1. TUTORIAL Guide 25. THE INFORMATION CYCLE

2. The Information Cycle: from User to Producer PRIMARY SOURCES SECONDARY SOURCES WEB USERS/ PRODUCERS Researchers Faculty Students

3. KNOW THE PLAYERS USER/PRODUCER: In order to produce one essay we read at least 3 articles. To write an article just look at the list of references of one peer-reviewed article, which may have 50 or more. PRIMARY SOURCES: experimental/observational data. SECONDARY SOURCES: Journals, books, etc. US University has purchased annual access to databases that contain peer-reviewed sources). Collaborative systems like DOAR, DOAJ, OAISTER, GOOGLE SCHOLAR, GOOGLE BOOKS. WEB: A great platform to host all the players

4. TIMING How old do you think what you are reading is if it was published in 2010? If it is a Journal, let’s count: Data collection & analysis: 1 st. year; writing, presentation at meetings: 2 nd. Year; Journal peer review, published & indexed: 3 rd. Year. Perhaps today’s retrieved article is 3 years old. There is a waiting list in the publishing arena. How long do you think books take? Electronic sources?

5. WHY PEER REVIEW To validate the work published in the article-journal: data analysis, methodology, results & sources. The journal’s editors have 3-5 specialists in the area of study review the work. Pre-print means there has been no peer review yet. Post-print means it has been peer-reviewed, but with author’s changes. Databases, Repositories (DOAR), DOAJ, OAISTER, WHOLIS, have peer-reviewed articles.

6. Wikipedia has no peer-reviewed articles; have you taken a look? Remember this link if one day you publish an article and want to know about the copyright laws for your own work: http://www.sherpa.ac.uk/romeo/ Be more aware of who publishes what you read & who supports or validates the information in it. WHY PEER REVIEW

7. WHAT GOES FOR PEER REVIEW? Articles Books Chapters Master’s & PhD Theses All documents that the institution decides to be validated by specialists.

8. WHAT GOES TO REPOSITORIES Pre & Post Prints Books Book Chapters Theses Technical Reports Manuals And all documents permitted by copyright law

9. DO YOU KNOW WHO & WHAT YOU ARE QUOTING in your essay? Regarding time, is it the most recent, up- to-date research? Peer-reviewed: is it? How many more articles has the author written? Is the author an expert in the field? Do you know the institution behind the author?

10. PRACTICE YOUR CRITICAL THINKING SELECTING YOUR AUTHORS SELECTING YOUR TERMS SELECTING YOUR REFERENCES SELECTING YOUR SEARCH STRATEGIES SELECTING YOUR DATABASES