The Importance of Multiple Sources of Evidence
From your Week 1 and 2 assignments, you learned how to cite resources using APA style, and you learned the differences between scholarly and non-scholarly material. Your assignment for this week is to synthesize multiple sources of scholarly material and assemble an annotated bibliography to support the research topic you selected in Week 1, including any revisions to that topic based on feedback from your professor.
An annotated bibliography is an alphabetical list of references of journal articles and books with an accompanying paragraph for each reference that summarizes and analyzes key information from the reference. Each paragraph is a concise exposition of the source’s central idea(s) and gives the reader a general idea of the source’s content. When annotating scholarly journal articles, include the purpose of the study, sample size, demographics of participants, type of data collection and measurement instruments used (if applicable), findings from the study, and suggestions for further research, (if given in the article). Your annotated bibliography for this week’s assignment will also contain one reference from a government or national education association website related to your research topic.
When PhD scholars conduct research, the first step is to find current statistics on the research topic and prior research that has been conducted on the topic to support your efforts to conduct new research on the topic (Becker & Denicolo, 2012). For example, if your research topic is Best Practices for Helping K-6 Hispanic/Latino English Language Learners Succeed in Reading, include in your resource list a U.S. government or national association website that maintains current statistics on the reading scores of elementary students who are English Language Learners, broken down by race/ethnicity. The National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) is a useful example.
For prior research conducted on this topic, you would start by searching for ELL and Elementary Education scholarly journals in the NCU library that contain research published on the topic with search words including K-6, elementary education, reading, ELL, Hispanic/Latino, etc. If you need assistance, first view the Searching 101 and Searching 102 Workshops in this week’s resources. If you need additional assistance, you can schedule an appointment with an NCU librarian to help you with your search by simply accessing the NCU online library and completing and submitting the Make an Appointment Form.
Narrow your search to research published within the last five years (Mårtensson, Fors, Wallin, Zander, & Nilsson, 2016). If your topic is narrow in scope, extend that search to the last 10 years as seminal works are also permitted. A seminal work is defined as original, important, or ground-breaking research published on a topic. For example, in education, a seminal work may be an education theory like African-American male theory or Gagne’s conditions of learning theory.
In the academic world, research begets research, and citing sources is imperative; therefore, make it a habit to keep careful notes of all the articles you review. There are also online tools available to you, like RefWorks, for keeping track of your references. Academic Writer is another tool you can use to track your sources. The particular system you choose to use is up to you.
It is critical in scholarly writing to have multiple references that well support your topic. For example, say you write the following: Research has indicated that ELL, Hispanic/Latino students struggle with reading more than non-ELL students (Cite, Cite, Cite). At the end of the sentence, cite 2-4 articles published within the last five years to support the sentence because you wrote that “research” (plural), more than one research study, has indicated… which demands that more than one article is cited at the end of the sentence. Providing multiple references to support your work is critical because scholarly research is built upon prior scholarly research.
Determining Information Needs
Once you find a potential topic, you will want to determine the types of information required to meet your research needs. Do you need primary or secondary sources, or a combination of both? What are popular resources and are they appropriate to use in academic research? Are you required to have peer-reviewed journal articles, or are scholarly articles sufficient? Where is the best place to look for different types of information, from clinical studies to statistics? How can ‘grey literature be useful?’ When should you consider searching outside the library’s databases for research resources?
Primary resources contain first-hand information, meaning that you are reading the author’s own account on a specific topic or event that s/he participated in. Examples of primary resources include scholarly research articles, books, and diaries. Primary sources such as research articles often do not explain terminology and theoretical principles in detail. Thus, readers of primary scholarly research should have foundational knowledge of the subject area. Use primary resources to obtain a first-hand account to an actual event and identify original research done in a field. For many of your papers, use of primary resources will be a requirement.
Secondary sources describe, summarize, or discuss information or details originally presented in another source; meaning the author, in most cases, did not participate in the event. This type of source is written for a broad audience and will include definitions of discipline specific terms, history relating to the topic, significant theories and principles, and summaries of major studies/events as related to the topic. Use secondary sources to obtain an overview of a topic and/or identify primary resources. Refrain from including such resources in an annotated bibliography for doctoral level work unless there is a good reason.
Academic resources, such as journals, academic books, and dissertations, undergo a formal evaluation process before publication. The peer review process is used by most scholarly journals, such as the New England Journal of Medicine. This helps to ensure high quality information and accuracy of results. Peer reviewed simply means that the manuscript has been reviewed by experts in the field. Scholarly peer reviewed work and other published research (dissertations, scholarly books, etc.) attempt to add to the body of knowledge. That said, even though an scholarly article has been peer reviewed, it is still important that you critically evaluate it yourself, as some journals differentiate in acceptance standards. Remember that most of your resources for University work should be scholarly RESEARCH articles. A scholarly journal has additional sections like any other journal: editorials, book reviews, news, letters, etc. These resources are not considered research articles, even though they are published in a scholarly/peer reviewed journal. You will want to make sure that you are focusing your efforts primarily on the original, research-based articles.
Popular resources do not typically go through the same review process as academic resources; in many cases popular resources are reviewed by a single editor, who may or may not have expertise in the subject area. Popular resources are usually written for a broad audience and do not always use the same, formal language as authors of academic articles. Examples of popular resources include magazine and newspaper articles, websites, and wikis. Use popular resources to identify the latest trends and issues within your topic, but do not rely heavily on these types of resources.
Trade publications are neither considered academic or popular; they are resources written for those who work in a specific industry. These publications tend to publish news, statistics, trends and other information relevant to their industry. Authors can be staff editors, journalists, practitioners or academics in the field. They made be published by trade or professional associations. Articles may be short and may not include references, or not nearly as many references as scholarly journal articles.
Scholarly journals are journals which are well respected for the information and research they provide on a particular subject. They are written by experts in a particular field or discipline and their purpose is to advance the ongoing body of work within their discipline. These articles might present original research data and findings, or take a position on a key question within the field. They can be difficult to read, because their intended audience is other experts and academics, but they are the capstone when it comes to authoritative information.
A peer-reviewed article has gone through a process where other scholars in the author’s field or discipline critically assess a draft of the article. The actual evaluations are similar to editing notes, where the author receives detailed and constructive feedback from the peer experts. Please keep in mind that not all scholarly journals go through the peer-review process. However, it is safe to assume that a peer-reviewed journal is also scholarly. In short, “scholarly” means the article was written by an expert for an audience of other experts, researchers or students. “Peer-reviewed” takes it one step further and means the article was reviewed and critiqued by the author’s peers who are experts in the same subject area. The vast majority of scholarly articles are peer reviewed.
Grey literature is literature produced by government, academics, business and industry in print and electronic formats, but which is not controlled by commercial publishers. A widely quoted definition of grey literature is “literature which is not readily available through normal book-selling channels, and therefore difficult to identify and obtain” (Wood, 1982). Grey literature includes theses and dissertations, conference papers and proceedings, reports (such as white papers, working papers, internal documentation), government documents, technical notes and specifications, proposals, datasets/statistics, policies/procedures, patents, unpublished trial data, regulatory data, speeches, urban plans, test instruments, pre-prints, company information, social media, and more.
Use this information about searching and citing to complete the annotated bibliography for this week’s assignment. Be sure to review the resources provided for composing an annotated bibliography.
References
Auger, P. (1998). Information sources in grey literature. Walter de Gruyter GmbH.
Becker, L., & Denicolo, P. (2012). Success in research: Publishing journal articles. SAGE. doi:10.4135/9781446288139
Mårtensson, P., Fors, U., Wallin, S., Zander, U., & Nilsson, G. H. (2016).
Evaluating research: A multidisciplinary approach to assessing research practice and quality. Research Policy, 45(3), 593-603.
Weekly Resources
How to Write an Annotated Bibliography
Assignment
Assemble an Annotated Bibliography Supporting Your Topic
Find one government or national association website with current statistics about your research topic area and five scholarly journal articles on your topic and create an annotated bibliography. Each annotated bibliography begins with the full reference of the article cited correctly in APA format with hanging indents. Access the SUU library to help you complete this assignment. Of the five journal articles, include one resource that refutes or disagrees with the findings of the other four journal articles. This is the first step in comparing and contrasting scholarly work. No theses or dissertation references allowed.
When annotating scholarly journal articles, include the purpose of the study, sample size, demographics of participants, type of data collection and measurement instruments used (if applicable), findings from the study, and suggestions for further research.
Length: The length of this assignment is the number of pages it takes you to write a well-developed, double-spaced paragraph about each resource, not including the title page.
References: There is no reference page for this assignment, but each reference in the annotated bibliography must be correctly APA formatted with hanging indents.
The completed assignment should address all of the assignment requirements, exhibit evidence of conceptual knowledge, and demonstrate thoughtful consideration of the content presented in the course. The writing should integrate scholarly resources, reflect academic expectations and current APA standards, and adhere to Southern Utah University’s Academic Integrity Policy.
Hayden Coombs 