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*Get Started with Research*

Easy to follow guide on essential steps of the research process: Choosing and refining a topic, creating effective search strategies, finding books and articles, evaluating information and more!

Questions to ask about sources

Make sure you know the kinds of sources required for your assignment (e.g. scholarly books or articles, primary sources), as this can impact the way you search for information. 

Library resources have powerful search and filtering tools that you won't find on the web! For books and eBooks, use the McKillop Library catalog. For articles, use one of the library's many subscription databases. The sub-pages in this section offer guidance on using these tools. At all stages of your research, continue to reflect frequently on how each resource is contributing to your understanding of your topic and helping (or not helping) to answer your questions.  

As you find books or articles that look promising ...

Scan the summary or abstract  

Does the article or book...

  • meet assignment requirements (e.g. scholarly source)
  • align with your subject area
  • relate to your topic
  • contribute new knowledge and/or understanding of your topic?

If not, try again -- sometimes we have a better understanding of what we want when we realize what we don't want! Remember: research is iterative -- sometimes you can get a better set of results by slightly modifying your search terms and keywords. 

Should I use AI to find sources?

Your professor will specify whether they will allow the use of generative AI tools such as ChatGPT in their course assignments. However, with tools like CoPilot and Google's AI Overviews becoming more ubiquitous in general web searching, it's critical to know how to construct effective prompts AND to evaluate the sources provided by a chatbot.

Construct Effective Prompts

To ensure that bots using ChatGPT include the web sources analyzed to generate a response, a user should construct a clear and specific prompt. Here are some tips on how to do this effectively:

  1. Explicitly Request Sources: Clearly state that you want the response to include the sources.
  2. Specify the Type of Sources: Indicate if you prefer certain types of sources (e.g., academic journals, official websites, news articles).
  3. Mention Format: Specify how you would like the sources to be cited (e.g., in-text citations, footnotes, links).

Example Prompts for Chatbots

General Request for Sources:

  1. Provide information on the impacts of climate change and include the web sources you consulted in your response.

Specific Types of Sources:

  1. Explain the benefits of renewable energy. Include information from academic journals and official government websites, and provide the links to these sources in your response.

Specific Format for Citations:

  1. What are the latest advancements in AI technology? Please include the web sources you used, with citations in the format of [1] for each source.

Combining All Elements:

  1. Provide a detailed overview of the economic effects of the COVID-19 pandemic. Use only reputable news sources, academic papers, and official reports. Include all sources you consulted in MLA format at the end of your response.

 

Evaluate Sources and Fact-check Claims

In general, there are fact-checking websites, such as Snopes, Politifact, and Factcheck.org, to name a few, but you should also use web evaluation techniques such as lateral reading to see what other sources are saying about a specific source. The SIFT method is an effective strategy developed by digital literacy expert, Mike Caulfield, to aid in evaluating claims found in online media. This page from the University of Chicago Library outlines the SIFT method: https://guides.lib.uchicago.edu/c.php?g=1241077&p=9082322

Occasionally ChatGPT makes up citations that don't exist. It might give you articles by an author who often writes about your topic, or identify a journal that publishes on your topic, but the title, page numbers, and dates are completely fictional. Remember, it is your responsibility to fact-check chatbot responses and sources. 

For a good, overall resource on using ChatGPT effectively and ethically, see this guide from the University of Arizona Libraries: https://libguides.library.arizona.edu/students-chatgpt/use