INDV 103 Environment and Society

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Research for your assignment

Objectives:
-To use the online and database resources of the University of Arizona Library to find journal and newspaper articles for your assignment
-To answer questions by using the information contained in these articles

General comments:
- Full references of the sources used must be included. (If you are not sure about the validity or quality of information presented in a source that you would like to use, ask us about it)
-Citations and references will be presented following the rules of The Modern Language Association: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/mlahcc.html

-Do not use the lecture notes presented in class! All your references have to come from journals, newspapers, or web sites
-Do not just "cut and paste" the information you will find. You have to interpret the information and rewrite it. Also do not forget to cite any source you used. If it is not your own personal thought, you have to say where it comes from. Otherwise, it is considered plagiarism and will be penalized by a failing grade! See below under "Other Considerations" on how to avoid plagiarism.

Popular vs. Scholarly Articles

It is important to understand the difference between popular and scholarly articles.  Here's a guide that reviews the main differences. 

Pick Your Search terms

The first step is to find articles for each assignment.

Tips: 

1. Pull the keywords you'll use in your search from the questions. For example, I'm doing a critical analysis of one of the textbook chapters -- Can Pollution Rights Trading Effectively Control Environmental Problems?
2. What are some synonyms or alternative keywords?
3. Link together your keywords with the word: AND. Link together synonyms or alternative keywords with the word: OR.
4. Update your keywords terms after trying your search in a journal index.

For example, my basic search would be: pollution rights trading and pollution control.  I need to rethink my terms though.  Perhaps the phrase pollution rights trading is not used, let's try instead: (pollution or emissions) and trading and (pollution control or environmental control).

For more help on putting together a search strategy, see Search Strategy Builder.

Decide Where to Start Searching

 

Journal Indexes:

Academic Search Complete (Index 1980-Present, Full-Text 1992-Present) Is the world's largest scholarly academic multi-disciplinary database, and covers a broad range of disciplines including general academic, business, social sciences, humanities, general sciences, education, and multi-cultural topics.

GeoBase (1980-present)  Index and abstracts to articles about geography, earth sciences, ecology, planning, geology and remote sensing from journals, books, proceedings, reports and dissertations.

General OneFile (1980-present) A one-stop source for news and periodical articles on a wide range of topics: business, computers, current events, economics, education, environmental issues, health care, hobbies, humanities, law, literature and art, politics, science, social science, sports, technology, and many general interest topics. Indexes over 9000 titles full text articles available for over 5000 titles, many with images. Updated daily.

Lexis-Nexis Academic Universe (varies, mostly current) Includes general topic news, as well as company, industry, market, government and political news. Coverage also includes: country and state profiles, law reviews, federal case law, medical and health topics, and accounting, auditing and tax information.

Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS International, 1972-present)  Citations and abstracts to articles in business and the social sciences. Emphasis on international coverage of public policy, government, international relations and current economic, political and social thought.

Sociological Abstracts  (1973-present) Indexes articles from an international collection of journal titles, dissertations, and conference proceedings. Subject focus includes sociology, family studies, gerontology, sociolinguistics and related fields.

Indexes to Articles and More Provides access to all of the journal indexes that the Library provides access to.

Other Considerations

It's important not to plagiarize another person's ideas when you are writing your annotations and your final paper. What is Plagiarism and Why is it important? provides tips on how to avoid plagiarism and examples of good and bad paraphrased statements with commentary.

Also remember to format your citation correctly. Citations and references need to be presented following the rules of The Modern Language Association: http://honolulu.hawaii.edu/legacylib/mlahcc.html.