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G 11 Biology: Enzymes: Evaluating Sources Practice #2

Dr Kirkpatrick and Ms McComb

Finding, Evaluate, and Cite FIVE Sources (Scroll down for database information)

DIRECTIONS:

1. Make a copy of this google doc.  Using the model provided, as an exemplar to evaluate 5 articles.  Include the following for each:

     a. APA Reference citation 
     b. Copy and paste the article's Abstract (or create your own summarizing the content)
     c. In 2-5 sentences, explain WHY this source is valuable for your research.

2. Find, cite, and evaluate a useful article from each of the following FIVE sources:
     a. Pre-selected "Dr. K Approved" article (already on google doc) from Advanced Placement
     b. Pre-selected website:  Energy, Enzymes, and Catalysis Problem Set 
     b. ONE useful article in both JSTOR
     c. ONE useful article in QuestiaSchool
     d. ONE useful article using Google Scholar

JSTOR Tips for Research

HOW TO ACCESS

1. The first time you use JSTOR, you must register at the school and create a MYSTOR account. After that you may login directly.

2. Use your MYSTOR account for saving results.

3. You are only allowed to store 3 books on the shelf. 

RESEARCH TOOLS

THUMBNAIL tabs:

  • Helps with a quick skim search. Gives you the exact pages where your search terms are
  • highlights the search terms in yellow

SNIPPETS

  • click on ''show snippets'' in the search results to see brief summaries of the article

TEXT ANALYZER

  • Drag your own documents into the box and JSTOR will find you related articles

CITATION TOOLS

  • Save Citations: saves the article in your folder
  • Track Citation: will email an alert every time an article on your topic is added
  • Export Citation or Copy Citation: export function can make errors (drops the journal title). Copy function capitalizes all the letters in the title.  Both needed to be corrected.  Pay attention.

DOWNLOAD ARTICLE vs READ ONLINE

  • You can download the article or chapter to read offline, but none of the research tools will work.

BOOKS (only 3 at a time)

  • Book page shows links to two most relevant chapters at top of the page
  • Table of contents has intro text snippets for each chapter
  • Easy "Download Chapter" button to obtain a PDF copy
  • Only allowed 3 books at a time

BASIC SEARCH:

  • Place words within quotation marks to search for exact phrases (“to be or not to be”)
  • Basic search box allows this: title: publication:
  • Use Boolean operators (AND/OR/NOT) "tea trade" AND china

ADVANCED SEARCH:

  • Use the drop-down boxes to limit search terms to the title, author, abstract, or caption text.
  • Use the drop-down boxes to combine search terms using AND/OR/NOT
  • Use  “Narrow by” options to search only articles, content published during a particular time frame, or content in a particular language.

BUILD OUTLINE

  • Create your essay outline (thesis, section notes, click to add citation)

 

 

 

 

Advanced Placement Tips for Research

HOW TO ACCESS

1. Create an account using your school email and password.

2. If it won't accept your password, add an ! at the end.

3. Save possible articles in your file folder for efficiency.

 

RESEARCH TOOLS AND FILTERS:

LIMITERS to cut down results (left sidebar)

  • Full-text and/or scholarly peer-reviewed 
  • Date (best to use show more under the timeline bar)
  • Source type: choose academic journals
  • Subjects: great for alternative search words and ideas
  • Publications: very useful if you want a specific jouranl

TOOLS to save time  (right sidebar)

  • Hover mouse over magnifying glass icon to scan read the article abstracts
  • Click on +icon to store all articles that MIGHT be useful to evaluate later

TOOLS once you open the article

  • Citation button (choose APA)
  • Export button (export to EasyBib but check to make sure it is accurate)
  • Permallink(copy to use in your google docs to make cross acess easy)

Google Scholar

Questiaschool Tips for Research

HOW TO ACCESS

1. Every grade 10-12 student has an account
2. Use your ASW email.  Everyone's password is aswlibrary.  Once you access it, you can change your password.

RESEARCH TOOLS:

NOTETAKING and HIGHLIGHTING

  • Highlights notes in 6 different colours
  • Click on first word to select a passage then choose a highlighting colour (right click)
  • Add notes directly on the page (notes are saved in the active folder)
  • Saves notes, highlighted passages, and citations in your active project

 

CITATIONS and BIBLIOGRAPHY

  •  This is a bit tricky. To get the bibliography citation, go to the active project file.  Select the article and click on the bibliography tab at the bottom. Either export or copy/paste to EasyBib
  • Generates in-text citations
  • Chrome extension is available

BOOKS

  • You can't download the books; you must read them online

 

Questions to ask when evaluating sources

 

  • Who is the author of the source? (Expertise? Respected in field? Credentials or degrees? Other publications?)
  • Where was the source published? (Well respected organization or source? Quality of journal?*)
  • What does the URL extension tell you ( .com .edu .org .gov .pl)?
  • What information does the source include and what does it look like? (Accurate? Relevant to your research? )
  • When was the source published or updated? (Is the date  important?)
  • Why did the author create the source? (Is it a company with a bias? Who paid for it? 

*NOTE: There are so many fake science articles published in predatory science journals that you need to use your critical thinking (there are lists of science journals that look credible but are not).  Interesting article about how a respected source. PubMed,  became a search engine that includes predatory journals among its credible ones.