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COM660: Capstone Research Seminar: Research Process

Hi everyone! It's Becky at home here in Dubuque. I just want to welcome you to your library page for the course. There are LOTS of resources here for you use and plenty of ways to get some help if you need. There is always the Live Online Reference Help. You can access that from the tab above. We're staffing that 8am-8pm Monday-Friday and 8-4 on Saturdays. From there you can chat, or connect your laptop or phone camera to see a real live person to get help. As always you can also email reference@dbq.edu or me personally at bcanovan@dbq.edu. If a phone call is better, the Reference Desk phone (563-589-3770) will be answered between noon-8pm. Or you can call and leave me a voicemail at (563) 589-3649 with your number and a time to call you back. Those are forwarded to my email.

The Research Process: 1 Define 2 Identify 3 Evaluate 4 acquire 5 read Define Research Question: In research, you enter into a broader conversation to a question that is substantive and relevant What is the question? How extensive will the discussion be? Identify quality relevant sources: Start with your textbook, reference sources, or handbooks Identify books using library catalog & Google Books  Identify articles using CMMC & other databases related to your discipline Evaluate sources: Skim material to determine if it's relevant to your research question. Are the author, publisher, and journal reliable & credible? Is it timely, or is that important? Is there a bibliography of credible sources? Acquire sources: Find books on the shelf. If UD doesn't own it, use the Request Item from another library button to get a copy. Download the PDF full-text of articles. If the library doesn't have it, use the Find It button to request a copy. Save all citation information Read sources: Read to answer, refine, and change your research question Does the sources help change, focus or deepen your question? Does it help turn your research question into a focused thesis statement?

When you first read sources for research, you do so to determine if they are worth reading in more depth. You want to determine the materials’ relevance to your research, learn basic information, understand the issues in your field of research, and gather more relevant citations from bibliographies. As you do this preliminary research, you will begin to further focus your research question. Books: Skim the following: 1. the preface for author’s thesis, intent, and self-evaluation 2. the introduction for a summary of the book 3. the index to determine pages of interest 4. chapter(s) of interest 5. the bibliography for other relevant materials Articles: Read the following: read the abstract to determine the article's thesis, methodology, and conclusions skim the introduction, discussion, conclusion, and bibliography