Unit 4 Introduction to Research

This module was created by Qinqin Zhang of the TWU Library.

Overview

Welcome to Unit 4! In this unit, we will walk you through the process of defining your research question, developing search keywords to search in library databases, and conducting a literature review.

Topics

This unit is divided into the following topics:

  1. Understanding the Scholarly Research Process
  2. Developing Research Questions
  3. Identifying Types of Information Sources
  4. Evaluating Sources
  5. Developing Search Strategies
  6. Accessing Library Resources
  7. Conducting Searches in Library OneSearch
  8. Conducting a Literature Review
  9. Using Critical Reading Strategies
  10. Asking For Help During Your Research

Learning Outcomes

When you have completed this unit, you should be able to:

  • Identify the key elements of scholarly research 
  • Develop a workable research question  
  • Identify different types of sources 
  • Evaluate sources in terms of relevance, credibility, and so on
  • Develop relevant search keywords for your research question  
  • Develop skills to conduct searches in Library OneSearch 
  • Identify the elements of a literature review and describe how to conduct a literature review
  • Apply critical reading strategies to understand academic papers
  • Determine the research and writing issues that require some help from staff, faculty, and the Writing Centre 

Activity Checklist

The learning activities in this course are ungraded, unless specified. They are designed to help you succeed in your assessments in this course, so you are strongly encouraged to complete them.*

Unit 4 Learning Activities

Click here for a checklist of learning activities you will benefit from in completing this unit. You may find it useful for planning your work.

Activity 4.2.1: ✏️ Develop a workable research question.
Activity 4.3.1: ✏️ Match the information sources with the right categories.
Activity 4.4.1: 🎦 Watch and learn from the video on evaluating sources.
Activity 4.5.1: ✏️ Develop search keywords based on a research question.
Activity 4.7.1: 🔍 Search in Library OneSearch to find relevant sources.
Activity 4.8.1: 📗 Review examples of literature reviews and identify how to conduct a good one.
Activity 4.9.1: 📗 Read and summarize an academic article.

Resources

All resources will be provided online in the unit.

4.1 Understanding the Scholarly Research Process

Research affects our daily lives. We hear about new research studies in the news and social media. Marketing research has likely influenced some of your purchases. You may have done some research before coming to TWU.

Academic research is different from your consumer type of research. During your program here at TWU, you will be assigned with different research assignments. This module is designed to help you understand the scholarly research process and introduce you to tips and techniques needed for your academic research.

So, what is scholarly research?

  • Research is NOT: finding and summarizing existing information
  • Research is: a quest to solve a problem or answer a question
  • Research is: a recursive or iterative process

4.2 Developing Research Questions

When starting the research process, your goal is to develop a workable research question from a general topic. So given your research topic, you want something that

  • is researchable
  • is not obvious
  • is narrow in focus (be specific)
  • has some chance of leading to a definite conclusion

A good research question…

  • Does not simply ask for information
  • Has only one question
  • Has a suitably narrow focus
  • Needs to deal with a real issue or problem

Here are some example research questions based on general research topics. Note that three of these questions need improvement due to different issues. Before you click to read the suggested workable research question, try to come up with your own workable research question.

4.2.1 Activity: Develop a Research Question

Given the guidelines of developing a good research question, develop a workable research question based on the topic of social justice.

4.3 Identifying Different Types of Information Sources

There are three types of information sources out there, namely

  • Scholarly (peer-reviewed) sources
  • Popular sources
  • Grey literature

The three categories differ by the sources’ authorship, purpose, intended audience, format, content and publisher. See the table below for more details about the differences among these three types of sources.

Scholarly Journals Grey Literature Magazines
Authors Academics and scholars in the field Think tanks, academic scholars, industry experts, professionals, practitioners Professional writers, not necessarily experts
Purpose Facilitate scholarly communication between members of a particular academic discipline and/or the public Provides specific information about the government, certain companies or industries to the general public, members of a particular profession Provide general information and entertainment to a broad audience
Intended Audience Other scholars or researchers in the field General public, professionals, or practictioners General audience
Format A structured format of the content, cover art is plain and usually few advertisements Varies depends on the sources Glossy cover art, ads in the content
Content Extensive research articles and analysis written in formal academic styles. Language is very specific to scholars in the field and hard for the general public to understand. Government documents published not for commercial purposes; industry or market analysis; consulting firm publications; often require professional knowledge and vocabulary for the content to be fully understood. No specific knowledge or vocabulary is needed for general public to understand the content.
Publisher Academic organizations Usually government, professional, and trade organizations, consulting firms Commercial publishers

Scholarly sources examples

Scholarly = Academic = Peer-Reviewed
  • Academic books
  • Reference materials (e.g. Dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, companions)
  • Peer-reviewed journal articles**
  • Certain reliable websites
    • Websites with domain names ending with .org .edu .gov

** Journal articles are shorter than books and written about very specific topics. A journal is a collection of articles published regularly throughout the year.

Cited from What is a journal article? from SFU.

Peer-reviewed journal articles are articles published in academic (peer-reviewed) journals. See Topic 9 on how to read an academic journal article.

Grey literature examples

  • Government publications, white papers
    • white papers: white papers are marketing tools for corporations especially on the Internet since many potential customers search for information on the Web. Corporations use white papers to sell information or new products as solutions that would serve their customers’ needs. Source
  • Company internal reports
  • Think tank publications
    • Think tank publications can be useful for researchers in Education, Political Science, Sociology, Economics, Business, History, and many other fields. Source

4.3.1 Activity: Match the Information Source

Classify the following information sources by dragging the box to the correct category.

4.4 Tips on Evaluating Sources

Have you ever wondered how to evaluate the sources to ensure you are using credible sources? It is important to learn how to evaluate sources. The following technique called, the CRAAP test, will help you evaluate the sources you find.

  • C - Currency
  • R - Relevance
  • A - Authority
  • A - Accuracy
  • P – Purpose

4.4.1 Activity: Watch and Reflect

Watch this video by Western Libraries that illustrates a set of steps you could take to evaluate sources.

Questions to Consider

After completing the activity above, consider the following questions:
- Which part of the CRAAP test did you find most useful in evaluating sources?
- What steps can you take when you evaluate any sources you find?

4.5 Developing Search Strategies

When you start developing your search keywords, there are steps to follow to help you form relevant search keywords based on your research question.

For example, if your research question is “How does servant leadership affect employee engagement?”, what keywords can you use to find relevant sources for this question?

Steps to follow when you develop search keywords:

  • Break down your research question into key concepts or use keywords directly from your research question.
  • For each key concept, develop keywords that convey the idea.
  • Can you think of any synonyms or related terms? Different spellings? E.g. British English vs. American English.
  • Connect keywords with AND, OR
    • AND is used to put more restrictions around key terms
    • OR helps broaden your search

✨ Use AND to connect keywords for different concepts together and OR to connect synonyms or related terms together


Other search techniques

  • Use the asterisk *  to search for words starting with the letters before the asterisk. Use this to broaden your search.
    • For example, operat* searches for operator, operation, operational, operating…
  • Use the quotation marks " " to search for exact phrasing (for better accuracy and relevance).
    • For example, “human resources" searches for the term human resources altogether.

Sample research question with relevant search keywords

How does servant leadership affect employee engagement?

Key concepts Synonyms or related terms
servant leadership transformational servant leadership, TSL
affect impact, influence, effect
employee engagement employee motivation, morale

Use AND to connect keywords for different concepts together and OR to connect synonyms or related terms together.

So for this set of keywords, we can connect them like the following and use it to search in library databases.

(servant leadership OR transformational servant leadership OR TSL) AND (impact OR influence OR affect OR effect) AND (employee engagement OR employee motivation OR morale)

4.5.1 Activity: Identify the Keywords

Let’s say that our research question is:

What elements of corporate culture need to be addressed when implementing transformational servant leadership at a mid-sized Korean company?

Work out relevant search keywords and connect them using AND and OR.

4.6 Accessing Library Resources

On-campus access

As a TWU student, you have access to all our electronic resources without any extra login authentication on the library interface.

Off-campus access

When you are off campus and want to access the full text of our electronic resources, our library system will prompt you to log in when you click on any full text links. Use your Moodle username + @mytwu.ca () and your Moodle password.

Screenshot of the TWU login screen
Screenshot of the TWU login screen

You could either log in via the access link on the yellow navigation bar on the top of the library OneSearch results page (see screenshot below), or when you click on any full text links, the interface will prompt you to login.


EBSCO login (via the upper left corner on the search results page; see screenshot below) is only for you to login so that you can save your search results permanently in your Folder. It is a completely separate login system from your TWU login system. If you want to make use of the folder features, please register for a new EBSCO account separately. Please register for a free EBSCO account separately via the Sign in page..

4.7 Conducting Searches in Library OneSearch

Library OneSearch (on the top of the library homepage the Library homepage) is a one-stop search engine to search for all types of sources in our collection. It finds you scholarly sources, and it offers filters on the results page to help refine your search results. Start with Library OneSearch for your research assignments.

Here is a direct link to the Basic Search Interface

Here is a direct link to Advanced Search Interface which you are encouraged to bookmark.

Review these following video clips to go over different features in Library OneSearch.

See this guide on how to use OneSearch for more details.

4.7.1 Activity: Practice Using OneSearch

  • Search in Library OneSearch Advanced Search using the search keywords you came up with from learning activity 4.5.1. Apply relevant filters on the results page, and select two relevant sources. They need to be peer-reviewed journal articles published in English in the past ten years.

  • Retrieve the permalinks and APA 7th citation for the two sources you found from the previous step.

4.8 Literature Review

If you have a research assignment for a course, you may be asked to conduct a literature review. What does this involve? A literature review focuses on the following:

  • An analysis and critical evaluation of existing literature on a certain topic.
  • It shows relationships between existing literature and your research project.
  • Is oftentimes part of an introduction to a research article, report, or thesis.

Remember to check with your professor and follow their instructions on the literature review requirements for the assignment. There are different ways to conduct and present a literature review, and it is important for you to meet the professor’s expectation of reviewing the literature.

Synthesis Matrix Technique

The Synthesis Matrix Technique is a technique which can help you take relevant notes as you read through the sources and organize a thematic synthesis to construct your literature review. It is developed by North Carolina State University’s Writing Centre. See their original documentation here.

The matrix technique is essentially a table. You can use paper or a program like Word. As you go through each source, include notes for topics mentioned in the source with its page numbers where the content is located in the paper. After you go through this process for all your relevant articles, compare and contrast different authors’ opinions and perspectives based on the common topics or themes across the articles. Not all authors/papers cover exactly the same topics. You can work with whatever overlapped common topics there are across the board. The key point is to develop a thematic synthesis based on the content presented in different literature.

Author(s) Date Topic 1 Topic 2 Topic 3 Topic 4
Smith, et al. 2018 Notes… (page #) Notes… (page #) Notes… (page #)
Blackstone 2019 Notes… (page #) Notes… (page #)
Liu 2003 Notes… (page #) Notes… (page #) Notes… (page #)

When you read these sources/articles, some questions might help you process and understand the content…

  • Do you agree with what the author is saying?
  • Does the author agree with what the others have said on the same topic? Why and why not? (Compare & Contrast)

The main point is to think critically.

And finally, citation management tools can help you organize your citations/bibliographies in one place which will in turn help with the literature review process. Here are some tools to get you started.

  • Zotero. (Zotero is free and open source.)
  • EndNote (We support the web version of Endnote at the TWU Library)
  • Mendeley

4.8.1 Activity: Literature Review Samples and Steps

See the following examples of literature reviews. Pay attention to how the authors summarize and synthesize the content in the literature review.

Also, see an example of how researchers use the synthesis matrix technique to process a literature review:

Questions to Consider

After completing the activities above, consider the following questions:

  • What is the purpose of doing a literature review?
  • What makes a good literature review? And how do you conduct a good literature review?
  • What steps will you follow when you conduct your literature review?

4.9 Using Critical Reading Strategies to Process Academic Journal Articles

When you conduct a literature review, you will need to read a number of academic journal articles on your research topics. But do you need to fully read and digest every article? The answer is no. Here are some tips on how to process academic journal articles using critical reading strategies, and what to pay attention to on each time (pass) you read them:

  1. First pass – framework; abstract, introduction, conclusion, section headings, underline unfamiliar words; got an idea of main points, arguments, & thesis.
  2. Second pass – pay attention to the beginning and the ending of each section; look into highlighted sections and questions from the first pass.
  3. Third pass –critical analysis, reflection; look at arguments, points etc., research methods, any assumptions?

Watch UBC’s video, How to Read Academic Papers, and How to read a scholarly paper by Western Libraries below.

4.9.1 Activity: Read and summarize

Pick one article you found from activity 4.7.1. Quickly skim through it and complete the following, summarizing in your own words (no quotes please - of course common knowledge terms are acceptable).

The hypothesis/research question (1 sentence) ———————————-
The underlying theories/purpose of this study 1- 2 sentences ———————————-
The Method 1 -2 sentences ———————————-
The results 2 main points (2 sentences max) ———————————-
The Citation (full - not indented) ———————————-

4.10 When and How to Ask For Help

We are here to help! Don’t hesitate to contact us when you need help.

When you cannot find enough relevant sources for your research question, contact your research librarian to see if they can take a look at your research question and suggest keywords to search. If necessary, librarian will also guide you to revise your research question.

Writing coaches are here to help you with your paper structures, outlines, grammatical details and more.

Contact Information:

Unit 4 Summary

In Unit 4, you have had the opportunity to learn about scholarly research and the steps involved in the scholarly research process, including defining research questions, developing search keywords, conducting searches in library databases, evaluating sources, conducting literature reviews, reading an academic journal article, and understanding when and how to ask for help during your research process.

Assessments

Learning Log Entries

Your instructor will provide details on the Assessment for this unit. See also the Assignment dropboxes in Moodle for further instructions

Checking your Learning

Before you move on to the next unit, you may want to check to make sure that you are able to:

  • Identify the key elements of scholarly research 
  • Develop a workable research question  
  • Identify different types of sources 
  • Evaluate sources
  • Develop relevant search keywords for your research question  
  • Develop skills to conduct searches in Library OneSearch 
  • Identify the elements of a literature review and describe how to conduct a literature review
  • apply critical reading strategies to understand academic papers
  • Determine the research and writing issues that require some help from staff, faculty, and the Writing Centre