Social Ecology 194W - Winter 2008
Naturalistic Field Research - Upper Division Writing

Julia Gelfand
Science Library 228
jgelfand@uci.edu

(949) 824-4971

 

 

OBJECTIVE: To conduct a relevant literature review to support your research paper topic based on observation and interview techniques, demonstrating an understanding of empirical data and social science methodology.  This handout supports all the assignments you have for this course: 1) Research Paper & Final Portfolio; 2) Extra Credit Option

Nuts & bolts: The library homepage or website is your point of departure and should answer questions such as:

This handout provides tips and direction on:

Background research: books

Books can provide:

ANTPAC is UC Irvine's online library catalog -- the source to determine whether a book, video, government document or journal is available at UCI. Increasingly, as journals and documents become available electronically, ANTPAC includes links to the full-text of the item on the Internet.   Learn to search ANTPAC using this online tutorial

MELVYL is the combined online catalog for all of the 10 UC campuses. Many of our article databases link to MELVYL (via UCeLinks) in order to tell you whether the book or journal you need is available at UCI or other UC campuses. However, ANTPAC is a more current source of this information than MELVYL. You may find it easier to use ANTPAC in order to determine the availability of a particular article at UCI -- in either print or online format -- than MELVYL.   Learn to search MELVYL using one of the following online tutorials

If you need materials that you find are NOT available at UCI, you can use Interlibrary Loan (ILL). Plan ahead for this -- ILL can take approximately one week.  The MELVYL Request feature is the easiest way to do this.

Writing & Research Manuals  

Revision (known as Citing Electronic Sources: An APA Brief Guide) to the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association 5th ed, is what should be followed; the print volume is available at all Reference Desks - REF BF 76.7 P8 2001

 

 

 

 

Finding academic & scholarly articles

For this class, most of your research is taking place outside of the library, where you will be gathering data to analyze. Your goal in the library is not to find exact studies that replicate yours, but rather to find supporting research on one or more of the issues you are discussing for your research paper.

To get started:

Sample record from PsycINFO

Results of a search for:
(going out, dating or courtship) and college students

 

 

Title:Dating and commitment choices as a function of ethnicity among American colege students in California
AU: Author
Fiebert, Martin S; Nugent, Dusty; Hershberger, Scott L., Kasdan, Margo 
AF: Author Affiliation
California State University, Long Beach, CA US [for Fiebert, Nugent, Hershberger, Kasdan] 
SO: Source
Psychological Reports, Vol. 94 (3, Pt. 2), June 2004, pp. 1293-1300 
IB: ISSN
0033-2941 
AB: Abstract
The incidence of interracial and interethnic dating and marriage in the United States has increased.  This investigation examined dating and commitment choices as a function of ethnicity and sex among groups of Euro-American, Hispanic-American, Asian-American and African-American college students.  A convenience sample of college students comprising 329 heterosexual subjects (134 men, 195 women) was surveyed regarding their partner preferences for dating, visiting parents, marriage and bearing children.  It was hypthesized that subjects would consider dating partners from different ethnic groups, but when making a commitment to marriage and children would prefer members of their own group.  This hypothesis was supported in half of the groups: Euro-American men, African-American men, Asian-American women, and African-American women.  A discussion of dating and commitment choices among ethnic and sex groups is presented and discussed. 
PsychINFO Database Record (c) 2004 APA, all rights reserved) 
TA: Target Audience
Psychology: Professional & Research 
LA: Language
English 
PY: Publication Year
2004
PT: Publication Type
Peer Reviewed Journal; Conference Proceedings/Symposia; Empirical Study; Quantitative Study; Article 
PO: Population
Human; Male; Female 
Age: Adulthood (18 yrs & older); Young Adulthood (18-20 yrs); Thirties (30-39 yrs)
FE: Features
References
DE: Descriptors
*Commitment; *Ethnic Identity; *Human Mate Selection; * Racial and Ethnic Groups; * Social Dating; * College Students; * Marriage Attitudes; * Preferences 
ID: Identifiers
dating; commitment choices; ethnicity; American college students; marriage; partner preferences 
CL: Classification
3020 Group & Interpersonal Processes 
NR: Number of References
4 reference(s) present, 4 reference(s) displayed 

Notice that our search terms (dating and college students) appear in bold type. But under "Descriptors," the word used for dating is "Social Dating" (seen above in red). Adding this term to our search should expand our results and sharpen the relevance in retrieval.

Learn more about finding journal articles in this online tutorial

Getting there:

Most of the databases below contain scholarly and academic articles only. However -- some also contain popular magazines (such as Newsweek) or trade publications (such as Business Week). In such cases, I've included in "search tips" ways to restrict your output to only scholarly, academic source material.

Under "Work with Results," below, there are links to pages in the UCI Libraries' online tutorials on specific aspects of working with UC-elinks and ANTPAC to determine whether UCI has a particular journal you need, based on an article citation. These links open in new windows -- simply close them using the X in the upper right-hand corner of your screen to return to this handout.

You can also consider saving retrieved citations to QuikBib, where you can format in one of 8 preferred bibliographic styles such as APA, etc or to RefWorks so that you can build a bibliography and recall the citations again when you write, and they too can be formatted as you prefer.  For additional information about the web-based bibliographic management tool, RefWorks consult the descriptive page

 

Suggested online databases for Social Ecology 194W

       You can search the CSA databases (Psychology, Social Service, ERIC, Environmental Science & Pollution Management and Sociological Abstracts) concurrently or you can search them independently.  Click on the active Specific Databases link and select the databases you want and then Continue to search.

 

 

SUBJECT

DATABASE

SEARCH TIPS

WORK WITH RESULTS

General/multidisciplinary
 
 

A good starting point for research on many topics/contexts
 

 

Expanded Academic ASAP: Citations and full-text magazine, newspaper and journal articles from the arts and humanities to social sciences, science and technology.

 
  • Search by broad subject and narrow by subdivision (e.g. innovations, research, case studies) or search by keyword 
  • Limit to "refereed" publications to retrieve only academic and scholarly material 
  • Print, save or e-mail full-text or citations 
  • Use UC-elinks to connect to full-text or the MELVYL catalog to view UCI holdings OR 
  • Use ANTPAC to look up journal titles (includes links to electronic journals) 

Psychology

Good database for all aspects of psychology and social behavior

QUICK DEMO OF PSYCINFO -- OPEN WITH INTERNET EXPLORER ONLY

PsycINFO tutorial
 

PsycINFO: (CSA) International literature in psychology and related disciplines. The sources include over 1,400 professional journals, chapters, books, reports, theses and dissertations, published internationally.
 

Related to this database is PsycARTICLES, the full-text coverage of journals issued by the American Psychological Association (APA)
  • Search by keyword, and then refine your search using descriptors you find in your search results
  • Default is Advanced Search
  • Limit your search to journal articles only 
  • Use the cited references of recent articles to find additional relevant materials 
  • Can limit to empirical or other article types; populations, etc
  • Tag/mark multiple records and print/save/e-mail results 
  • Use UC-elinks to connect to full-text or the MELVYL catalog to view UCI holdings OR 
  • Use ANTPAC to look up journal titles (includes links to electronic journals) 

Social Services

Good database if the cultural context you are exploring is in the social or human services (counseling, e.g.)

 

Social Services Abstracts: (CSA) Abstracts of current research on social work, human services, and related areas, including social welfare, social policy, and community development. Journal articles, dissertations, and citations to book reviews.
  • Search by keyword, and then refine your search using descriptors you find in your search results
  • Use Advanced Search
  • Limit your search to journal articles only 
  • Tag/mark multiple records and print/save/e-mail results 
  • Use UC-elinks to connect to full-text or the MELVYL catalog to view UCI holdings OR 
  • Use ANTPAC to look up journal titles (includes links to electronic journals) 

Education
 

Good database if the cultural context you are exploring is in primary, secondary or higher education

 

ERIC: (CSA) Education-related literature, both journal articles and coverage of conferences, meetings, government documents, theses, dissertations, reports, audiovisual media, bibliographies, directories, books and monographs. 

  • Search by keyword, and then refine your search using descriptors you find in your search results
  • Use Advanced Search
  • Limit your search to journal articles only (if you don't do this, you will retrieve ERIC documents, which are generally unpublished reports, not scholarly articles)
  • Tag/mark multiple records and print/save/e-mail results 
  • Use UC-elinks to connect to full-text or the MELVYL catalog to view UCI holdings OR 
  • Use ANTPAC to look up journal titles (includes links to electronic journals) 

Sociology
 

Good for study of structure of organizations
 

 

Sociological Abstracts: (CSA) International literature in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences. Journal articles, book reviews, abstracts of books, book chapters, dissertations, and conference papers.

 Social Sciences Index (Wilson)

  • Search by keyword, and then refine your search using descriptors you find in your search results 
  • Use Advanced Search 
  • Limit your search to journal articles only 

 

  • Does not contain fulltext but DOES include UCI elinks to connect too full-text content; use advanced search

 
  • Tag/mark multiple records and print/save/e-mail results 
  • Use UC-elinks to connect to full-text or the MELVYL catalog to view UCI holdings OR 
  • Use ANTPAC to look up journal titles (includes links to electronic journals) 

Business/Public Policy
 
 

Particularly strong coverage of organizational psychology and workplace environments

 

Business Source Premier: Worldwide business periodicals for information on advertising, marketing, economics, human resources, finance, taxation, computers, and more. Also, information on 60,000+ companies.
  • Search by keyword and then refine your search using subject terms you find in your search results
  • Case studies is a subject term in this database
  • Limit to "peer reviewed" publications to retrieve only academic and scholarly material
  • Use the print bibliography feature to generate APA citations to articles
  • Tag/mark multiple records and print/save/e-mail results 
  • Use UC-elinks to connect to full-text or the MELVYL catalog to view UCI holdings OR 
  • Use ANTPAC to look up journal titles (includes links to electronic journals)

 

Interdisciplinary coverage

Web of Science
  • Scholarly journal articles in one of three integrated databases, Social Sciences Citation Index (1954+), Science Citation Index (soon to be the Century of Science to 1900+), Arts & Humanities Citation Index (1976+)

 
  • In addition to offering cited references included in the bibliography of the article, this database also provides Times Cited - meaning that you can do forward searching to see what articles cited the one you retrieved

Environmental Sciences

Environmental Science & Pollution Management: (CSA) International coverage of environmental sciences, risk assessment, and related topics
  • Search by keyword
  • Will retrieve mostly journal articles and conference proceedings
  • Tag/mark multiple records and print/save/e-mail results 
  • Use UC-elinks to connect to full-text or the MELVYL catalog to view UCI holdings OR 
  • Use ANTPAC to look up journal titles (includes links to electronic journals)

 

 

Finding Full-Text Content - all these databases will contain UC eLinks taking you to the full-text content via a publishing partner or to holdings in ANTPAC or MELVYL.  If the UCI Libraries do not have the article you need, please use MELVYL REQUEST to submit the ILL request from another campus.

Additional databases may be relevant and useful and are found on E-Resources Locator, or on the Subject Guides for Social Ecology or on Databases to get you started…

GENERAL HINTS:  

1.     You may want to review the outline format on your syllabus before you begin your paper - regardless of your topic you will want to write from an outline

a.      Purpose

b.     Hypothesis

c.      Methodology

d.     Findings

e.      Literature Review - summary

f.       Conclusions - can you accept or reject hypothesis

2.     Evaluating information - there are several criteria you will want to employ:

a.      Audience

b.     Authority

c.      Purpose

d.     Objectivity

e.      Currency

f.       Coverage

g.      Accuracy

h.      Relevancy

1.     Creating Interview Questions - the structured interview is a different process and requires preparation and review before conducting interviews - assuming that you interview several individuals, you will want to make sure that you ask the same questions so investing in the interview questions is highly recommended and asking general questions that all candidates can respond to about the topic, what was observed and implications for that interest.  For additional information about how to compose appropriate questions, look for books in social science research or consult resources such as Designing Structured Interviews for Educational Research (GAO, 1997 - ERIC Document)

2.     Citing your sources - use the revised APA format - for additional information you may want to consult the following resources that accompany the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th ed.  - http://www.apastyle.org/elecref.html or  http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

3.     Learn to use RefWorks - bibliographic management software where you can consistently format your references - this is a web-based, free product that each student registers for and uses in conjunction with MS Word.  Consult http://www.lib.uci.edu/bms/refworks.html for additional information.  An immediate one-time registration is available at https://www.refworks.com/Refworks/login.asp?WNCLang=false   It is particularly easy to use from any of the CSA databases.  There will be a class on how to use RefWorks on  Wed., Feb 27 in the LL TEC from 1-2:30 - Registration is now open.

HINTS for EXTRA CREDIT ASSIGNMENT - Research Summaries

You have the choice to find chapters in books or articles in journals or newspapers.  You can use the databases mentioned as well as consult the Subject Guides for Social Ecology or the Subject Guides for News and Newspapers - remember that your summary is an expanded abstract and should not include the abstract to the cited piece.  You must include a copy of the selected article in your submission.  Relate your summary to the work of this course and the research efforts you are currently engaged in.

FOR ADDITIONAL INFORMATION -

You have many options for getting research assistance from the UCI Libraries.  You can: 

·           Contact Liaison Librarian for an appointment or to ask for assistance - when sending eMail, please enter SE 194W in the subject line

·           Use Ask a Librarian for eMail, Live CHAT Reference, or to schedule a research consultation