GEOG 100 Sec. 01 & 02 Out-of-Class Exercise Elements of Geography Exercise 4: Geographic Research in Scholarly Journals Due: Friday, April 7th MSU-Mankato Spring 2017 Schmid This exercise is designed to introduce you to the wealth of information available through research publications in scholarly journals. For this assignment you will focus on a geographic topic, but remember that regardless of your major, your discipline publishes research in scholarly journals. This aspect of library research should become invaluable to the rest of your career! So, learn and enjoy! Additional handouts on D2L to support this exercise include: ✓ Scholarly Journals MSU Mankato ✓ How to Find Scholarly Journal Articles ✓ Suggestions for Reviewing Journal Articles What you will learn from completing this exercise: • The difference between a peer-reviewed scholarly research journal and commercial magazine publications. • How to search for topics in the MSU electronic library databases. • How to use references cited in journal publications. What you will do to complete this exercise: 1) Find a professional research (scholarly) journal article that presents research on some topic in geography that has been published between 2016-2107. If you are unsure on how to search for an article, see the D2L handout on Scholarly Journals MSU Mankato and How to Find Scholarly Journal Articles, come to office hours, or ask the MSU Memorial Library reference librarians for help. 2) Review and summarize the research presented in the article including the methods used and the results. See the D2L handout on Suggestions for Reviewing Journal Articles. Background Information and Requirements The article that you choose must be published in a refereed (scholarly, peer reviewed) research journal. Articles submitted for publication in refereed journals are reviewed by other scholars and are subject to revision or rejection. This process attempts to insure that only reliable, high quality research results are published. Commercial magazines and trade journals are not suitable for this assignment. Commercial magazines such as National Geographic, Scientific American, and Geo World pay their staff or hire guest writers. Even though these magazine articles may contain good scientific information, they are not subject to the rigorous process of peer review. ✓ If the article does not have references cited within the text and a list of these cited references provided at the end of the article, it does not fulfill the requirements of this assignment. ✓ If the source you are using includes numerous color glossy photographs, chances are it is a commercial magazine, not a research journal. Please check with me, or a librarian, if you are not sure about your source. ✓ You can also look at these sources on scholarly journals compared to other commercial publications. http://lib.mnsu.edu/research/documents/scholarly.pdf or http://libguides.mnsu.edu/content.php?pid=202797&sid=1775732 ✓ You should also be aware that many professional journals contain portions that are not research summaries. Your article cannot be an editorial, a book review, or any other general article review. Again, if you are not sure about what you have found, please ask for help. GEOG 100 Sec. 01 & 02 Out-of-Class Exercise Elements of Geography Exercise 4: Geographic Research in Scholarly Journals Due: Friday, April 7th MSU-Mankato Spring 2017 Schmid 1) Summarize the research in your own words by describing the main points discussed in your chosen article. This could include such things as unique methodology, new theories, results, discussion of controversy, etc. What did they do, where, and why? Be specific! See the D2L handout on Suggestions for Reviewing Journal Articles. 2) List at least two questions that you have about your article. These could include basic assumptions that you don't understand or don't believe; or questions about the methodology or any theories or results generated by the author(s). 3) From all the references cited in your article, pick one that you would most like to read and briefly explain why. Why do you think it is cited in your article, and why would you chose that particular reference? This means you will have two sources in your reference list and you will need to cite both of them within your summary text. 4) Attach a pdf copy of the first page and reference list from your 2016-2017 article. The first page should include the abstract, title, and authors. If your article has more than one page of references, you only need to print the page that includes the reference for the cited article that you would like to read. Do NOT print these pages from any type of article summary format---you need to download a pdf version of the article and print from that! Format Details No page limits, but you should have a minimum of two double-spaced pages, a 500 word minimum, plus your attachments. Use the proper required format for our exercises and turn in a printed copy by April 7th. Grading Criteria (25 pts): Appropriate format and content Detailed summary of 2016-2017 article (#1 & 2) Comments on article cited in the 2016-2017 article (#3) Complete bibliography and citation of all sources used (required format) Copy of first page of 2016-2017 article (#4) Copy of 2016-2017 reference list with second summary citation (#4) 3 pts 7 pts 4 pts 5 pts 3 pts 3 pts 25 points Geog. 100 Sec. 01 & 02 Spring 2017 Elements of Geography Suggestions for Reviewing Journal Articles MSU-Mankato Schmid If you are not sure how to review and summarize a professional research article, the following guidelines might help to organize your thoughts for your review summary. Remember that reviewing an article does not mean you can plagiarize it! Do not copy any portion of the text into your review. The purpose of a review is to learn new information and analyze what the authors did in completing their research. You need to summarize what you have learned in your own words! **Do not expect that you will be able to understand every single aspect and detail of academic research publications! Even experts in the same research area will often extract only portions of these publications for their own use. Focus on the parts you do understand. You should expect to be introduced to new vocabulary and concepts. That is what learning is all about. You do not have to summarize everything in the article, but you should be able to identify some important concepts and conclusions.** The following suggestions have been adapted from: Paul, Richard and Linda Elder. 2007. The Miniature Guide to Critical Thinking: Concepts and Tools. Dillon Beach, CA: Foundation for Critical Thinking. Consider the following while reading and reviewing your chosen articles: (To consider something does not mean you should copy and paste these suggestions directly into your summary!) 1. What is the main purpose of the article? 2. What is the key question the authors are trying to answer? 3. What is some of the more important information presented by the authors? 4. What are the main conclusions? 5. What key concepts did you need to learn to understand this article (new vocabulary, etc.)? 6. What implications or applications do you think this research could have?
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