Survival Skills for Graduate Students

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Survival Skills for Graduate Students

• Developing a Literature Review

Dr. Deborah Lee Professor/Coordinator Library
Instructional Services Mississippi State
University Libraries
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Survival Skills for Graduate Students Workshops
Survival Skills

• Research Dissertation Basics
• Developing a Literature Review
• Research Ethics and the Graduate Student
• Grant for Grad
• Writing the Winning Curriculum Vita
• Landing on the Tenure Track Job Hunting in
  Academia
• Publishing 101 for Graduate Students

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Session Overview
Survival Skills

• What this session will NOT cover!
• Library Resources and Services
• Research Strategies
• Strategies for Building a Literature Review

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The Best Dissertation
Survival Skills

• ..is a Finished Dissertation!

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Library Services
Survival Skills

• Reference (2nd Floor)
• Research Consultations
• Specialized Research/Reference Resources
• Ready Reference
• 325-7667
• Ask-A-Librarian Service http//library.msstate.ed
  u/askalibrarian/
• Reference_at_library.msstate.edu

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Library Services
Survival Skills

• Instructional Media Center (2nd Floornew
  location!)
• Workshops
• Multimedia Workstations and Instructional
  Material
• Equipment Checkout
• Videos, CDs, DVDs
• Formatting Guidance

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Library Services
Survival Skills

• Access Services (2nd Floor)
• Inter-Library Loan (Illiad)
• Check out books
• Theses-Dissertations (1st Floor)
• Mary Ann Jones

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Survival Skills for Graduate Students Web Page
Survival Skills

• Related Library Links
• Workshop Materials
• Podcasts (later this semester!)
• Related Campus Materials
• http//library.msstate.edu/li/ssfgs/

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The Role of a Literature Review
Survival Skills

• Setting the stage
• Establishing lineage
• Establishing legitimacy.

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Literature Reviews
Survival Skills

• Seminar Papers
• Thesis
• Dissertation
• Proposal vs Finished Product

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General Guidelines for Literature Reviews
Survival Skills

• Start with the most recent articles and work
  backwards.
• Identify relevant theoretical articles.
• Identify useful review articles.
• Identify landmark or classic articles related
  to your topic.
• Citation Databases

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General Guidelines
Survival Skills

• Group articles by categories or themes.
• Identify definitions of key terms, theories, or
  concepts in the literature.
• Critically read articles
• Identify methodological strengths
• Identify methodological weaknesses
• Look for major patterns, schools of thought, etc

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General Guidelines
Survival Skills

• Notes
• Note how reviewed articles relate to your topic.
• Identify gaps in the literature or areas not
  addressed by current studies.
• Look for relationships among studies.

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Key Databases
Survival Skills

• Subject Related Databases
• Theses and Dissertations (UMI/Proquest)
• Web of Science
• Science Citation Index Expanded
• Social Science Citation Index
• Arts Humanities Index
• Grey Literature
• WorldCat

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InterLibrary Loan (Illiad)
Survival Skills

• Provides access to a WORLDs worth of
  information!
• Usually no charge
• 5-7 days for articles longer for books

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Good Research Practices
Survival Skills

• Maintain your search record.
• Where you searched, terms used
• Consider a research journal.
• Make photocopies of all sources.
• Always go to the primary source.
• Never site something you havent read.

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Survival Skills

• Make sure you have full bibliographic information
  for all sources. (Dont depend on the PDF to
  supply all of this info!)
• Consider purchasing a bibliographic management
  software program such as EndNote.
• Check the references/bibliographies of every
  source you locate.
• Back up all files!

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Survival Skills

• Seek out expert advice as needed.
• Librarians, subject specialists, other faculty.
• Keep your dissertation advisor fully informed
  about your progress and any problems you
  encounter.

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Completing The Process
Survival Skills

• Check for currency.
• Revising the literature review.
• Know when to quit!

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Online.
Survival Skills

• Librarys Website
• Google Scholar

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Questions??
Survival Skills

• Dr. Deborah Lee, Professor
• [phone]
• dlee_at_library.msstate.edu