1. SYLVIA ROBERTS Communication Librarian sroberts@sfu.ca
CMNS 201: Finding empirical research literature
SYLVIA ROBERTS
Communication Librarian
I’m Sylvia Roberts, Librarian for Communication
Professor Lesage has asked me to speak to students in CMNS 201 about how to do a literature review for your research project as described in Assignment 1 Reviewing the Scholarly Literature & Planning a Study
There is also a research guide for CMNS 201 with a link to the PPT slides so that you don’t have to worry about making notes and can concentrate on participating in the tutorial
DEMONSTRATE using Library search to find research guide to CMNS 201

2. Tutorial overview Why researchers begin with a literature review
What does an empirical research article look like?
How to find articles on your topic
Additional support

3. Related assignment deliverables
At end of today’s tutorial: In Canvas, submit a citation for an empirical research article that relates to your topic
Assignment #1 Report on Literature Search:
Description of scholarly literature search (databases, search terms)
How the search process & results informed your conceptualization of the research topic
Assignment #3 Annotated bibliography
Four scholarly publications selected from search (articles, book chapters)
This tutorial will focus the first point to help you complete assignment #1, quoted on this slide. At the end of this tutorial, you will submit a citation for an empirical research article that relates to your research topic.
If you’d like assistance with the other parts of this assignment (how to search Google School effectively, how to use citation styles effectively, how to write annotations), we’ll tell you how to get further help from librarians at the end of this session

4. An empirical research article reports the results of a study that uses data derived from actual observation or experimentation. 

5. If I can see further, it is by standing on the shoulders of giants.
(Isaac Newton, 1676)
What do you think this means? (Ask students to respond)
This quotation describes how scholarly research builds on previous findings, that it’s incremental.
Sharing research is key to the advancement of knowledge. The scholarly record is captured, in part, by research publications, such as articles published in scholarly journals.
When the first scientific journals were published, in the mid-16th century, they were paper, printed in small numbers. Today, they’re largely digital but academic conventions of publication have been preserved, like volumes, issues, pages that you use when you cite them, as well as Digital object identifiers to help you find them online.

6. Academic literature is important at both the beginning and the end of the empirical research life cycle
Does this process look familiar to you? Did you talk about it in class?
Engaging with the research literature, the record of successful research, is an essential part of empirical research at universities. You start out with a literature review so you can benefit from finding related literature and then as a way to share the results of research with your researcher peers around the world.
We’re going to focus on the first step, finding and reviewing relevant academic literature so it can inform your own research

7. Why begin with a literature review?
Situates your research topic within the discipline, showing what has been done previously
Peer-review process acts as quality control
Protocol of citing influential studies helps identify related research
Demonstrates how other researchers have framed their questions
Provides models of effective research methodology
A literature review is a standard part of research articles. Helps to establish what’s already known about your research topic, to look for gap in research, methodologies used by those looking at a similar question, whether recruiting study population, defining terms, listed in methodology section of empirical research articles
At the core of scientific literature, it’s how you benefit from previous research. You don’t have to start from zero. Library systems have tools to help you find records of previous research.
Peer review is quality control - judged to be of value by experts in the field before accepted for publication
Shows how your research fits in what else has been the subject of study in the field – one requirement of academic research is that it’s making a contribution to what’s already known. To get funding or to get published, you have to demonstrate a gap, whether a brand new question or a new approach to an old question
The standard model of academic literature is to be transparent about their methodology so that the results can be verified by repeating the research – you can draw on these to develop your own research questions and means to explore them

8. Identifying features:
“Journal” often in publication title
Lengthy (10+ pages)
Authors affiliated with research institution
Abstract provides summary
Introduction & literature review positions research in the discipline
Documentation (in-text citations and reference list / bibliography)
The academic convention of citing influential sources means that research articles can lead to you to other relevant sources for your own research questions on a topic.
Your selected articles don’t have to have a perfect fit for your whole topic as long as they relate to some aspect of it, such as the topic of the question, the study population, the methodology, etc. You need to have a rationale for how an article supports your research question.

9. Identifying features:
Formal language, well- organized with section headings
Research questions stated
Methodology section

10. Identifying features:
Discussion of results
Illustrations are somber looking, used to provide meaning (tables, charts)
Conclude with implications of findings and suggestions for further research
Now that you know how to recognize an empirical research article, we can move to the process of searching for articles on your topic
For this, we’re going to use a specialized journal searching tool, called an index or a database

11. Disciplinary databases
Sociological Abstracts
Communication and Mass Media Complete
Academic libraries subscribe to literature indexes (often called databases by librarians) so that researchers can search for articles in many different journals, usually within a particular academic discipline like Sociology, Communication. As each journal issue is published, the database creates a record for each of the articles in it.
This is a sample database record for the same article in Communication and Mass Media Complete.
As well as the citation information needed to identify the article (author name, article title, journal name (issue, page nos.), database records include additional information to enhance searching, such as subject descriptors (standard terms used to describe what the article is about) and abstracts which summarize the contents of the article, helping you decide whether or not to go on to read the full text
Notice that many of the terms are links, enabling you to easily search by a subject term or by the authors’ names to find other records, as well as a link to a PDF of the fulltext
Google Scholar indexes the full text of articles which can be useful, if you’re searching for a unique term, or overwhelming if your search terms are used in many disciplines

12. Your research topic
“…attitudes and practices related to the ethics and to etiquette in social media use in communication.”
You’ve been directed to find a topic that relates to social media use and standards of human behavior. Often etiquette or ethical standards are agreed upon within a particular group, for example, Canadians, university students, seniors, etc.
I understand that you’ve used the first part of your tutorial to find a research question and search terms to use in your literature review. Does anyone want to volunteer their research question or topic?

13. Starting research question
USE the handout or download the file from the CMNS 201 guide to make notes
Write one sentence to summarize your research question, ideally in question form.
For example: How do adults experience friendship in Facebook, compared to friends made in real life?
This slide shows a sample topic, based on a research interest from my real life
My sister-in-law was resistant to setting up her own FB profile and had high standards for her kids. Said to her son, “if they’re not your friend in real life, they shouldn’t be your fb friend”
Who agrees with this?
It occurred to me that there is a research question in how people decide to be friends on Facebook and how do they treat their FB friends compared to other friends.
If I was going to make a plan to find related empirical articles, it might look like this.
Take 1 minutes to write your own research question down – you’ll need to submit the question and 1 article as the deliverables for this tutorial

14. Key concepts = search terms
Identify the key concepts in your research question
For example: How do adults experience friendship in Facebook, compared to friends made in real life?
Key concepts: friends facebook
TIP: it’s helpful to use nouns, plural forms as search terms
Identify the key concepts in your research questions, use 1-2 concepts and find the best words to describe them (often nouns, plural forms of nouns)
Circle the main research concepts in your question : should refer to some aspect of social media, some behavior you want to explore and potentially a population that you may study

15. Search term alternatives
Research question How do adults experience friendship in Facebook, compared to friends made in real life?
Key concepts (best to use nouns, plural forms) friends facebook
Identify related terminology for each of your concepts: friends: friendship, relationships facebook: social media, social networks
Related terms because computers are STUPID, they are a literal technology so can only match exactly what you search. This gives you a better chance of finding relevant articles.
If your first search terms don’t produce the results that you want, find some related terms to use : synonyms, plural forms, more generic, more specific, product names, etc.
Take 1 minute to write down some alternative terms for your search concepts

16. Search syntax AND, OR Phrase searching Limiters
NOTE that results are sorted by relevance not by date; LIMIT to scholarly journal articles – not necessarily empirical but focuses results (excludes dissertations and conference papers)
Too many results? Use Subject headings to focus results - subjects are standard terminology used to describe what the article is about - shows how many in results have which subjects
Choose subject from sidebar, More options to get whole list
Select friendship, social networks (this db doesn’t use social media as a subject), internet
Do any of these results look like they’d be relevant to my research? Take suggestion from student OR use promising result:
Yang, C., & Brown, B. B. (2013). Motives for using facebook, patterns of facebook activities, and late adolescents' social adjustment to college. Journal of Youth and Adolescence, 42(3), OR
Niland, P., Lyons, A. C., Goodwin, I., & Hutton, F. (2015). Friendship work on facebook: Young adults' understandings and practices of friendship. Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology, 25(2), 123. Retrieved from
Go full record – point out how abstract mentions research methodology & population (might say “survey”, “study”, “questionnaire”, etc.) so empirical – looks like this article is on topic AND empirical so I’ll save the record & citation
Demo “cite” and point out they can add to selected items (to gather) or /save individually
Demonstration of searching Sociological Abstracts

17. Search and evaluate
Search Sociological Abstracts, using your search terms, limit to scholarly articles
Review results list for promising articles
Modify search if necessary (try related terms)
Click on promising titles to get detailed record with abstract
Read abstract to assess whether empirical article
/download & capture promising citations for bibliography
Now you search and I’ll circulate. If you want to consult me about your research, wave me over

18. Assignment support after this class
Ask a Librarian (research help)
Citation style guides
Undergraduate Writing and Learning (Student Learning Commons)