# Welcome to SMIRK Unit
3 - What information is
needed?

- What information is needed?
- Types of resources
- Types of information sources
- What's a journal?
- Primary and secondary information
- How should I use primary sources?
- How should I use secondary sources?
- Back to main index

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# What information is
needed?

You need to find out:

- the amount of information required to solve the problem
- the type of information required to solve the problem
- whether you already have the information in the form of lecture notes or guided reading from your lecturer.

Assignments can vary from a short 5 minute oral presentation, a short essay or technical report, to a dissertation or thesis. The type of assignment you are asked to produce has a direct effect on:

- the amount of information you need
- the types of sources you require and publications you need.

The question of how much information is needed is a matter of judgement. To make sure you meet the requirements and give an appropriate depth of coverage, check the marking and assessment criteria set by your lecturer (these can be on GCULearn or in your module handbook). The length, weight, marks and task should guide the amount of information needed. Some assignment specifications are more detailed than others. For clarification, check with the person who will be marking your assignment – usually your tutor, or check your module handbook which should be on GCULearn.

If you need a recap on how to understand your assignment and identify keywords and themes, Unit 2 can help.

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# Types of resources

Different types of research need different levels of information, often using different types of resources. Here are some examples.

Review a play: Objectively analyse the relative success or failure of the given production. | A limited review of information. Reading the play before you go to the production to develop a sense of what the characters might look like, suitable set design and appropriate costuming. Interviewing a sample group to obtain their opinions.
Write an essay or give a short presentation: Discuss a specific issue. | A significant review of information. Using basic theory found in books. Supporting your argument with examples found in books and journal articles.
Produce a laboratory report: Document your findings and show your understanding of the principles the experiment was designed to examine. | A minor review of information. Using your laboratory manual. Obtaining source data from reference material or theory from books.
Write a dissertation or thesis: Answer a problem or hypothetical question. | A major review of information. Supporting your argument with examples found in books, journal articles, reports and conference proceedings.

####

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# Types of information
sources

Different types of information sources will become more familiar to you through your degree. Below are some of the most commonly used sources that you'll find you will need to use either in print, or online. To get an idea of information-finding routes, try out the information mind map.

Books
Books, also known as monographs, offer a thorough and systematic treatment of a subject. A library contains many different types of books. They can provide detailed in-depth information on a subject or a general overview. Books are the resource most people look for first when doing research. Many books have chapters and indexes which help you find information contained within them more quickly.

Serial
Serial is a collective term for newspaper, magazine, and journal. Serials may also be known as periodicals. They are published at regular intervals (such as daily, weekly, monthly) and may be both print and electronic. If you are not sure about the difference between scholarly and popular publications, watch this video from Hartness College Library:

Can't see the video? You can watch it on YouTube.

Media and Audio Visual
The term audio-visual (AV) material involves sound and visual images. This includes resources such as television programs, motion pictures, and music recordings.

Web Pages
The Internet is huge. While there may be lots of sites which will be helpful to you, it is possible to be overwhelmed by the number of results from a search engine.

####

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# What's a journal?

A journal, sometimes called a periodical or serial, is published regularly - for example, weekly, monthly or twice a year. So it’s a good way of getting up-to-date news and research on a subject. Each new issue has a number of articles written by different people.

So far, this could also apply to magazines. However, journals are aimed at readers with a more serious interest in the subject.

Trade journals are written for professionals in that area, for example, ‘Management today’ or ‘Industrial engineer’.

Scholarly journal articles are written by academics for an audience that is mainly academic. These journals are not usually glossy magazines, and there is usually a list of references at the end of each article. The editors will usually include staff at universities, other academic institutions, hospitals or learned societies.

Peer-reviewed journals (also called refereed journals) give all articles sent to them to a panel of academic reviewers. The members of this panel will be ‘peers’ of the author, that is, recognised experts in the same field. The panel usually review the papers ‘blind’, which means that they do not know who the authors are. Panel members may recommend changes to the articles to make them fit for publication. For example, they might say that the author should provide more evidence of an argument or read other material.

So, peer-reviewed or refereed journals provide quality control for academic publishing. You can look inside the front or back cover of a journal, or its home page on the web, to check whether it is peer-reviewed.

Some library databases, for example ProQuest, make it easy to select scholarly journals only.

An electronic journal (or e-journal) is one which is available on the web. Sometimes there is both a printed (paper or hard copy) and an electronic version of a journal.

####

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# Primary and secondary
information

#### Primary

Primary information is straight from the horse's mouth,in other words it is original documents and raw data. It can be in any format, including written, visual, electronic or oral. It remains unchanged, for example autobiographies and diaries.

#### Secondary

Secondary information has been interpreted by somebody other than the originator, for example biographies. In order to present a balanced, objective hypothesis it may sometimes be necessary to use a range of sources.

Sources for law students. The sources used when finding information in law can be different. Please contact your law librarian for more information.

Which of these lists (A or B) do you think contains the correctly defined sources?

LIST A | LIST B

Primary | Secondary | Primary | Secondary
patent | editorial | artefacts | statistics
photograph | literature review | journal article | photograph
artefacts | textbook | law report | biography
parliamentary debates | biography | literature review | parliamentary paper

####

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# How should I use
primary sources?

#### Well done! You picked list A which is correct.

Primary sources can be very helpful to your research as they can include raw data about a particular subject or technique, or will be able to provide a first-hand account of an event, or development of a procedure.

However, a journal article written 50 years ago by a person involved in a piece of research that is relevant to your work will also be a primary source. Many scientific principles and techniques have not radically changed, and by reading reports, articles and theses written by those who were originally involved in their development you will be looking at a primary source. This doesn't mean the work hasn't been updated! Remember that there may have been criticism of the work, or more recent research carried out, so you may need to find out if this is the case.

#### Bias

As primary sources are often written by only one or two people, or may be a report funded by an individual company or organisation, you should be aware that the information contained within the source may be biased. It is important to consider bias as an issue, as when you carry out research you should ensure that you consider as many of the available points of view as possible.

Primary sources can be more subject to bias because they are generally written by people very close to what is being described, and this means their judgement of a situation may be different from that of someone looking at the same situation several months later.

####

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# How should I use primary sources?

#### You did not pick the correct list which is list A

Primary sources can be very helpful to your research as they can include raw data about a particular subject or technique, or will be able to provide a first-hand account of an event, or development of a procedure.

However, a journal article written 50 years ago by a person involved in a piece of research that is relevant to your work will also be a primary source. Many scientific principles and techniques have not radically changed, and by reading reports, articles and theses written by those who were originally involved in their development you will be looking at a primary source. This doesn't mean the work hasn't been updated! Remember that there may have been criticism of the work, or more recent research carried out, so you may need to find out if this is the case.

Bias

As primary sources are often written by only one or two people, or may be a report funded by an individual company or organisation, you should be aware that the information contained within the source may be biased. It is important to consider bias as an issue, as when you carry out research you should ensure that you consider as many of the available points of view as possible.

Primary sources can be more subject to bias because they are generally written by people very close to what is being described, and this means their judgement of a situation may be different from that of someone looking at the same situation several months later.

####

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/

# How should I use
secondary sources?

Secondary sources are a very good place to start your research so that you can understand the key ideas, techniques, procedures and so on related to your area of interest. Secondary sources provide good overviews of a subject, so are particularly useful if you need to find about an area that's new to you.

They are also helpful because you can find keywords to describe a subject area, as well as key authors and key references that you can use to do further reading and research. For example a textbook should include a bibliography which will be a list of all the primary and secondary sources the author used when they wrote their book; this bibliography may contain sources that you will also find useful.

Remember that secondary sources generally take a long time to publish and therefore will not cover very new or controversial subjects. That means that if you want to know about the very latest research, a textbook may not be so helpful.

However, there are now many online secondary sources, such as encyclopaedias and handbooks, and the advantage these have is that they can be instantly updated. This makes them much more useful to you particularly if you need up-to-date information.

This is the end of our unit on what information is needed. You may also find our unit on Searching and databases useful.

####

######
SMIRK by Imperial College, Loughborough University and the University of Worcester, modified by Marion Kelt Glasgow Caledonian University is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Based on a work at http://www.gcu.ac.uk/library/SMILE/