Fall PANNING FOR GOLD THINKING ABOUT ACADEMIC RESEARCH Peter Paolucci, Ph.D.

Fall Orientation This discussion is about these ideas 1.Searching for valuable and reliable sources (gold) means sifting through lots of unreliable and biased information (sand). 2.Corollary to #1: recognize reliable information (gold) when you see it: don’t be duped (fool’s gold) by useless or bad resources 3.Knowing where to look. 4.Know what to look for. 5.Why you need to be patient and allow lots of time

Fall Parts to thinking like and Academic Researcher i.Overview of core principles ii.Discovering sources (panning for gold) iii.Evaluating sources iv.Scrutinizing evidence / working with your research

Fall I: Overview of Core Principles

Fall IMPOSSIBLE TO ESTIMATE … 1. Time & energy required 2. Power of serendipity Consequently, you need 2 key interrelated skills: risk assessment and time management

Fall Risk Assessment Imagine (and list) what could go worgn with your work plan. Be flexible 1.Physical or mental fatigue 2.Family or personal emergency (minor or major) 3.Surprise assignment in another course 4.Bad weather = longer commute 5.Emergency at work 6.Emergency at home or a friend in need

Fall Time Management Plan for the unexpected by earlier 1.Setting your own due date; earlier than the assignment due date 2.Build redundancy/duplication into your study plan (schedule it twice or more) which gives you flexibility

Fall PREDICT ! Try to speculate as specifically as you can about what you could find or are likely to find Even if wrong, it’s better to approach research with articulated expectations (you can always correct errors as you move forward) It’s only a hypothesis to get started !!

Fall GETTING ANSWERS The “answers” are NOT in the library or on the Internet … They are already in your head !

TIPS WORTH CONSIDERING 1.Research more than you need 2.Explore more than is necessary 3.Bring home (and archive) hard & soft copies of key items you encounter: record citations of less important items 4.Record all meta information (author, title, journal, URL, date, call #, page #, editor, which library), where you were, the date, etc.. Fall

TIPS WORTH CONSIDERING 5.Think dialectically 6.Challenge everything 5.Show a variety of sources, opinions and viewpoints, especially conflicting and hostile viewpoints 6.Show current sources AND knowledge older precedents (which are not always wrong or outdated) Fall

Fall TIPS WORTH CONSIDERING Begin NOT by narrowing down your ideas, but by opening up possibilities thereby generating more informed choices

Fall II: FINDING (LEGITIMATE) SOURCES

Fall TYPES OF SOURCES POPULAR or ACADEMIC

Fall MATCHING 2 TYPES OF LIBRARIES Popular Academic or Peer Reviewed Popular Academic or Peer Reviewed

Fall ACADEMIC PUBLISHING Books (aka monographs) published by scholarly published houses or university presses or Articles (aka journals) published monthly or quarterly, but sometimes annually or after a conference (so-called "proceedings"). In print or online, or both. University pays for hard copy and/or online subscriptions to these.

“Legitimate” items are said to be “refereed,” that is, sent to several third party experts for scrutiny and returned with... i. rejected ii. publish with minor revisions, iii. publish with major revisions iv. publish as is (no changes) About the Peer Review Process Fall THE PEER REVIEW PROCESS

Fall ACADEMIC RESEARCH & WRITING The following qualities are what to look for in good research. The very same qualities are also what you should be striving for in your own academic writing. Pay attention to how it’s done so you can incorporate academic features into your own academic writing.

Fall III: Evaluating Sources

Fall ACADEMIC WRITING HAS … 1.Thoroughness i.Cover different (and especially) hostile points of view. ii.Cover current and older items too iii.If possible, search in different languages 2.Accuracy & Meticulousness i.Double check accuracy and context of quotes as well as page numbers and bibliography information ii.Include all information even if it seems irrelevant at the time when you are writing it down

Fall ACADEMIC WRITING HAS … 3.Balance & fairness i.No “straw man” arguments 4.Clarity in complexity i.Retain paradoxes, dilemmas and inconsistencies. Don’t oversimplify

Fall ACADEMIC WRITING HAS … 3.Author’s personal credentials 4.Connection to / affiliation with a recognized academic institution

Fall WARNING SIGNS 1.No named/cited author 2.No institutional affiliation 3.No credentials or relevant credentials 4.No Works Cited/Works Consulted 5.One-sided argument 6.Unsubstantiated claims 7.Poor, incomplete, or missing evidence 8.No evidence of peer review See

Fall IV: Scrutinizizng Evidence

Fall KINDS OF EVIDENCE Statistical Empirical Expertise Scientific Testimonial Anecdotal Analogical Precedent – – –Adapted from Seech, Z. (1993). Writing philosophy papers. Belmont, Calif.: Wadsworth Pub. Co.

Fall KINDS OF EVIDENCE (2) Expertise Peer Reviewed Sources Government Studies Institutional research

Fall FALLACIES i.Confusing / conflating causality with correlation and/or accident ii. anecdotal iii. precedent iv. appeal to probabilty v. ad hominem vi. begging the question (most misunderstood) vii. straw man

Fall FALLACIES: 3 KINDS OF SYLLOGISM i.DISJUNCTIVE: i.Major premise: Either the meeting is at school or at home. ii.Minor premise: The meeting is not at home. iii.Conclusion: Therefore the meeting is at school. ii.CATEGORICAL i.Major premise: All men are mortal. ii.Minor premise: Socrates is a man. iii.Conclusion: Socrates is mortal. iii.CONDITIONAL i. Major premise: If Johnny is eating sweets every day, he is placing himself at risk for diabetes. ii.Minor premise: Johnny does not eat sweats everyday iii.Conclusion: Therefore Johnny is not placing himself at risk for diabetes

Fall FALLACIES: BEGGING THE QUESTION i.Regularly misunderstood and used incorrectly to me "invites the question" ii.Circular reasoning such as: Bill: "God must exist." Jill: "How do you know." Bill: "Because the Bible says so." Jill: "Why should I believe the Bible?" Bill: "Because the Bible was written by God."

Fall PERSUASION & ANCIENT RHETORIC 1. Logos or appeals to reason i.inductive / inductive 2. Pathos or appeals emotion i.Honour ii.Patriotism iii. empathy 3. Ethos or appeals to ethics/moralilty 1. integrity or credibility of speaker 2. establish a rapport with your udience 3. rightness of your argument

Fall THE SOKOL AFFAIR Alan Sokol Published a peer-reviewed article "liberally salted with nonsense" –Only one article by one journal BUT –Made critical world wonder about the whole process –Where does truth live? –What is the relationship between truth and legitimacy? Sokal's Hoax Poor Medical Research (1/7)

Fall Librarians vs Internet Search Engines

Fall LIBRARY SCIENCE Is all about standardization of information (data ad so-called metadata or information about information ISBN / ISSN numbers Library of Congress see Standard “subjects”

Fall

Fall INTERNET - LIBRARY: DIFFERENCES Librarians standardize everything, incl. booleans (and, or, adj, not) but Internet search engines standardize little (they compete by offering different alternatives)

Fall INTERNET SEARCH ENGINES 3 Kinds: –Generic (Yahoo) –Meta: search other engines (Metacrawler) –Dedicated (Lawcrawler). See

Fall SEARCH ENGINES Each –collects –filters –stores –eliminates –serves data … differently

Fall PROBLEMS WITH SEARCH ENGINES 1.Research and promotion = 2 sides of same coin 2.Sometimes what you find has nothing to do with your research skills

Fall HOW YOU ARE MANIPULATED Research and promotion = 2 sides of same coin What you find has little to do with your research skills Promotion can be Passive (in the HTML code) Active (submitting abstracts or buying ads which are measured in CPMs)

Fall SOME GOOD SOURCES ! 1.How to do research to do research 2.Advice on Research & Writing on Research & Writing 3.Style, formatting documentation (Monash U) formatting documentation

Fall MORE GOOD SOURCES II 5.Academic Integrity (avoiding plagiarism) (York) Integrity (avoiding plagiarism) 6.Evaluating Websites: Criteria and Tools (Cornell U) Websites: Criteria and Tools (Cornell U)

Fall