Research in an e-enabled world

AYB114 Business Technologies Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world

Agenda Lecture Overview Introduction Evaluating research sources eResearch tools Clipping and bookmarking Business implications Summary Next Lecture References

LECTURE OVERVIEW Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world Providing an overview of the lecture to come, and addresses administrative requirements. Identifies the purpose and learning objectives for this lecture.

Lecturer contact details Lecturer: Micheal Axelsen Micheal may be contacted by mobile telephone on 0412 526 375 or by email on [email_address] Other administrative matters

Purpose of this lecture To introduce you to the need to properly research topics using online resources (although ‘Google’ is now a verb, it isn’t research) To equip you with the tools to critically evaluate research found online To enable your professional growth as a lifelong learner

Learning objectives At the end of this lecture the student should be able to: Perform complex searches using Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and other tools Outline the benefits of bookmarking and research tools such as Delicio.us, Digg, and Stumbleupon, and use these tools Evaluate research found online for quality Properly cite and record online research when you find it using tools such as Evernote or OneNote

eResearch in the news From user UrbanRust on YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/user/URBANRUST (Warning: Open Comments)

INTRODUCTION Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world Providing an introduction to this topic and general issues to come

Online Resources For me, the world is very different In my world, my ‘research’ choices were: Borrow a book from my uni library Browse shelves & photocopy journal papers There were annual indexes published of ‘tier’ journals by keyword (!) – these were BIG books ‘ Encyclopaedias’ mattered – if you were educated, you had a big bookshelf full of books that were a threat to pets and small children If I attended a seminar, chances are I might know of a research paper… but if I didn’t attend, or didn’t know somebody who did, chances are it was not available to me

Online Resources My world has changed – I don’t copy with change very well  ; in just 15 short years we now have: All recent, important journals are full-text searchable and the entire article is available (ProQuest, Google Scholar) Online research groups are available to help; collaboration is much easier I can search other uni libraries and borrow from there using reciprocal arrangements All the online content that exists is a potential research source: Wikipedia, Google, blogs, wikis, podcasts, vodcasts I can copy and paste other people’s materials (see the forthcoming publication ‘Plagiarism for Dummies’) I need to constantly adapt my research approach in reaction to change.

Why is this important (to you)? If the world has changed this much in the past 15 years, it seems fairly safe to say that it will change at least as much in the next As professionals with degrees you will want to maintain your lifelong learning approach – at this time, online research appears set to be a skill you will need to have to cope with the demands of your professional future You will need to be able to recall material, critically evaluate it, and identify its importance in context, no matter the field you are working in

EVALUATING RESEARCH SOURCES Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world Understanding how much to rely upon electronic research sources, and how to critically evaluate them.

Evaluating sources Peer reviewed journals represent substantial investments of time and research – they have been subjected to expert critical analysis and are high-value Encyclopaedias are actually still important and represent the body of knowledge, but they will lag recent events Wikipedia is a good place to start with contributions from many anonymous authors, but potentially wrong, biased and false – it may be a good jumping point though to point you in the right direction Non-reviewed journals are good, but are really not at a research level Personal blogs, and even community blogs, will vary in their openness and transparency – just because it is online does not mean it is true! Technorati and other ranking sites will help you assess a blog’s reliability, somewhat

Evaluating sources Always consider, when evaluating a resource online, whether the author has a ‘hidden agenda’ or a bias For instance: Who actually wrote a comment on a blog or YouTube, and why? Who selected what went into the article (and what didn’t), and why? How transparent is the article? Are conflicting comments left there? Are sources cited? Does it support the mainstream view of the topic? Is it peer-reviewed content, and if it is, who says it is? Beware the ‘Doctor X, expert in mumbojumbo science, supports these claims. What else have they written? Is it the same person? The same elements apply online as they do in the real world

Evaluating Sources Source: YouTube Channel DrPPrice See: http://www.youtube.com/user/DrPPrice

Evaluation Checksheet for Online Resources This checksheet summarises the content of the ‘Researching Online for College Students: Five Easy Steps’ video cited on the previous slide Currency When was it last updated? Are there broken links? Authority Is the author even identifiable? Are they ‘real’? What are the credentials of the person who wrote it? Affiliations? True authority within the topic area? Is enough information provided to allow you to contact the author? Do they provide references for their material?

Evaluation Checksheet for Online Resources Purpose Is the website commercial, informational, educational, persuasive, entertainment, or (gasp) just a hoax? The content will provide a guide, as will the website address (.gov and .edu are more trustworthy) Hint: www.theonion.com is NOT a good source! Nor are the Chaser boys. Objectivity Is information biased, presenting information unfairly? Is the author known to be biased, or associated with an organisation known to be biased (e.g. ‘thinktanks’ funded by party political organisations, but with good-sounding names, usually with ‘independent’ in the title)

Evaluation Checksheet for Online Resources Objectivity (continued) Lots of advertising or irrelevant clutter of content also reduces the objectivity of the material – is it the site’s main goal to present information related to this topic? Writing Style Is information presented clearly and legibly, without basic errors? This is generally indicative of quality. CAPOW

Creative Commons Of course, copy-and-pasting another’s work is not respectful of intellectual property rights (let alone avoiding plagiarism) However this can be restrictive in an online environment – yes it might be published widely on the internet but intellectual property rights remain with the author Creative Commons is one method of ensuring that material can be copied and attributed fairly to the original author. From Creative Commons (http://creativecommons.org/license/): “ With a Creative Commons license, you keep your copyright but allow people to copy and distribute your work provided they give you credit — and only on the conditions you specify.”

Creative Commons About the Creative Commons organisation (http://creativecommons.org/about/) “ Creative Commons is a nonprofit corporation dedicated to making it easier for people to share and build upon the work of others, consistent with the rules of copyright. We provide free licenses and other legal tools to mark creative work with the freedom the creator wants it to carry, so others can share, remix, use commercially, or any combination thereof.” Common licences used (per Flickr –www.flickr.com) Attribution-Non Commercial-ShareAlike Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-NoDerivs Creative Commons Attribution Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike Creative Commons Attribution-NoDerivs Creative Commons

Using Creative Commons From: http://michealaxelsen.com/blog/?p=353 See blog entry for image attribution

Online Citation Using the American Psychological Association style (‘APA style’) for citation, the rules for electronic references, websites, and online articles are to: direct readers specifically to the source material using URLs which work include the access date include all other relevant APA style details for the source Wikipedia includes some examples: Article in an Internet-only journal Blofeld, E. S. (1994, March 1). Expressing oneself through Persian cats and modern architecture. Felines & Felons, 4, Article 0046g. Retrieved October 3, 1999, from http://journals.f+f.org/spectre/vblofeld-0046g.html Stand-alone Internet document, no author identified, no date What I did today. (n.d.). Retrieved August 21, 2002, from http://www.cc.mystory.life/blog/didtoday.html [Fictional entry.]

Online Citation The MLA style would similarly (Aaron & Fowler 1998): Palfrey, Andrew. “Choice of Mates in Identical Twins.” Modern Psychology 4.1 (1996): 12 pars. 25 Feb. 1996 <http://www.liasu.edu/modpsy/palfrey4(1).htm>. Citation is important as it provides evidence that the point that has been made is not solely the author’s opinion Citation allows the reader to independently research the topic and assure themselves that the author has correctly interpreted their findings

Workshop activity and discussion Activity One: Evaluating online research As a group, search for the following search terms, using either Yahoo or Google: Carbon pollution reduction scheme delay. Evaluate the first five search results in terms of the CAPOW framework. Be prepared to discuss in class.

ERESEARCH TOOLS Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world Online tools to help you search the web.

Advanced Google Google Advanced Search

Advanced Google Remember Google Alerts from an earlier lecture (www.google.com/alerts) Some techniques: depression society dog [67,500] depression society dog -"bird -flu" site:www.news.com.au [6 results] allintext: depression society dog -"bird -flu" site:www.news.com.au [5 results] Hints and tips ‘ -flu’ (don’t include this word) ‘ +word’ (only this word, not variations e.g. ‘society’, not its derivations ‘ link:www.news.com.au’ (pages that link to this website) ‘ site:www.news.com.au’ (only search within this site)

Advanced Yahoo Yahoo Advanced Search

Advanced Yahoo Some techniques depression society dog [15.2m] society depression dog -"bird flu“ (and restricted to www.news.com.au ) [214 pages] Hints and tips: site: Use to find all documents within a particular domain and all its subdomains hostname: Use to find all documents from a particular host only. link: Use to find documents that link to a particular URL url: Use to find a specific document in Yahoo’s index inurl: Use to find a specific keyword as part of indexed URLs intitle: Use to find a specific keyword as part of the indexed titles

Google Scholar Searches ‘scholarly’ literature See www.google.com/scholar Yahoo does not have a direct equivalent, but does have Directory Search Google Scholar will identify peer-reviewed journals and other ‘scholarly’ publications for you. Many articles though, once found, require payment for download Google Scholar is helpful if you do not have access to a full university library service – but if you do, library services will usually get you access without payment Google Scholar is not as structured or helpful as library services, but is very broad and comprehensive and does not require multiple subscriptions to cover your area

Google Scholar See Jacso (2008) Pros: extensive book coverage Geographic and regional coverage Size and digital repository Good indexation Cons Unreliability with publication years Uses an ‘unintelligent’ parser for author names Serious gaps in literature reviews Some apparent logical weaknesses (‘OR’) in search terms

Other searches Wikipedia is a good source to direct you elsewhere Always check the editing history! Preferably, use Wikipedia to find supporting evidence elsewhere Search.twitter.com Good for current events, blog entries etc Good for finding items of intereste Unreliable, new, limited search horizon Scribd.com Electronic books online Full text searching Slideshare.com Presentations and powerpoint slides May point you to material elsewhere

Workshop activity and discussion Activity Two: Using online research tools As a group, discuss how you might use these online tools to identify how well an ‘emissions trading scheme’ has worked in other countries around the world. Use these steps to identify two good online resources. Be prepared to discuss in class.

CLIPPING AND BOOKMARKING Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world An overview of how to use bookmarking and clipping services

Text Clipping Evernote is a free searchable index designed to accumulate many notes – see www.evernote.com Available on web, mobile (iphone, Windows Mobile), and local synchronised database Free for a small database; can pay for a larger database Stores the full text or image for later recall, full text Stores by ‘tape’, full indexation available Lets you store the website ‘as it is now’ for later reference as a searchable index Can use it to store little notes or photos about things – to catch anything, anywhere, and store it for later recall

Text Clipping Microsoft has a similar program called OneNote, designed originally for Tablet PCs but now much larger than that Allows tagging like Evernote, but no synchronisation with multiple devices – much more PC-centric

Social Bookmarking A method to store, organise, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata – usually with social tags as a folksonomy As you find a site you like, use toolbars etc to put into the bookmarking service for later recall; add a note and a tag for easier navigation Available anywhere, but does not store the content – it allows you to link to the content Also allows you to see material that others found useful or interesting

Social bookmarking Examples include: Diig Delicio.us Fark (hey, it’s on news.com.au) Reddit Technet StumbleUpon Delicio.us is a popular bookmarking service that allows you to share bookmarks Digg and Kwoff (‘crowdsourced coverage’) are ‘ranking’ sites that push their content to the front page depending on how many

Workshop activity and discussion Activity Three: Using a social bookmarking site As a group, review the sites you identified in the first two activities. Are they cited in Delicious? (www.delicious.com) Can you use Delicious to find other websites regarding the emissions trading scheme or carbon pollution reduction scheme? Be prepared to discuss in class.

BUSINESS IMPLICATIONS Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world The business implications of having the ability to research in an e-enabled world.

Governance issues A business needs to manage and be aware of the licences of its own material that is placed in the public domain The business needs to ensure that its material and staff adhere to the licensing requirements of material utilised from the internet This includes images, movies and so on Some websites do not allow ‘commercial’ works to be derived from their material If a business’s intellectual property is derived from others, the business’s ability to profit from its intellectual assets at a later time may be affected

Governance issues A business must ensure that: Staff members understand the steps they need to take to ensure the business’s own intellectual property is safe Research undertaken by its staff is properly attributed and does not violate the intellectual property of others See earlier discussions regarding Virgin Mobile’s use of Flickr photographs in advertising campaigns Online research skills provide an enormous productivity boost for the professional by allowing them to draw upon the work of others in an accessible format and with the capability to modify this material for new purposes

Forensic Implications Tracing intellectual property for intellectual assets will be difficult if IP is challenged – on either side it will be expensive Bookmarks and clips tend to be social – not really ‘organisational’ resources yet, so staff who move office will take their links with them Undertaking research in a methodical manner will have its benefits Content, once posted, is free to move and be copied anywhere and could easily reappear – many businesses have learned that to their disadvantage Good search skills will be paramount in tracking down the source of information released online

SUMMARY Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world Summarising the highlights of this lecture

Recall the purpose of this lecture To introduce you to the need to properly research topics using online resources (although ‘Google’ is now a verb, it isn’t research) To equip you with the tools to critically evaluate research found online To enable your professional growth as a lifelong learner

Highlight: Evaluation Checksheet for Online Resources Purpose Is the website commercial, informational, educational, persuasive, entertainment, or (gasp) just a hoax? The content will provide a guide, as will the website address (.gov and .edu are more trustworthy) Hint: www.theonion.com is NOT a good source! Nor are the Chaser boys. Objectivity Is information biased, presenting information unfairly? Is the author known to be biased, or associated with an organisation known to be biased (e.g. ‘thinktanks’ funded by party political organisations, but with good-sounding names, usually with ‘independent’ in the title)

Highlight: Evaluation Checksheet for Online Resources Objectivity (continued) Lots of advertising or irrelevant clutter of content also reduces the objectivity of the material – is it the site’s main goal to present information related to this topic? Writing Style Is information presented clearly and legibly, without basic errors? This is generally indicative of quality. CAPOW

Highlight: Online Citation Using the American Psychological Association style (‘APA style’) for citation, the rules for electronic references, websites, and online articles are to: direct readers specifically to the source material using URLs which work include the access date include all other relevant APA style details for the source Wikipedia includes some examples: Article in an Internet-only journal Blofeld, E. S. (1994, March 1). Expressing oneself through Persian cats and modern architecture. Felines & Felons, 4, Article 0046g. Retrieved October 3, 1999, from http://journals.f+f.org/spectre/vblofeld-0046g.html Stand-alone Internet document, no author identified, no date What I did today. (n.d.). Retrieved August 21, 2002, from http://www.cc.mystory.life/blog/didtoday.html [Fictional entry.]

Highlight: Social Bookmarking A method to store, organise, search, and manage bookmarks of web pages on the Internet with the help of metadata – usually with social tags as a folksonomy As you find a site you like, use toolbars etc to put into the bookmarking service for later recall; add a note and a tag for easier navigation Available anywhere, but does not store the content – it allows you to link to the content Also allows you to see material that others found useful or interesting

Highlight: Governance issues A business needs to manage and be aware of the licences of its own material that is placed in the public domain The business needs to ensure that its material and staff adhere to the licensing requirements of material utilised from the internet This includes images, movies and so on Some websites do not allow ‘commercial’ works to be derived from their material If a business’s intellectual property is derived from others, the business’s ability to profit from its intellectual assets at a later time may be affected

Highlight: Governance issues A business must ensure that: Staff members understand the steps they need to take to ensure the business’s own intellectual property is safe Research undertaken by its staff is properly attributed and does not violate the intellectual property of others See earlier discussions regarding Virgin Mobile’s use of Flickr photographs in advertising campaigns Online research skills provide an enormous productivity boost for the professional by allowing them to draw upon the work of others in an accessible format and with the capability to modify this material for new purposes

Recall learning objectives At the end of this lecture the student should be able to: Perform complex searches using Google, Yahoo, Wikipedia and other tools Outline the benefits of bookmarking and research tools such as Delicio.us, Digg, and Stumbleupon, and use these tools Evaluate research found online for quality Properly cite and record online research when you find it using tools such as Evernote or OneNote

NEXT LECTURE Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world Identifies the topic of the next lecture for students.

Next lecture The next lecture addresses the topic of the virtual organisation. This lecture applies all the technologies discussed in this subject together in business.

REFERENCES Lecture 11: Conducting research in an e-enabled world Full citations to references made in the lecture

References Jacso, P. (2008) “Savvy Searching: Google Scholar revisited”. Online Information Review. 32 (1). Retrieved May 4 2009 from http://www.jacso.info/PDFs/jacso-GS-revisited-OIR-2008-32-1.pdf.

Research in an e-enabled world

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