| Contact | |
|---|---|
| Kristen Motz | |
| Phone: 231-591-3625 | |
| Office: FLITE 140H | |
| Stacy Anderson | |
| Phone: 231-591-3635 | |
| Office: FLITE 140C | |
Law Enforcement Academy (CRIM 420)
Techniques
Building Your Search Strategy
- Look over your assignment. Highlight the main point and key words you need for your search strategy.
- Make a thesis statement about your assignment. What is your project going to answer or develop?
- Break your thesis statement into concepts - what two or three words describe the major points of your project?
- Think about alternate forms and synonyms of the words used.
- Develop "concept blocks", each concept block made of similar words that describe a topic, then link the topics together to see if you can get specific information about your thesis statement.
- Try this power point to give you some further direction: Getting Started With Research
Starting Your Search
- Use reference sources, print or online, to get a broad overview of your topic.
- Use books, print or online, to gain more background and depth about the topic.
- Move finally to journal articles to gain more current information and targeted specific facts and updates about the topic, and to substantiate your theories and research.
- Use reliable websites sparingly to add currency and authority if you are unable to find the materials in other ways.
TIPS
Know How to Use Your Information Tools (Work Smarter, Not Harder)
- Figure out what tools you have at hand and select one.
- Before you begin, study the search tips.
- Explore the different functions available.
- Take 5 minutes as you start to save hours of time later on.
- Begin with general searches, then become more specific.
- Limit to title searches if search becomes overwhelming, then move to subject searching.
- Try using online resources where you can quickly skim the contents.
- Look for a marked list function to save searches.
- Jot down the search terms you used in the different resources. As you learn new terms, go back and search those resources with your new terms.
- Save your searches either by printing material, emailing citations, saving to a flash drive, or using a bibliographic database like RefBase or Citation Machine.
TOOLS
Suggested Tools for this Assignment
- Ferris Library Catalog
- Criminal Justice Periodicals Index
- Criminal Justice Abstracts/Criminology Sage Full-Text
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service
- Reliable web sources
(See Finding Journal Articles below.)
Research Guide: Criminal Justice
A Subject Reference Guide for Criminal Justice is available to help you research. You may be able to find these resources at your local library if you are off-campus.
Reference Books - Electronic and Print
Books are one of the best ways to gather background, gain a general understanding of your topic nd explore subjects in-depth. Reference books - both print and electronic - are excellent starting points.
Electronic Reference Books (Reference Books availble online) can be found at the Electronic Reference Resources link on the Databases page. Select the Criminal Justice link for several useful titles. Other useful reference information can be found in Credo Reference and Oxford Reference Online.
You can also find other auhoritative electronic resources (including e-books) in the online catalog as well as print books. Information produced by the U.S. government is especially helpful; the government disseminates most of its information electronically, and much of this can be found through the catalog.
To find books owned by FLITE, try either Title, Subject, or Keyword searches in the online catalog. From FLITE's home page, you can click on the Catalog tab and type in your search terms. A majority of what you locate will be Ferris materials, but you can click on Ferris under the Collection Tab on the left side to limit your results to only Ferris materials. Note on the side, you can also limit your results to government documents, Internet Resources [electronic materials - not necessarily Internet sources], and other categories.
For a demonstration of limiting your results to Ferris-owned materials, check out this tutorial: How to Find Ferris-Owned Material in the Catalog
Finding Journal Articles
Use FLITE databases to find magazine and journal articles on a particular topic. Many databases provide the full-text of the articles that you find; some may only provide a citation or an abstract.
Business and General Databases
ABI Inform Global
The premier business journal database, you may find many articles on problem-solving here.
Academic OneFile (Available in MeL)
This full-text database includes millions of articles covering a multitude of subjects from journals, magazines, and
newspapers and is currently available for free access in the state of Michigan after you graduate through the Michigan eLibrary.
Many Criminal Justice journals are included in Academic OneFile, in addition to other journals
that touch on issues affecting your field. A general database like this useful for early exploration of your topic
as well as one to use if you are unfamiliar with database searching.
Criminal Justice Databases
Criminal Justice Periodicals Index
This database provides selective full-text coverage to journals in the fields of law enforcement, corrections
administration, social work, drug rehabilitation, criminal and family law, industrial security, and other criminal
justice fields. Citations extend back to 1981.
Sage Criminology Full-Text and
Criminal Justice Abstracts
Sage Criminology shares a search interface with Criminal Justice abstracts, but allows you to retrieve all
articles in full-text. This database has very deep backfiles, so you research your topic over a longer time
span, providing you with a broader scope. The Sage Criminology interface will be changing at the end of this semester.
With citations dating back to 1968, Criminal Justice Abstracts is prepared in cooperation with the Criminal Justice Collection of Rutgers University Library. Indexing journal articles, books, and government reports, Criminal Justice Abstracts covers such topics as crime trends, crime prevention and deterrence, juvenile delinquency, juvenile justice, police courts, and sentencing.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service (Available free after graduation on the web)
National Criminal Justice Reference Service is freely available and provided by the U.S. Department of Justice.
It will still be available to you once you leave Ferris. More than 7,000 full-text reports are available
through the "A-Z Publication/Products" tab. You can also reach abstracts of other federal, state, and local
government reports, books, journal articles, and unpublished research using the "Library/Abstracts" tab.
Getting the Article
Once you've found citations relevant to the topic you're working with and you need to get a copy of the articles, you'll need to verify whether FLITE owns the particular journal in which each article was published. Many databases now have a link called "Find It", which gives you the range of options available to find the material. If the full text of the article is available, you will be able to find the article by clicking on the link.
Sometimes the Find It button will provide a link to the Library Catalog. This indicates that the journal is found in FLITE's print collection. If you are off-campus and can't come to FLITE, simply order the article through Interlibrary Loan and mention you are an off-campus student in the Notes field.
Interlibrary Loan
If the only message you see is "Request document via Interlibrary Loan", you will need to order the article.
Interlibrary Loan is a service provided by FLITE to request articles and books that FLITE does not own. Most often this service is used when searching for articles in FLITE databases, and you are directed through the "Find It" button to request the item. The first time you use this service, you will need to register with ILLiad, our Inter-Library Loan service. Click on the words "First Time Users" to register. You will complete a form, creating a username and password which will be used for future requests. Article requests are emailed to you in 5-10 business days (ferris email preferred), and books will be mailed to you if you are an off-campus student. On-campus students may pick up books at the Checkout Desk.
To look up whether FLITE owns a particular journal, use the Find Journals database to search for the journal title. Remember to use the journal title not the article title for your search.
Citing Sources
Whenever you are quoting or using information from a source, you must credit or cite that source. Failure to do so is plagiarism which can lead to expulsion from the University.
To learn more about citations, check out this FLITE Citations page.
Print out the FLITE APA Citation Guide and use it to properly format your citations.
Off Campus Access
FLITE Distance Education Library
Services
One of our missions at FLITE is to offer all off-campus students access to the high-quality research materials available through the library. FLITE's subscription databases are available to all current Ferris students, faculty, and staff, including off-campus students. Our Distance Education web site should help you with any questions you may have about reaching FLITE from wherever you are. Be sure to study it carefully and return to it often. If you experience problems logging on, please call (231) 591-2669 or (800) 4-FERRIS (ext. 2669).
Contact: Kristen Motz / Email / Phone: 231-591-3625 / Office: FLITE 140H
Contact: Stacy Anderson / Email / Phone: 231-591-3635 / Office: FLITE 140C
Don't forget, you are welcome to come to the Oval Information Desk and ask for help any time. You can also call us 231-591-3602 or chat with us.
Last update: April 8, 2010