Social Ecology 195 Julia Gelfand

Field Studies - Vikander Science Library 228

Summer I 2006 jgelfand@uci.edu

949-824-4971

The writing assignment for this section of Field Studies will encourage you to use a variety of information resources. This handout will provide some hints about different approaches and some tools, resources and strategies you can employ to make the learning experience more integrated with your social ecology curriculum.

1. Research Paper - requires a literature review and a focused organization that builds on the entire Social Ecology experience - this can be accomplished in several ways, including choosing an appropriate topic and getting it approved for starters. Use the Library website as a point of departure. Select "Online Resources: and then you have several choices as to how to find databases:

· Use ANTPAC and search by title or keyword and change the last pull-down menu to "Online /Internet Resources" and go to the product

· Go to E-Resources Locator and enter the title of the product and choose "databases" in the Category list

2. Article Databases - access to journal literature and scholarly, trade and variety of information sources by subject or keyword - selective examples include:

o PsycINFO* - can easily find empirical studies by Publication Type (* use accompanying guide for more effective & efficient use at http://course.lib.uci.edu/SS/psycINFOviaCSAIllumina-S06.pdf) - those that are on the CSA Platform can be searched concurrently by selecting "Other Databases" and checking the ones that you want - will eliminate the duplication. Use the UC eLinks for determining if online content is available.

o Sociological Abstracts

o Criminal Justice Abstracts

o Criminal Justice Periodicals

o Social Services Abstracts

o ERIC

o PubMed

o Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management

o Web of Science

o Business Source Premier

o Expanded Academic ASAP

o Lexis Nexis Academic Universe - for News & Legal Information

o Westlaw Campus - legal information

o LegalTrac - legal information

· Google Scholar

· Other web resources - use the Subject Guides on the Library Website - there is one for each department in Social Ecology, including one for News & Newspapers

Hints:

• Follow the outline in the syllabus for the paper
• Determine what subject or discipline your topic supports - it may be an interdisciplinary example that bridges several disciplines.
• If your field site has a web presence, introduce that with the URL
• For the Literature Review, consider the context - what your role is and the way your contribution will be integrated in the work of the agency or work environment
• Consider using RefWorks to collect your citations
• Be consistent in citing sources - the papers will be submitted to Turnitin.com so make sure that you apply citations whenever you paraphrase, quote or use an image, etc. Citation sources are noted below
• Academic references may include journal articles from the scholarly or academic press (peer reviewed); book chapters; conference proceedings and other alternative content - trade publications and news articles are generally not considered "academic" but if there is sufficient use of the former, then additional supplemental content will be acceptable.
• Make sure that there is a conclusion or wrap-up for how this all comes together

Additional Information - consider some of the following resources:

• Ask a Librarian at http://www.lib.uci.edu/services/ask/ask.html
• Citation Sources - http://www.lib.uci.edu/online/subject/subpage.php?subject=ref_writing&anchor=#CitationSty - use APA Style Manual at http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/ or http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html
• Contact Liaison Librarian