Library Resources Finding and Citing Research Material

Library Resources Finding and Citing Research Material The library at the University of the Rockies is a great source for primary and secondary research materials. Its comprehensive collection of online databases includes PsycNET, ProQuest Central, Business Sources Complete, SAGE, Oxford University Press and Counseling and Psychotherapy Transcripts, Client Narratives, and Reference Works. The types of electronic resources available to students through the University library databases include eBooks, scholarly journal, peer reviewed articles, magazine articles, dissertations, conference papers and government reports.

The plethora of available resources presents the problem of finding exactly the right piece of information that a researcher needs for a particular project. It can be overwhelming and confusing to navigate through the different search channels. The extensive nature of these databases also makes it particularly important to properly cite the information so that readers can trace the source for confirmation and clarification purposes.

It is therefore important to know how to search the online databases both for information on a general topic and conversely to find a specific article. Large databases such as Oxford University Press generally have low sensitivity. In other words, a general search of a broad topic will produce an extremely large result of journal articles and books. For instance, searching for "APA Format" produces 1146 different results (Oxford University Press, 2005). A general search of all available databases produces even more results.

The first step of finding research material for a specific topic is to increase the specificity of the search. This can be done by going to the "Advance Search" and entering specific keywords. It also allows the researcher to specify which databases or what specific topic within the databases to search. For example, the Business Sources Complete consists of separate academic resources including academic journals, books, case studies, company's profiles, financial data and industry reports (Business Sources Complete, 2011).

If the researcher wanted to find only information in peer-reviewed academic journals on new developments in the Apple Company specifically related to computers, specific keywords and resource type can be selected. In this case, the researcher might type "developments, Apple, MacBook" as the key search terms and select only academic journals. Further search qualifiers include date of publication. This process limits the number of results and matches the results specifically to the researchers needs. Generally speaking, the more specific the search terms, the more pertinent the results will be.

When looking for a particular author or title, a simple author search of all the databases will provide the researcher with the author's entire bibliography or all the publications available in the databases. When a citation is available, the most specific search that would immediately produce the source is a general search by title. If the title is very general, however, the author's name should be included in the search as well.

ProQuest multimedia is one search engine available to students that makes it particularly easy for students to find relevant information (ProQuest Two-minute training!, 2011). ProQuest combines multi-subject and multimedia databases but allows users to designate specific subjects and types of resources to search. An especially unique feature of the ProQuest search engine is its citation finder.

It can be accessed through the advanced search and "Look up Citation" menu, which allows the student to type in as much or as little known identifying information of an article including title, author, and source of the citation. A search of all the databases will then be conducted to quickly retrieve the specific citation. Citing the source of an in-text quotation or reference is critical not only to give credit to the author but also to enable readers to retrieve that particular document in a large search engine.

The most commonly used citation format for academic papers and articles is the American Psychological Association (APA) style. For journal articles and reviews, the reference must include the names of all contributing authors, the title of the published work, the name of the source (i.e. name of journal), and year of publication, and volume, issue and page numbers of the specific article (Angeli et al., 2010). Direct in-text citations must be placed in quotation marks followed by the author and year of publication.

If a general idea is simply adapted from a source, the quotation marks are not necessary but the author and year of publication must still be referenced in.