your appointment online (CalNetID required)

This service is for Cal undergraduates only. Graduate students and faculty should contact the library liaison to their department or program for specialized reference consultations.

Ask a Librarian 24/7 Chat

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 29 Jan 2013 13:22:45 -0800

You can type your question directly into this chat window to chat with a librarian. Your question may be answered by a reference librarian from Berkeley, from another UC campus, or another academic library elsewhere in the US. We share information about our libraries to make sure you get good answers.

If the librarian can't answer you well enough, your question will be referred to a Berkeley librarian for follow-up.

Have fun chatting!

Library Hours

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 27 Jul 2010 11:09:15 -0700

Hours on:
Enter as mm/dd/yy

For:

To select individual libraries/units, hold down the Ctrl key while clicking.

Interlibrary Borrowing

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 07:55:37 -0700

As a Berkeley student you are eligible to use books and articles from other libraries around the United States.

Check OskiCat to make sure UC Berkeley does not own the material you want.

Doe, Main Stacks, Moffitt Library floorplans

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 13:55:34 -0700

Looking for a location in Doe, Main Stacks or Moffitt? Try the floorplans, or ask for assistance!

Is it a scholarly source?

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Mon, 24 Jan 2011 14:26:43 -0800

Your instructor wants you to use scholarly [or 'peer reviewed'] sources. What does she mean?

Authoritative- written by a recognized expert in the field. How do you know? The PhD is one sign; employment by a university is another.
Peer reviewed- before publishing, the article was vetted by other scholars in the field. How do you know? Try searching the journal title in Google and read the publisher's blurb.
Audience- written for scholars and experts in the field. How do you know? The level of the language is usually a give away. It will be technical and formal.
Includes a bibliography and/or footnotes with citations of sources used.

Scholarship is always changing. Try to find the most recent scholarly sources you can.

Off-campus Access to Library Resources

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 09:35:19 -0700

Before you can access Library resources from off campus make sure you have configured your computer with proxy server settings.

After you make a one-time change in your web browser settings, the proxy server will ask you to log in with a CalNet ID or Library PIN when you click on the link to a licensed resource.

Proxy server

ljones@library.berkeley.edu (Lynn Jones) — Wed, 15 Feb 2012 09:57:07 -0800

To use library databases from off campus you have to set up the proxy server: this changes your browser settings.

Different browsers [Firefox, Chrome, Safari...] have different instructions- they are all here.
You can set it up on multiple devices
You log in with your CalNet ID
There's an alternative: the VPN

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