MA Research Methodology
Lisa Hawksworth
Faculty Librarian, Social Sciences
October 2011

By the end of this session you should be able
to:
◦ Understand the importance of using good quality
information sources in academic work
◦ Recognise different sources of information
◦ Understand how you might use those information
sources in your work
◦ Develop a comprehensive search strategy
◦ Find electronic resources relevant to your work
◦ Appreciate the importance of critically evaluating
sources of information
Social science research can
be approached in a variety
of ways



Provides an academic context and gives your
work credibility
Platform on which to base your ideas and
discussions, underpins your arguments

Academic sources
◦ Will have undergone some form of
peer review
◦ Will cite the existing literature
◦ Methodology and results will be fully
explained to enable testing
◦ Conclusions are fully supported by evidence
Non-academic sources must be
used with care


Primary
◦ First publication of a piece of work or results of a
study
◦ Original documents, refereed primary journal
articles, conference proceedings, government
publications, Parliamentary debates, recordings of
events on camera, newspapers

Secondary
◦ Interpretation applied to the source; indexing or
classification; part of the ‘body of knowledge’
◦ Textbooks, newspapers, articles about the results
of a study
◦ Possibility of bias


Not everything is available online
Print sources
◦
◦
◦
◦

Printed word seen as authoritative
Information from references and footnotes
Easily accessible; easy to use; browsing
Does a source exist? How current is the source?
Online sources
◦
◦
◦
◦
Bibliographic or full-text
Search across a number of years and sources
More precise searching possible
Does your institution have access?

Why can’t I just use Google?
◦ The ‘hidden web’






You are producing an academic piece of work
Intute http://www.intute.ac.uk/
Virtual Training Suite
http://www.vtstutorials.co.uk/
Internet Detective
http://www.vts.intute.ac.uk/detective/
Google Scholar Advanced
http://scholar.google.co.uk.ezproxy.liv.ac.uk/
Don’t believe everything you read!
◦ http://www.gatt.org/ http://www.wto.org/

Think about it before you start - what do you
need to find out?

Are you limited in any way; by time, date,
language?



Make your research question manageable
Decide on the key concepts
Decide on your keywords, think about
terminology, synonyms, spelling
Mental health services
for children who
witness domestic
violence
Mental health
Mental
wellbeing
Mental illness
Children
Teenager
Young people
Domestic
violence
Partner abuse
Family violence

Think about the relationship between your
keywords and how to combine them together
children AND domestic violence
narrows search
children OR teenager
expands search
health NOT physical
refines search

Proximity searching
◦ Enables you to search for two or more words that
occur within a specified number of words (or fewer)
of each other

Near
◦ Finds words regardless of the order in which they
appear

Within
◦ Finds words exactly in the order you enter them

Proximity searching examples
◦ family N5 violence
 family violence AND violence in the family
◦ family W8 violence
 family violence NOT violence in the family


Wildcard: a symbol that replaces a single
letter within a word to enable multiple word
searching:
 WOM?N
woman, women
Truncation: A symbol that enables a search
for words with multiple endings:
EMPLOY*
employ, employer employment, employed...



Use Help pages to find out how resources
work and make your searching more effective
Set limits
◦ Limit the amount of material you want to find
◦ Limit the time you are going to spend

Keep your strategy flexible
◦ You may not get it right first time; be prepared to
revisit and review your search strategy



Ensure that all material addresses the
question, don’t get distracted
Look to fill any obvious gaps; remember to
have a flexible approach
Choose appropriate resources
◦ What type of information do you need to find?









You have to know what you need to know
where to look!
Journal articles
Book chapters
Basic information– directories/encyclopaedias
Case law/legislation
Statistics
Newspaper articles
Government reports/Parliamentary papers
TV or radio broadcasts/interview transcripts







Hours - - Days: current event
Mass media
Newspapers
Websites
Blogs
TV
Radio
Twitter...





Days - - Weeks - - Months
As more information is gathered:
Documentaries
Articles in the popular press
Many months
Discussed in scholarly
research journals




Years
Discussion and analysis
of events and ideas in books
Many years
Summary of events, background information,
pertinent facts published
in reference material,
such as an encyclopedia

Catalogues from other HE libraries
Go to the institution home page and look for the library
link http://www.hefce.ac.uk/unicoll/he/
SCONUL Access scheme
http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/using/external.html


ArticleReach
http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/using/articlereach.
html
University of Liverpool
http://library.liv.ac.uk/

Liverpool John Moores University
http://www.ljmu.ac.uk/lea/index.htm

Liverpool Hope University
http://prism.hope.ac.uk/TalisPrism/


If you are looking for a specific journal
◦ Search by journal title on the library catalogue

If you want to search across multiple ejournals:
◦ Use DISCOVER, or DISCOVER: Social Sciences
◦ Access the e-journal collections from the e-journals
link on the library home page

If you don’t know which resources to try
◦ Use the subject LibGuide

If you are looking for a specific book
◦ Search by book title on the library catalogue

If you want to search across multiple ebooks:
◦ Use DISCOVER, or DISCOVER: Social Sciences
◦ Access the e-book collections from the e-books
link on the library home page

If you don’t know which resources to try
◦ Use the subject LibGuide

DISCOVER
◦ Searches multiple resources at the same time
◦ Useful for quick searches

Multidisciplinary indexes
◦ Web of Knowledge
◦ Scopus
ASSIA

Subject-specific indexes
◦ Sociological Abstracts
◦ Westlaw
◦ Business Source Premier

Link to the full-text

Good for background information on a topic
◦ Oxford Reference Online

‘Traditional’ reference sources online
◦ Oxford English Dictionary/ Dictionary of National
Biography/ Who’s Who Online

Subject-specific reference sources
◦ Blackwell’s Encyclopedia of Sociology
◦ Sage Encyclopedia of Social Science Research Methods


Via the Library e-Newspapers page
http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/e-library/enewspapers.html
Digitised archives
◦ Daily Express Archive 1900◦ Daily Mirror Archive 1903◦ The Times Digital Archive

Contemporary collections
◦ Lexis Library
◦ Westlaw UK – News
◦ Library Press Display

University of Liverpool theses from the library
catalogue
◦ Proquest Dissertations & Theses
ESRC Research Resources page
http://www.esrc.ac.uk/funding-andguidance/tools-and-resources/researchresources/index.aspx
ResearchResearch.com
http://www.researchresearch.com/

◦ Funding opportunities and research policy

Table of contents from journals: save searches in
databases or set up alerts for your favourite
journals/searches
UK National Statistics Publication Hub
http://www.statistics.gov.uk/hub/index.html

◦ Regional statistics
◦ Browse by theme
◦ Census data
Economic and Social Data Service
http://www.esds.ac.uk/

◦ National data service, includes large-scale
Government surveys and international datasets
◦ Register for access
Home Office Research Development Statistics
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/scienceresearch/research-statistics/publications/


Europa http://europa.eu/
◦ Statistics via EuroStat
◦ Reports and Country Profiles


Economic and Social Data Service
http://www.esds.ac.uk
http://www.esds.ac.uk/support/onlineguides.asp
United Nations Statistics Division
http://unstats.un.org/unsd/default.htm
◦ Global statistical information
◦ Publications, searchable databases

OECD http://www.oecd.org/home/




UK Data Archive http://www.data-archive.ac.uk/
Methodspace
http://www.methodspace.com/page/linksqualitative-research
ESRC National Centre for Research Methods
http://www.ncrm.ac.uk/
Economics & Social Data Service (ESDS)
http://www.esds.ac.uk
◦
◦
◦
◦

Government
International
Longitudinal
Qualidata
Digitised documents
◦ Mass Observation Online (via the library)
Article E that
refers to
Paper A
Article F that
refers to
Paper A
Book 3 that
refers to
Paper A
Article G that
refers to
Paper A
Article H that
refers to
Paper A
Article D that
is referred to
by Paper A
Book 2 that is
referred to by
Paper A
Citations
Paper A – a journal article
that you are interested in
References
Article B that
is referred to
by Paper A
Book 1 that is
referred to by
Paper A
Article C that
is referred to
by Paper A


For relevance; you won’t be able to read it all!
Choose the right search tool
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
◦
Abstract/introduction
Summary or conclusion
Chapter or section headings
Browse through a relevant section
Geographical focus
Language: aimed at the public? Academic audience?
Check the references, do they complement other
sources you have found?

For quality/reliability
◦ Currency – depends on the subject
◦ Author
 Look for a biography, search for the Author on a
database such as Scopus
◦ Is there evidence of any peer review?
◦ Publisher
◦ Bias
 Look for the purpose of the information – objective?
Emotional language?

Who?
◦ Who is the author/publisher/sponsor/site funder?

What?
◦
◦
◦
◦

Are arguments valid/balanced/biased
Can data be verified?
When was the site created/last updated?
Is the site accurate? Spelling/grammar errors?
Where?
◦ Where is the site located?
◦ Go back to the Home page
◦ Examine the URL




Dissect the URL to find out more
Delete from right hand side to single slashes
to find out more about the location and
structure of a site
http://www.ico.gov.uk/upload/documents/li
brary/data_protection/practical_application/s
urveillance_society_full_report_2006.pdf&han
dle=20061104-111404
http://www.ico.gov.uk/



You need enough information to be able to
find the information again
Photocopy the title pages of printed sources
For electronic sources, record:
◦ Sources used and the date used
◦ Searches undertaken and results found
 Keywords used, date range searched, location of
material

Full bibliographic details of material found to
help with your bibliography
Web based, best for new users
Available on the MWS, best for
experienced users
◦ Store and manage your references in a structured way
◦ Easy to find when you need them
◦ Can format in-text citations and bibliographies


http://www.liv.ac.uk/library/research/managingmy-references.html contains more details
Look for lunchtime workshops






What is good quality information?
Different types of information source
Using the Internet
Search strategies
Recording what you find
Evaluating what you find
Academic Liaison
Office, 1st Floor,
Abercromby Wing,
Sydney Jones Library


Lisa.Hawksworth@liverpool.ac.uk