You may begin your research with Google or Wikipedia, but if you need to be thorough, it can't end there. You need respected information from strong, credible sources.
How do you pull together the best of the best, for research that has the most impact? Whether it’s research you’re doing for a class, or research assigned to you in the workplace, you will want to make sure you use verified, trusted sources of information and do research efficiently, without sacrificing quality for convenience.
This workshop series, The Art of Research, will enable you to recognize and use important research from select, authoritative sources that carry more weight than those which you may find are freely available online.
In Week 1, Meaning, the cohort will read the target article for the first time, breaking down the claims and evidence of the piece into a visual narrative.
In Week 2, Publishing, the cohort will learn about different publishing models, debate the connotations of peer review, and discuss why authors consider some publishers more desirable or reputable than others. We'll also examine the power structures that control who can read and disseminate our article at the present moment.
In Week 3, Discovery, the cohort will learn how scholarship comes to be findable through indexing, database architecture, relevance ranking, and through the citations of other works.
In Week 4, Influence, the cohort will investigate whose work influenced the target article, as well as whose work the target article influenced in turn. We will discuss how claims, evidence, and conclusions may shift as they are used by difference authors.
In Week 5, Trust, the cohort will take an in-depth look at the evidence within our target article, discussing what it means to have a “sound” methodology and why study replicability has newly heightened importance in research.
In Week 6, Preservation, the cohort will look at who might have access to this article in the future, discussing digital preservation efforts.
In Week 7, Afterlife, the cohort will conclude with a discussion of copyright, fair use, and attribution. Who can use this study in their own work, and how much of it? What are the consequences if a cited claim misrepresents the original source?
