homeworkvan official blog 미국 대학 졸업 서비스 및 영어 과제 전문 컨설팅 - Since 2014: Academic Essay Tutorial - Chapter 3: Researching Sources

Chapter 3: Researching Sources

This is where the boys are separated from the men. Essentially, where you source your research and the extent you go towards reading the material determines the quality of your paper. For various papers, the instructions may specify what types of sources to use.

· Internet Sources. Includes everything

· Reputable sources. Includes books, academic and trade journals, newspapers, government and company reports, legal documents, government and company websites, encyclopedias. Excludes Wikipedia, blogs, and general internet sources

· Academic sources. Includes books, academic journals, and published reports [company/organizational/government]

· Peer-reviewed/scholarly sources. Includes Journal articles and authored chapters in books with an editor and/or published by a university.

Apart from quality, another important factor to consider is relevancy. A big problem with writers is citing outdated sources. Information is continually updated and by citing info published over 10 years ago, you risk citing information that may have been removed from existing scholarship and is currently incorrect or incomplete.

The checklist of considerations include:

1. Current Information/Relevancy

NOTE: As a rule, I would require you to locate sources published in the last 5 years unless otherwise stated in the instructions or after consulting with me.

2. Credibility- Is the author an expert in the topic?

3. Reliability – Is the work from a trusted source?

4. Bias – Are the arguments presented objective?

5. Accuracy - Is the work devoid of errors and flaws?

6. Logical – Is the discussion reasonable, balanced, and complete? Are the assumptions logically reasonable?

7. Quality – Is the source well written? Devoid of spelling and grammatical errors?

Reference Resources

Here are common locations I use for locating academic sources:

1. Books

There are three methods I use to locate books:

a. Google Books

Search on books.google.com. Then filter the search to only show sources published after a certain year.

b. Libgen

The website libgen.io. The site provides full PDF/ Mobi copies of published books.

a. When you find a book on Google Books that you are unable to access, copy the book title/name and paste it on the site. You MAY find the book.

b. Search directly on libgen.io

c. PDF drive

This website is similar to libgen. Access it at pdfdrive.net

2. Journals

I source Journals from several sources.

a. Search on scholar.google.com.

Thus is my number one resource for journals. On Google Scholar, refine your search tools to only show articles published after a certain year. You can download the journals by clicking the link to the right of the journal name as shown [check highlighted in below image]

Figure 1: Google Scholar Search Example

NOTE: One can quickly cite the source by clicking the cite link just below the particular Journal. You should be keen to ensure what you cite/reference is a Journal since Google Scholar includes other sources that are not necessarily journals.

b. Search on an Academic Database.

There exists several paid databases that contain books, journals, reports, articles, and magazines. These include:

· EBSCOhost Academic Source Complete Access it from https://search.ebscohost.com/Login.aspx?lp=login.asp&ref=&authtype=ip,uid . You can refine the search to only show peer reviewed sources published after a certain year.

· Business Source Premier Database [used mainly for business papers]

c. Search on scihub.bz or scihub.cc.

When you come across an article on Google Scholar that you are unable to freely access, then copy and paste the link from Google scholar to the search box on Scihub. Alternatively, if you have the DOI of a journal,

For Example:

Copy the link http://dx.doi.org/10.1128/CVI.00609-15 then paste it on scihub and press enter.

d. Search from the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ)

This source contains high quality, open access, peer-reviewed journals. Use it to supplement sources from Scholar if you do not have access to an academic database. Access it at doaj.org

3. Reports

Reports can be sourced from:

a. Company/ Organization Reports

These can be sourced from

LexisNexis database [used mainly for business papers]
Factiva database [used mainly for business papers]
Value Line Database [used mainly for business papers]
Mergent Online Database [used mainly for business papers]
Annual Company Reports
Trade website

NOTE: For information outside the given databases, search with the appropriate search term on Google Search. Ex. To find a report on the banking situation in Canada, an example search term is “Canada banking PDF”

b. Government Reports

Search with the appropriate search term on Google Search. For example: If you would like to find a report on the banking situation in Canada, example search terms include

· Bank of Canada report PDF

· site: bankofcanada.ca 2014 banking PDF report

· Canada banking World Bank Report