Library Assignment Alternative for Methods
of Research
* note: this is an alternative to attending the poster
session and handing in a poster session report form. If you
attend the poster session and hand in a report form, you should not
complete this assignment. *
The purpose of this assignment is find four scholarly
articles
related to a sociological research topic. These should be studies
published
in academic journals, NOT popular magazines. These are usually
not available on the open internet, although you can often find them
through Google
Scholar (not the regular Google web search). Most of these
publications must
be accessed through the Rutgers
Library or another institution that has paid for access to
them. However, these sources can be accessed from home, as long
as you log on to the Rutgers Library site with your user name and
password. Learning how to use these sources will give you access
to valuable information that you can use in other courses and in
graduate school or on the job after graduation. A basic resource
for this assignment is the Sociology,
Anthropology and Criminal Justice
Department's Library
Sources Guide which provides links to
the key library resources. You may find it useful to keep that
page open while
doing this assignment.
Instructions
1. Open this file in Microsoft Word or
another text editor. You may find it helpful to paste your
findings directly in the assignment file. If you cannot do this
because of the way the web site is configured, you can type them
in.
2. Type a one paragraph
description of your research topic here:
3. List some key words and/or researchers' names that would be
useful for searching on your topic:
3. Use Google Scholar,
Academic Search Premier, or any other academic search tool to find
original research articles on your topic. These are studies that
report on research for the first time. They usually have an
abstract at the beginning that summarizes the findings. Find FOUR
original studies. You
will not receive full credit for articles that are not original
research reports in scholarly journals.
4. Read the
chapter on APA documentation in the Penguin Manual (there are
also online
sources on this, listed on the
Sociology & Criminal Justice Department Home Page).
5. For each of the four
articles you find, type a full
citation using APA style. Also type a brief abstract (you may
copy and paste this if convenient). Also include the text of a
hyperlink to the article if available.
Article One, Citation:
Article One, Hyperlink:
Article One, Abstract:
Article Two, Citation:
Article Two, Hyperlink:
Article Two, Abstract:
Article Three, Citation:
Article Three, Hyperlink:
Article Three, Abstract:
Article Four, Citation:
Article Four, Hyperlink:
Article Four, Abstract: