Do a self-identity inventory: list your positional characteristics as they are related to your topic of research.

Reflect on how you orient to the community that you are learning about.

• Geographic: insider or outsider to the group
  • Are you a member of the community? Have you been a member of a similar community?
• Identity: gender, age sexuality, ethnicity, dis/ability, profession, etc.
  • Hidden or visible
  • Public or private
• Ethics: what boundaries do you uphold or practice?
  • Power
  • Privilege
  • Marginalization
  • Vulnerability

What are the scholarly, professional, or experiential qualifications of the authors?

Conceptualization is "forming an idea. Ideas are built on the body of knowledge that’s already been created. Your idea builds on the research that’s already been done on your topic or related topics" (Davis Lachlan, p. 49).

Start with:

Now you have some foundational authors: Geertz and Pacanowsky, and you can look for articles in Communication Source by them (change the drop-down at the end of the search box to Author). After you search and have some results, change the order of results to oldest 1st.

To find primary sources in a database like Communication Source, use the terms:

research (Su Subject terms)

AND primary OR quantitative OR experimental OR method* OR qualitative (SU Subject terms)

AND whatever your topic is.

Next, use

Operationalization is "defining your terms as you’re using them in your research project. ... the first use of library research is to determine what background information already exists about your topic" (Davis Lachlan, p. 49).

Do library research to find definitions, methodology, ways of analyzing data:

Definitions of "scholarly," "authority" or "authoritative," and "expert" vary by field, major, or discipline. In Advertising & Public Relations, for example, trade publications are valued types of information resources along with scholarly journal articles. Case studies, best practices, industry reports, market intelligence research, media data and costs, audience or target market data, campaign videos, or public opinion polls are valued as well. In Native American or Indigenous Studies, authorities are the people whose lived experiences make them the experts - on their own people.

Information exposes the biases or viewpoints of their authors. Scholarly/academic work is often created by white, cis-gender males, and their viewpoints are revealed in the terminology/vocabulary. How exactly do authors reveal their viewpoints? By the names they use to describe the population they are studying and with the details they reveal about their own background.

Peer review, known as a process of choosing which scholarly or academic articles get published, is deeply rooted in bias. The scholarly world is small, so reviewers often know who has written a submitted article, even if the author has taken care to anonymize it (remove identifying names and characteristics). This can be used to choose work that reflects the reviewer's biases and perpetuate the publication of known "experts."

As an example, listen to or read:

The politics of citation: Is the peer review process biased against Indigenous academics? CBC Radio · Posted: Feb 23, 2018 | Last Updated: August 24, 2018. "Kyle Powys Whyte is a professor at Michigan State University, and Sarah Hunt is an assistant professor of First Nations and Indigenous Studies at University of British Columbia. Both have experienced first hand how difficult the peer review process can be for Indigenous academics."

Read Davis Lachlan "Including Participants in Co-Constructed Research," pp. 116-117, in chapter 6!

Positionality

"Rather than seeking the objectivity and detachment quantitative researchers value, qualitative researchers acknowledge their own subjectivity and include that either formally or informally in their analysis and consideration of the research. Qualitative researchers acknowledge that research is biased and infused with their own values and assumptions, and, rather than trying to remain objective, take those biases into account during the research process" (Davis Lachlan, p. 328).

"Positionality refers to aspects of the researcher’s sociocultural identity that are salient in the field and to how the researcher positions him- or herself in relation to participants and within their cultural context. ... To develop an understanding of researcher positionality, qualitative researchers begin by accounting for their identity, beliefs, values, and affiliations. This is sometimes referred to as a self-identity inventory or audit. In this process, the researcher acknowledges demographic markers such as sex, age, ethnicity, sexual orientation, and class; physical characteristics and appearance; and social and cultural affiliations such as religion and profession (e.g., communication researcher). In addition, communication researchers consider their communication and relational competencies and how others perceive them. Then, the researcher reflects upon how these identity attributes might impact the fieldwork. … Finally, accounting for one’s own cultural identity as a researcher is necessary in order to interrogate and understand personal biases, beliefs, and attitudes that influence interpretations and claims based on observational and other types of fieldwork (e.g., interviews).

Norander, S. (2017). Researcher–participant relationships in observational research. In M. Allen (Ed.), The sage encyclopedia of communication research methods (Vol. 3, pp. 1469-1470). SAGE Publications, https://www-doi-org.ezproxy.gvsu.edu/10.4135/9781483381411.n512

Reminder:

• Choice: you as the writer can make choices on what to reveal or not reveal about your identity or positionality.
• Reader: we each may make assumptions about the writer’s identity based on our own identity.  Stating your, the writer's positionality, is one way to inform the reader. 
• Sources/Citations: are another visible frame of your positionality- whose voices do you include in your research?  Why?  Do you look for a certain type of source?  Or look for voices/people that have viewpoints similar/different from yours?  How do these sources contribute to your paper and inform what we learn?

Definition

A literature review surveys books, scholarly articles, and any other sources relevant to your research topic or thesis statement. It should provide a theoretical summary or critical evaluation of these scholarly works. You will need to analyze, evaluate, and synthesize the research that you’ve found on your topic. A literature review should give context to your thesis and, if possible, reveal any gaps in current literature. See Davis Lachlan textbook ch. 4.

A literature review may consist of simply a summary of key sources, but it usually has an organizational pattern and combines both summary and synthesis, often within specific conceptual categories. 

• A summary is a recap of the important information of the source
• A synthesis is a re-organization, or a reshuffling, of that information in a way that informs how you are planning to investigate a research problem.

Purpose of a literature review:

• To demonstrate to your readers what you know about your topic
• To bring your readers up-to-date and fill them in on what has been published on your topic
• To allow you a better understanding of your topic

We want everyone to learn to search within the resources that we own, using the "Find it" box, the "Get it @GVSU"  icon, and the Journals list. However, we don't have access to every article, book, or other materials! We offer a service called Document Delivery as a solution for these gaps in our collections. Each request costs us money (staff to manage it + paying other libraries their cost + copyright clearance), so only use it if you really need something we don't have.

Leigh Rupinski, Archivist for Public Services & Community Engagement
(616) 331-8726
rupinskl@gvsu.edu

The keys to evaluating information:

1. Look for independent information about the creator/s, funding, opinions or viewpoints, and statements
2. Spend more time double-checking facts externally rather than using time to look at the original source of information
3. Delay clicking: spend time to skim the results after you search; read bits and pieces before choosing to click any link
4. Use these techniques with all types of information – books, videos, articles, websites, etc.

• use "quotation marks" around phrases
• truncate - with an asterisk * - truncat* finds truncate, truncated, truncation
• use AND to combine unlike ideas: dance AND promotion
• use OR to connect synonyms:  advertisements OR campaigns

Put it all together:

• "hip hop dance" in one box
• AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns) in the next box
• use parentheses in single-box searching - when you don't have another set of boxes, e.g.,:
• "hip hop dance" AND (promot* OR advertis* OR campaigns)

Use the left or right menus to narrow your results, e.g., by language, date, subject, etc.

• Databases have a citation and sometimes they will also contain an abstract, or summary, of the article.
• Databases also often cite multiple types of resources - books, essays or chapters, government documents, etc.
• Some databases will also have the complete item (called the full text): you should see a link to an HTML or PDF document. Or click on - this will check other library databases for the full text.