BUS 360:
BUSINESS
COMMUNICATION
SPRING 2014
Andrea Cameron
Business Librarian, SFU Surrey
amcamero@sfu.ca
THE RESEARCH
PROCESS:
a)Choose a research question
b)Think of some sub-questions
c)Identify likely publishers
d)Search and cycle your search
e)Evaluate your results
f)Write your report
WHO MIGHT PUBLISH THE
INFORMATION YOU WANT?
SCHOLARLY VS.
POPULAR PUBLICATIONS
REVIEW:
What’s a scholarly article?
What’s a popular article?
How can you tell?
INFORMATION
QUALITY
For your report, you may have difficulty finding useful
scholarly articles, so you will have to evaluate every fact and
opinion that you find.
What are some of the characteristics you will look for in any
type of information?
INFORMATION
QUALITY: THE “3 RS”
• Reliability
• Is the source credible?
• Recency
• How current is the information?
• Relevance
• Does it apply to your topic?
RELIABILITY
When you cite a scholarly article, you seldom need to
evaluate the article’s reliability.
• The peer review process does most of the work for you.
All types of sources
•
•
•
•
Documentation = Bibliography + methodology
Authority = Author info
Completeness = Length
Purpose = Language + images
RELEVANCE
Transferability: How well does the information you've found
transfer to your case?
• Geography
• Example: Is the study you’ve found from Japan still relevant to your
topic?
• Industry
• Example: Is the industry you have found information for relevant to
the one you are focusing on?
• Scalability: How well does the scale of the information you’ve
found apply to your case?
• Example: Is information about Starbucks relevant to a small coffee
shop in Surrey?
INFORMATION
QUALITY
Remember: Decisions will be made based on the report and
recommendations that you deliver.
You might not find many facts/opinions that meet the 3Rs
perfectly.
• Try to anticipate (and answer) the questions that your
audience will have about the information you’ve included.
• If you notice something, assume that they will notice it.
• If it’s relevant, briefly explain your rationale for
including it.
EVALUATING AN
ARTICLE EXCERPT
Evaluate the reliability, relevance and recency of the articles
on your handout:
1. 'E-Cigarettes' in the Workplace: Where There's No
Smoke, There Still May Be Fire
2. How credibility affects eWOM reading: The influences of
expertise, trustworthiness, and similarity on utilitarian and
social functions
Consider ….the authority of the author and publication; the
documentation provided (e.g. bibliography); the audience and
how relevant it might be to your research etc.
WHERE TO GET HELP
WRITE YOUR PAPER &
CITE YOUR SOURCES
BUS 360 WIKI
BUS 360 WIKI
BUS 360 WIKI
BUS 360 WIKI
BUS 360 WIKI
GETTING HELP
GETTING HELP
Ask anyone at the reference desk in any of the three campus
libraries
Use our Ask a Librarian services (via the Library home page) to
contact a librarian (by phone, IM, email, text).
Contact :
Andrea Cameron
amcamero@sfu.ca
Class? Due Date?
Where have you searched?
How have you searched?
Found anything close to what you
need?