1. Researching

2. Why Scholars Research?
Researching is critical for scholars in any
discipline: it is how intellectual discussion on
subjects are forwarded and how scholars keep
update on the latest discoveries and theories.
Obtaining accurate and insightful research are
of the upmost importance for scholars.
Inaccuracies and slopping scholarship only
slow down the scholarly conversation. This is
why scholars rely on the peer review process.

3. Peer Review
Peer reviewed means a scholar’s article, book, or
research has been sent out by an editor to other
experts in the field for review before publication.
These experts, usually called referees, examine
the research, typically searching for errors and
weaknesses, and make recommendations for
changes. There are normally multiple referees
assigned to review each work. Publication in
academia usually takes between six months to
two years as a result.

4. Using The Library at PJC

5. Location
• The library and computer labs are located on
the first floor of the Greenville Center
• To link to the library online, click the link
under Blogroll on the left side of our
homepage or click the following link:
http://www.parisjc.edu/index.php/pjc2/main/
learning-center

6. Online Research at PJC
Since we will only be using scholarly sources
for our research in this class, you will all need
to know how to access scholarly databases
through the library home page. This will
require your student ID and your password
(date of birth if you have not changed it),
which should be the same information you
use to login to campus connect. Follow the
links circled in red to access the databases
from home

7. Using Databases at Home

12. Databases
There are many databases available on our library
webpage, but not all of them will be useful to our
class. Here are ones I recommend using for
researching in this class: Academic Search
Complete, Bloom’s Literary Reference Online,
Contemporary Literary Criticism, Contemporary
Authors, Dictionary of Literary Biography,
Directory of Open Access Journals, Gale
Literature Databases, Religion and Philosophy,
Scribner Writers, Texas Reference Center, 20th
Century Poetry, Twayne’s Author Series, and
Literature Resource Center.
Green = Best Yellow = Student Friendly White = Okay

13. Researching On The Web

14. Reliable Sources
Finding reliable sources on the web can be difficult
and risky. Websites rarely identify where they get
their information and much of what you find on
the web is more subjective and less informed than
what you would find through a library database.
However, with that said, there are some uses for
web searches: finding out about scholars, terms,
and reading lists; discovering informal sources; and
finding research that might only be housed on a
university website or scholars homepage.

15. Starting Research on Unfamiliar Topics
A Google or Yahoo search can help familiarize
you with a term or theory. If you encountered
the term reader response theory in class or in
an article, Googling the term would likely take
you to a definition or names of scholars using
reader response theory, like say Stanley Fish.
This information could then be used in a
search on a scholarly database.

16. Wikipedia
Wikipedia seems a tempting resource, but
please remember the information found on
Wikipedia is not written by experts or peer
reviewed; in fact, almost anyone can change
or alter a Wikipedia page on any subject.
However, it can be a great tool for getting
started on researching, providing names of
scholars, articles, and books for searching
elsewhere

18. Google Scholar
Google Scholar is a version of Google specifically
designed for scholarly research. The sources
found from this engine are typically reliable,
hailing from university web pages, online
scholarly presses, or peer reviewed journals. The
downside to Google Scholar is its limited
database. Since many peer review journals have
expensive subscriptions and will not allow their
resources to be published online without
compensation, Google Scholar has very little in
comparison to other scholarly databases.

20. Student Disclaimer
What ever approach you decide to use in your
research must involve scholarly citation and
the use of reliable resources. Anything that is
not your idea or writing must be cited and
formatted correctly in accordance with MLA
guidelines (see MLA.org for details) While you
can use Wikipedia and web searches to get
started, they cannot act as your sources for
presentations and papers.