A&M-SA Research Guides: SOCI 4392 &amp; SOCI 3320: Research Methods &amp; Sociology Capstone Research Guide: Research Help Tutorials

Welcome

Welcome! This page contains links to on-demand learning opportunities designed to improve your research skills! Learn how to search the databases in your subject area to find peer reviewed articles, tips on reading scholarly articles, writing help, and more!

Check out the Library FAQ guide to help walk you through some common library and research questions as well!

Academic Tools for to the Research Process Tutorials

Academic Tools for the Research Process
This guide includes a series of tutorials which provide a general overview of the Research Process, Avoiding Plagiarism, as well as the APA and MLA writing styles. Each is followed by a quiz.

Finding Peer Reviewed Articles

Finding Peer Reviewed Articles & Books

The library subscribes to several databases that provides access to millions of scholarly articles and thousands of books! These databases however can be a little tricky to use at times. Below are videos and handouts that provide tips and tricks on how to use a few of these databases to find scholarly articles and/or books. To search any of the databases listed below to find articles, click on the Finding Articles tab on this guide. To find books, click on the Finding Books tab to search the library's catalog.

Finding Scholarly Articles - EBSCO Databases (Video)
The library subscribes to numerous EBSCO subject specific databases. Learn how to use this search platform to find scholarly articles. The Sociology subject specific database SocINDEX is used in this demonstration, but the techniques shown can be applied with other subject databases as well (e.g., Political Science Complete, or Criminal Justice Abstracts). Click on the Finding Articles tab on this Research Guide to access the databases.

Finding Scholarly Articles- EBSCO Databases (Handout)
This handout will demonstrate how to conduct a basic search in EBSCO databases to find scholarly articles as well as common database features.

Finding Scholarly Articles - JSTOR (Video)
Learn how to find scholarly articles in the database JSTOR.

Finding Scholarly Articles- JSTOR (Handout)
This handout covers how to search the database JSTOR to find scholarly articles.

Searching Web of Science (Handout)
This handout will demonstrate how to conduct a basic search Web of Science to find scholarly articles as well as common database features.

Using Google Scholar (Handout)
Learn how to set up Google Scholar to search databases at A&M-SA, find full text articles, save articles, set up alerts and use Google Scholar citation tools.

Finding Law Reviews in Nexis Uni (Video)
Learn how to find law review articles in the database Nexis Uni. This video was made by a librarian at University of Massachusetts.
Nexis Uni Help Guide
This Guide is here to assist you in navigating the search features of Nexis Uni.

Searching the Library Catalog to Find Books (Video)
Watch the following video to learn how to use our library catalog to find books, place a hold and borrow books from other libraries.

Searching the Library Catalog to Find Books (Handout)
Learn how to conduct a basic search to find both print and e-books in our collection as well as libraries worldwide.

Finding Secondary Data Tips
This handout covers strategies for finding secondary data.
Using IPUMS
This handout provides a quick overview of how to use IPUMS to locate data.

Finding & Using Data from ICPSR
Information on how to find and download data from the database ICPSR.

Factors to Consider when Evaluating Data
Use these factors to help you evaluate a data set

Additional Search Strategies

Finding Similar Articles (Handout)
Besides searching by keywords to find additional articles, you can use a single article you have already found to locate additional resources relevant to your topic. Most library databases have integrated tools into their search platform to assist you with finding similar or relevant articles. This handout will go over several of these tools.
Find a Journal Article from a Citation (Handout)
In the cases where the database doesn't provide direct links to it's references, follow the steps in this handout to track down the full text to a reference citation.

Creating a Search Alert in EBSCOhost (Video)
Search Alerts save valuable research time, and can be set up to provide automatic e-mail notification whenever new search results become available.This video demonstrates how to create a search alert on the EBSCOhost interface.

Finding Quantitative or Qualitative Reserch Articles (Handout)
Looking for a research article that uses a particular method? This handout goes over how to find these types of research articles in the library databases.

Finding Major Journals (Handout)
This handout will cover how to track down the top journals in your field based on citation metrics such as Journal Impact factor, SJR, and H-index. Journal rankings can help authors with selecting where to publish.

Understanding Scholarly Sources

Scholarly articles. Academic articles. Peer reviewed articles. You may have heard these terms used by your professor, but what do they mean?

Peer reviewed articles are articles that have been evaluated by the writer's colleagues (or peers) in their field of study. The idea with peer review is that the reviewers uphold standards within the field in terms of research methodology, style, ethics, etc. Most academic databases will allow you to find peer reviewed articles by simply checking a box as you refine your search.

Watch the following video to learn more about the peer review process.

Peer Review in 3 Minutes (video)
Learn about the peer review process from NCSU Libraries.

Attempting to read a scholarly article for the first time may seem overwhelming and confusing. The resources below will breakdown the structure of a scholarly article and provide strategies on how to efficiently read one.

How to Read a Scholarly Journal Article (Video)
Strategies for reading and using a scholarly article from Kishwaukee College library.

How to Read and Understand a Social Science Journal Article (Handout)
A handout from ICPSR that breaks down the structure of an article and provides tips on how to read it.

How to Read a Scholarly Article (Interactive Tutorial)
A tutorial on how to read a scholarly article from Credo.
*If you are off campus, you will need to sign in with your university credentials to view this tutorial.

Reading a Research Article in the Social Sciences
Tips on reading a research article.

There are several types of scholarly articles that you will encounter as you conduct your research including empirical studies, literature reviews, & theoretical articles. Each type has value, so the key is to recognize and select the type of article that is most relevant to your needs.

Watch the following video to learn more about these types of articles.

Types of Scholarly Articles from VCU Library (Video)
Learn more about the type of articles you may encounter while researching including empirical studies, literature reviews, theoretical articles and editorials from the Virginia Commonwealth University Library.

The SIFT Method
This handout will go over the four things you should do when evaluating a source.
Source Evaluation:How Will You Use It? (Handout)
It’s important to question the quality and appropriateness of the information you cite. This handout covers how to evaluate your source based on purpose and use.
ACT UP (Infographic)
Evaluating your resources with a social justice lens
CRAAP Test: Evaluating a Source (Handout)
As you search for information you will come across a variety of sources. But how do you know if the source you found is a credible or a 'good' source? This handout from CSU-Chico provides a list of questions to assist you in evaluating the sources you found.

Evaluating Statistics (Video)
Evaluating statistical information is similar to evaluating books, articles, and websites.
You must establish its currency, relevance, authority, objectivity, and accuracy. Watch the video to learn more about evaluating statistics from Credo.

Presenting Your Research: Writing Help

Note:The following resources are meant to provide a broad overview of the following types of research assignments. Please follow your professor's specific guidelines for their assignments.

Writing a Literature Review (Video)
Are you looking for help with the process of creating a literature review? Look no further! Watch the following video from UCLA Libraries to learn more about the process of writing a Literature Review.
Literature Review (Handout)
To learn more about writing a literature review, view this handout from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

Literature Review Source Mapping Chart (Worksheet)
As you gather sources, fill out the following chart to help you discover patterns, themes, or gaps for your literature review.

Annotated Bibliography (Interactive Tutorial)
This tutorial from Credo will cover the purpose and components of an annotated bibliography.
Anatomy of a Research Paper (Video)
This video from Credo covers the general structure of a research paper.

Note:The following resources are meant to provide a broad overview of the following types of research assignments. Please follow your professor's specific guidelines for their assignments.

Writing Help (Video)
This video from Credo will cover basic guidelines to follow in your writing. These include writing in a concise and clear manner, employing sentence variety and transitions, checking for spelling and grammatical errors, and becoming familiar with possible resources for writing help.
Constructing a Thesis Statement (Video)
This video from Credo will walk you through the steps of creating a thesis statement.

Paraphrasing, Summarizing & Quoting (Interactive Tutorial))
Throughout your paper, you’ll use a mixture of techniques, including paraphrasing, quoting directly from your sources, and summarizing. Work through the tutorial from Credo to learn when it's appropriate to use each and how do you execute each of these techniques.
Synthesizing information for Academic Writing (InteractiveTutorial)
Complete this tutorial from Credo to learn how to combine what you've learned from reading various sources to form new conclusions about a particular topic.