MyResearch (Humanities)

Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4

Week 1: Managing Your Research

The first session of MyResearch provides an introduction to one citation management software, EndNote, which is free to students, faculty, and staff of McGill University. EndNote can store and organize bibliographic information and research notes and generate footnotes and bibliographies according to various citation styles.

In preparation for the MyResearch session, please visit the Library's EndNote page to download the software.

The Library also provides McGill access to RefWorks, and a number of free online products exist. To decide which citation management software is right for you, use McGill’s comparison chart.

Today's handouts

Module 1 Powerpoint
EndNote Essentials workshop outline
Sample book title page

Help using EndNote

• Email a citations [dot] library [at] mcgill [dot] ca (McGill Library EndNote specialist)
• Watch EndNote’s video tutorials
• Download the complete EndNote help manual
• EndNote has a very active online user community: Visit the online users forum to crowdsource an answer.

Visit the Library's Getting help with EndNote page for more suggestions.

Week 2: Graduate Research Tool Kit

In this module, we give an overview of the research process, experiment with breaking down a research topic for effective database searching, and explore the Library's catalogues and general academic databases. At the end we introduce the CREPUQ card and COLOMBO, 2 essential tools for acquiring resources not available at McGill.

The research process

Books on research methodologies in the Humanities and Social Sciences Library

McGill catalogues and databases

McGill WorldCat Catalogue
A "discovery tool" that searches McGill's classic catalogue as well as catalogues of 1000s of libraries around the world plus select article databases.

McGill Classic Catalogue
A powerful catalogue for searching and accessing the McGill Library collection

McGill databases by subject
See the full array of general and subject-specific databases available to researchers at McGill

A basic search strategy

1. Break your topic down into keywords
   How did the “New Woman” affect depictions of domesticity in contemporary American literature? becomes "New Woman", domesticity, American, and literature
2. Generate synonyms and related words for each concept
   
   • "New Woman": suffragists, Progressivism, feminism, "First wave feminism," women's suffrage
   • Domesticity: family, home, domestic, marriage, "gender roles"
   • American: United States, America
   • Literature: novels, fiction, poetry, Henry James, Willa Cather, Edith Wharton
3. Use Boolean operators:
   • OR combines synonyms and related words
     "New Woman" OR suffragists OR Progressivism OR...
   • AND combines concepts
     "New Woman" AND domesticity AND literature
   • Parentheses group synonyms and related words together
     ("New Woman" OR suffragists OR Progressivism) AND (domesticity OR family OR home) AND...
4. Take note of any controlled vocabulary used by the catalogue or database. Controlled vocabulary is a set of standardized terms used by databases to group together items about a specific subject regardless of the terminology or language used by an author. Once you try searching with the various keyword combinations you've generated, look at the full record of any relevant items and record the standardized terms that describe the item's content.
   In the McGill Library catalogue, look for the LC (Library of Congress) subject headings:
   • e.g. American fiction -- Women authors -- History and criticism
   • Domestic fiction, American -- History and criticism
   • Women and literature -- United States -- History -- 20th century
   Databases often use their own in-house controlled vocabulary in the "subject" or "identifier" field

Borrowing from other libraries

To borrow in person from another Quebec or Canadian university library, get a CREPUQ card from any McGill Library service.

To request an item via interlibrary loan, use COLOMBO.

Today's handouts

Module 2 Powerpoint
Library tools you need to know
Handout 1: Boolean_operators and comparison of McGill Worldcat and Classic catalogues
Handout 2: Google searching tips

Week 3: Search strategies and document types

Request, renew, and review via the Library catalogue

Your library account allows you to perform several important tasks:

• request items that are currently out to other patrons
• request the transfer of documents from one McGill branch library to another
• renew items you have out
• review your loan history at McGill

You'll find the link to "Your library account" on the McGill Library homepage.

Library account PIN: The 11-digit barcode number on your student ID

Library account password: your birthdate (YYYYMMDD). E.g., 19800307 if you were born on March 7, 1980.

Concept mapping

Concept mapping with CmapTools

• Download the software here for free
• Visit NASA's Mars exploration concept maps for examples

Subject guides and subject-specific databases

Subject guides are created by librarians to introduce researchers to resources relevant to their field of study. They are an excellent tool for orienting oneself within the world with research. Explore those that interest you from the McGill Library homepage under "Resources by subject."

Subject-specific databases are like specialty boutiques: they may not have a broad range of products, but they offer incredible depth within their narrow scope. These core databases are identified in every subject guide. You can also survey this list of databases by subject available at McGill.

Citation searching

Traditionally citation searching works backward in time: by studying the bibliography of an article or book, one can discover relevant earlier works. Databases make it possible to search forward in time by linking a document to later documents within the database that cite it. Though several databases offer this functionality, 3 are more comprehensive than the rest:

• Web of Science
• Scopus
• Google Scholar

Look for the "Cited by" link that accompanies each article record.

Types of specialized resources

• McGill Archives
• Theses and dissertations
• Government documents and International organizations information
• Statistics and data
• Maps and geospatial data. Help available at the Geographic Information Centre (GIC)

Today's handouts

Module 3 Powerpoint
RSS for graduate students

Week 4: Getting your research out

Week 4 currently in development...

Academic Integrity

Fair play: A guide to academic integrity (McGill)
Writing centre Reading Week 2013 tutorial sessions
SkillSets academic integrity day

Conferences and poster sessions

University of Wisconsin-Madison Writing Center: Oral Presentations
http://writing.wisc.edu/Handbook/presentations_oral.html

Some useful information on conference preparation and presentation may be found using these subject headings in the Library catalogue:

Business presentations
Microsoft PowerPoint (Computer file)
Poster presentations
Public speaking

Choosing a journal for publication

Quantitative method

Web of Science: Journal Impact Factor
(click on "Additional Resources" tab and select "Journal Citation Reports")
Scopus: SJR: SCImago Journal Rank and SNIP: Source Normalized Impact per Paper
(click on "Analytics" to access the Journal Analyzer)

Qualitative method

Metrics alone can't determine where you publish your research. When selecting potential journals for publication, consider the following points:

• Peer review: Is the journal peer reviewed? Is this important for you?
• Findability: For your article to be read, others must be able to find it. Perhaps you'll choose an Open Access journal, in which case its contents should be retrieved by the major search engines. If not, check Ulrich's International Periodical Directory to determine whether the journals you are considering are either available in full-text or at least indexed in widely available subscription databases.
• Peer evaluation: What do specialists in your discipline think of the journal? Ask your professors for their advice. Word of mouth and reputation of a journal can have a high impact on the reception of your article.
• Publisher: Is the publisher reputable? What else does the publisher produce?
• Audience: Who are you trying to reach and what journals does this audience read? Consider, too, the scope of your research. You might approach a smaller (geographically defined) journal first if your research has a strong local or regional focus.
• Scholarship profile: Different journals publish different types of research: for example, some accept only pure research while others specialize in case studies. Save time by sending your paper to an appropriate journal first.
• Open Access: see below

Article-level metrics

New efforts are being made to measure an article's impact, not just a journal's. Read this brief primer commissioned by SPARC, the Scholarly Publishing and Academic Resources Coalition.

Altmetrics

Who's tweeted your article? Who's blogged about it? What's the relative impact of these "citations" in comparison with traditional print citations? Scholarly communication is changing and new metrics are needed to measure impact meaningfully. Some initial steps are being taken to address these questions. Read more at altmetrics.org.

Open Access (OA)

SHERPA / RoMEO
SPARC Canadian Author Addendum
Creative Commons
OpenDOAR
eScholarship@McGill

Finishing the thesis/dissertation

McGill Thesis guidelines: http://www.mcgill.ca/gps/thesis/guidelines

Turabian, Kate L. A Manual for Writers of Research Papers, Theses, and Dissertations: Chicago Style for Students and Researchers. 7th ed. Revised by Wayne C. Booth, Gregory G. Colomb, Joseph M. Williams, and University of Chicago Press editorial staff. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2007. HSSL LB2369 T8 2007

Guidère, Mathieu. Méthodologie de la recherche: Guide du jeune chercheur en lettres, langues, sciences humaines et sociales. Rev. ed. Paris: Ellipses, 2004. HSSL LB2369 G9462 2004

Bolker, Joan. Writing Your Dissertation in Fifteen Minutes a Day: A Guide to Starting, Revising, and Finishing Your Doctoral Thesis. New York: H. Holt, 1998. Schulich LB2369 B57 1998

For more titles, try these subject headings in the Library catalogue:

Dissertations, Academic -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Report writing -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
Research -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Publishing the thesis/dissertation

Kitchin, Rob, and Duncan Fuller. The Academic’s Guide to Publishing. London: Sage, 2005.
HSSL Z286 S37 K58 2005

Harman, Eleanor, Ian Montagnes, Siobhan McMenemy, and Chris Bucci, eds. The Thesis and the Book: A Guide for First-time Academic Authors. 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2003. HSSL Z286 S37 T53 2003

For more titles, try these subject headings in the Library catalogue:

Academic writing
Scholarly publishing

CVs and academic portfolios

The McGill Career Planning Service (CaPS) offers services for graduate students.

CV resources:

Resumes (Employment) -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.

Academic portfolio

Seldin, Peter, and J. Elizabeth Miller. The Academic Portfolio: A Practical Guide to Documenting Teaching, Research, and Service. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass, 2009. Education LB1029 P67 S45 2009

Teaching portfolio 

McGill Teaching and Learning Services has assembled a great selection of resources on the academic teaching portfolio. Take note of their guidelines and other resources.

Miscellaneous

Toth, Emily. Ms. Mentor's New and Ever More Impeccable Advice for Women and Men in Academia. Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2009. Education LB2332.3 T683 2009

Today's handouts

Module 4 Powerpoint

Amy Buckland's Open Access Powerpoint