Research Guides: Understanding Urban Communities: URBE 4496: Finding & Evaluating Sources

Welcome

This page is for students in URBE 4496, Understanding Urban Communities. Use the resources on this guide to help with assignments that ask you to find and use sources. For help with research, please email your librarian or schedule an appointment.

Find Articles in Databases

Use these databases to find research-based articles for each assignment. Databases usually have a mix of research/scholarly and non-scholarly sources, so you'll need to make sure you look closely at any article you choose to discern which type it is.

Education Source This link opens in a new window
Education Source provides a full-text collection of education journals, and encompasses an international array of English-language periodicals, monographs, yearbooks. It covers all levels of education--from early childhood to higher education.
ERIC [via EBSCOhost] This link opens in a new window
ERIC [via EBSCOhost] contains bibliographic records of research reports, conference papers, teaching guides, books, and journal articles relating to the practice of education. ERIC Digests are included. Covers the period 1966-present.
Google Scholar This link opens in a new window
Note: Follow these instructions to link Google Scholar with Temple's resources.
Google Scholar provides search for scholarly literature. It covers disciplines and sources: peer-reviewed papers, theses, books, abstracts and articles, from academic publishers, professional societies, preprint repositories, universities and other scholarly organizations.
Sociological Abstracts This link opens in a new window
Sociological Abstracts provides coverage of the world's literature on sociology and applied aspects of sociology.

Reading a Scholarly Article

After you have decided that a source is potentially useful, read it carefully and critically, asking yourself the following questions about how this research fits your writing project:

How relevant is this material to your research question?
Does the source include counterarguments that you should address?
How persuasive is the evidence? Does it represent opposing viewpoints fairly? Will the source be convincing to your audience?
Will you need to change your thesis to account for this information?
What quotations or paraphrases from this source might you want to use?

Anatomy of a Scholarly Journal Article
An interactive tutorial from NCSU Libraries
How to Read a Scholarly Journal Article
Use the chart on pages 2 and 3 to devise a reading strategy that allows you to maximize your time and effort. From the Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR).

Using Sources from the Internet

Your Annotated Bibliography and Policy Intervention Research Paper ask that you identify and use credible sources as evidence to support your own ideas. In the library's databases, you will find credible sources such as peer-reviewed journal articles; however, sources you find online through Google may work for you as well. The idea is that you want to use sources that are based on existing research or theories. With any source, even those from library databases, you'll want to ask yourself:

Who is the author?
What publication does this source appear in? Is it a website? A magazine? A scholarly journal? Websites, blogs, and other online publications can be particularly tricky as it's often difficult to discern differences online
Is it a trustworthy/credible publication? How do you know?
Does the author cite previously published research?
Does the author draw on existing theories or authors? Perhaps those you've discussed in class?

Scholarly, Research, Non-Scholarly, Popular, etc.

Different types of publications have different purposes and different audiences. When we talk about source types, we can divide these sources into broad categories such as scholarly and non-scholarly; however, you should evaluate all sources you find and think critically about why and how you are using them. Below are a few characteristics of each and things to consider when using them in your research.

	Scholarly (also referred to as "Research" or "Peer-Reviewed")	Non-Scholarly
purpose	Often informs and reports on original research done by scholars and experts in the field. May also include sources with general information and established facts.	Informs a general audience. May or may not provide in-depth analysis.
authors	Articles are written by subject specialists and experts in the field.	Articles are written by journalists, freelance writers, or an editorial staff.
audience	Intended for a limited audience - researchers, scholars, experts	Intended for a broad segment of the population, appealing to non-specialists.
Examples	Journal articles that report on original research (also commonly referred to as the "research literature" and "peer-reviewed" articles) Encyclopedia articles Research reports from respected research organizations	Newspaper articles (NY Times, Washington Post, etc.) Magazines (Time, The Atlantic) Blogs
How do I use it?	As evidence to support your argument, e.g. you might point to a specific finding in a research study to bolster your own point or opinion. As background/historical information to introduce a topic e.g. you might use information from an encyclopedia article to give your reader an overview of a topic.	To engage it's argument, (e.g. you might use an editorial from the New York Times on mental illness to refute in your own paper). A preliminary search tool (e.g. news articles often link to research and data sources that may be "scholarly" or provide a more in-depth analysis).
How to identify it	Lengthy list of references to other sources, author credentials	May or may not have a list references (often shorter if included at all)