As part of this paper, you will be doing two different types of research. It is confusing if we use the same word ('research') to refer to both types of activities without specifying which type we mean:
"Library research" refers to locating information about your topic created by others, usually through scholarly (peer-reviewed) articles from academic journals, excepts from books, reference article overviews ("tertiary sources," see below), and the information you gather is generally summarized in the literature review section of your paper.
You'll search out academic research articles and other materials on your topic using library search tools and general web search engines. Most materials will be in print (text articles).
"Original research" refers to information you gather yourself from others using a tool like a survey, or from the observation of a real-life experiment you have designed and set up to test a question or hypothesis. Generally, you will share what tool or experiment you did, the data you discovered, and what you think the information you gathered might tell someone about your research question in the methods, results, and discussion sections of your paper.
You'll design a survey that helps gather responses that will help you answer or analyze your research question. You'll have others respond to your survey, and you will share how you set up the survey, what the results were, and what you think that might mean for your question in your paper.
Authority Level |
Source Type / Audience / Purpose |
|---|---|
Academic QualityExperts communicating with other experts and/or specialized audiences. May be peer-reviewed or have authors with noted academic or professional credentials; cites sources. |
Academic journalsPeer-reviewed articles that present research or criticism from scholars in a relevant academic field of study |
Scholarly Talks / Books / ReportsPublished by universities, professional or government organizations to present research findings or recommendations—some TED Talks; books from academic presses (publisher will often be a “university press”); reports from scholarly professional organizations. Specialized Subject Encyclopedias with ‘signed articles’ – overviews written by academic experts in the area of study |
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Government documentsStatistics, facts, and figures assembled by government agencies and entities; e.g., Bureau of Labor Statistics, IRS, some .gov. sites, Occupational Outlook Handbook, etc. |
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Trade books, publications, & web sitesInformation written for people who work in the industry the source reports on—covering more detail than a “general” publication for that profession-- e.g., Variety, The Hollywood Reporter, Architectural Digest, Communication Arts, etc. |
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General Audiences, InformativeContent written to be read by general audiences typically meant to be informative and provide fact-checked information; often written by reporters and/or overseen by a non-specialist editor.
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Specialized magazines, books & web sites (topic-focused)Consumer-oriented information catering to niche markets-- Car & Driver, Scientific American, National Geographic, Wired, WebMD.com, lots of .edu & .gov web sites with general information
Specialized Reference Articles with general editors / no authorEncyclopedia or other overview articles written in more detail and content depth than a general dictionary or general encyclopedia article.
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General interest magazines, newspapers, books, & web sitesGeneral sources written for a wide public audience, often on a range of topics-- city newspapers, general news websites (BBC, etc), Sports Illustrated, Atlantic, New Yorker, most corporate web sites.
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General Audiences:Biased, Entertainment, Too Shallow, or UnreliableThese sources are either too short or they are primarily meant to entertain and convey opinion without much fact-checking. Tools that are crowd-sourced fall here, because we don’t always know the biases of the most recent editors / authors. |
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Type of Resource |
Information Time Lag (How long does it take for a real-life event to be included after it happens?) |
Amount of Information |
How to Find It |
|---|---|---|---|
|
TV / Web / Radio News; Social Media feeds |
minutes |
a few sentences* |
TV & Web search engines |
|
Newspapers [print] |
1 day |
few paragraphs -- 1 or 2 pages |
article databases & library newspaper indexes |
|
Popular Magazines [print] (Time, Economist) |
1 week -- month |
1 -- 5 pages |
article databases & web search engines |
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Academic Journals [print & electronic] |
6 months or more |
2 -- 40+ pages |
academic databases |
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Online Reference (encyclopedias, reference databases) |
10 months -- year* (*Wikipedia is not included here; see "web" for Wikipedia) |
few paragraphs to 1 -2 pages (overviews, summaries) |
Holman Library website |
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Books (printed & ebooks) |
about 1 year |
over 100 pages |
Holman Library website - Online catalog |
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Print Reference Resources |
2 or more years |
few paragraphs to 1 -2 pages (overviews, summaries) |
Holman Library catalog or the reference section at the library |
* Note: Web articles that were produced for items under a "news embargo" (e.g. the writer / producer was given early information about a product / event / item and asked to wait to publish it until a set time) may be long and detailed-- in this case, the time to produce the article looks "short" to us but is actually in line with the "Magazines" timeline (a week to a month) -- the writer / producer just worked ahead of the event.
These guides cover all the pieces of a formal, full-featured APA original research paper. This will be more than you need to do for your social media research paper (your assignment has fewer steps), but if you like, you can check out the full process below!