Glossary

Also known as a scholarly journal is a periodical that is refereed or peer-reviewed - meaning that experts in an academic field form an editorial board that reviews all articles before they are accepted for publication.

Scholarly journals consist of articles that contain bibliographic references to other articles and sources in addition to the researcher's original work in a particular field. Most scholarly journals are devoted to a particular subject.

II. A. Layers of Library Information

V. D. Scholarly vs. Popular

A thorough reading of the work in which you identify the subject matter and problem, understand key terms, take notes, and summarize.

VI. A. Reading

A bibliography in which each a citation is followed by an annotation containing a brief descriptive and/or evaluative summary of the work.

Nonfiction contribution to a newspaper, magazine, or journal that is most often devoted to a single topic. Articles can be in electronic form, available on the web, or found through library databases. Some articles found online are not available in print and vice-versa.

II. A. Layers of Library Information

IV. C. Citation Styles

V. D. Scholarly vs. Popular

Article/Chapter Delivery is used for articles you have abstracts and citations for but cannot find on Library OneSearch or any of the databases. You can also use this service to order individual chapters of books that you cannot access from the library.

III. H. Article/Chapter Delivery

Allowing personal beliefs to influence research and other academic work. The major types of bias in research are:

Research funding bias: funders influence which research projects to fund

Experimenter bias: experimenters prefer certain results

Publication bias: publishers prefer particular kinds of work

Access bias: language, full text, price, etc.

VI. C. Evaluation

A list of citations for a paper, report, article, or a particular topic. Also known as works cited and references.

IV. A. What is Citation?

Also called a monograph in the library world, a book may appear in printed or electronic form. Books can be a collection of published essays from different authors organized by an editor, or the work of one or more authors who created the content.

III. A. Catalog & Reserves, F. eBooks, and G. Print Books

VI. A. Reading

A call number is the address of the book in the library. Each book is ascribed a unique call number that signify the book's precise location in the library.

Call numbers at AUC follow the Library of Congress Classification System.

III. G. Print Books

Any collection of records.The AUC Catalog contains electronic records on all the books, ebooks, videos, theses, microforms, and other print materials physically available at the library.

III. A. Catalog & Reserves

A short text notation that describes a work and where and in what form that work can be referred to. The structure of the citation will be different, depending on the citation format (MLA, APA), but normally includes author, title, publisher, and format (print, online) information.

III. Citation & Academic Integrity

This is a yearly report published by a company about their activities in the pass year. This information would be private if not published by the company so it is an example of a reliable non-scholarly source.

VI. C. Evaluation

A method for evaluating sources of information, especially those on the web:

C = Currency

R = Relevance

A = Authority

A = Accuracy

P = Purpose

VI. C. Evaluation

See Reliability.

Any collection of records that may be electronically searched in multiple ways. In libraries, these are most often online catalogs or collections of articles and citations.

III. B. Databases

This could be a phonetical reading of letters and understanding the conventional meanings of words.

VI. A. Reading

An evaluation performed on primary sources to measure the authenticity, completeness, and bias of a source.

V. C. Primary Source vs. Primary Research

Misinformation designed to mimic real news for the purpose of deceiving people.

VI. A. Reading

In Arabic books, the word “fihris(t)” (الفهرس أو الفهرست) may be used for both the table of contents and the index. It can appear either at the beginning of the book or the end. It may also appear at the end of the introduction, written in prose.

VI. A. Reading

The contents of an article available online. Some websites and databases offer only a sample or citation of an article's content. In that case you might have to request we locate the full text of the article for you. Otherwise, you can link to the full text in either PDF (image) or HTML (web page) provided by the publisher.

II. A. Where to Search

Reports, articles, and statistics provided by state and federal governments. URL's for government websites usually end with .gov and .gov + [country code] for nations other than the U.S.

Official Egyptian government websites have URL's that end with .gov.eg.

Can be as simple as a guide to a book's content, often found in the back of a book, or an online guide to a page, subject, or website. It is usually located at the end of the book, organized alphabetically, and helps locate where a particular concept is discussed in the book.

VI. A. Reading

A set of skills used for 1) recognizing an information need, 2) developing strategies to find information, 3) understanding new information, 4) evaluating information against other information, 5) using information appropriately, and 6) attributing it legally and ethically.

In the 21st century, it is also defined as "a set of integrated abilities encompassing the reflective discovery of information, the understanding of how information is produced and valued, and the use of information in creating new knowledge and participating ethically in communities of learning."

I. Intro to Information Literacy

Composed of two parts: 1) a systematic skimming of the book jacket, table of contents, etc. and 2) a superficial reading of parts of the book.

VI. A. Reading

See Article/Chapter Delivery.

An evaluation performed on primary sources to understand the content, research value, and overall meaning of a source.

V. C. Primary Source vs. Primary Research

See search terms.

A process of fact-checking information, primarily information found on the web. It checks previous works on a topic, goes up stream, read what other sources say about a single topic, and circling back when stuck.

VI. A. Reading

See subject guide.

The Library of Congress Classification System is a system of organizing fields of knowledge, usually used for arranging physical materials in libraries.

The process of ensuring the quality of a scholarly journal article before publication.

V. E. Peer-Review

Written magazine, newspaper, academic journal, or trade publication that is published in regular intervals. Some are published daily, monthly, weekly, quarterly, depending on the publication.

III. B. Databases

The act of appropriating the work or ideas of others and presenting them as one's own.

For more information, see: https://www.aucegypt.edu/academics/academic-integrity

Also called Original Research is that in which the researcher produces or collects his/her own data. Not to be confused with a primary source.

Also see secondary source.

V. C. Primary Source vs. Primary Research

Provide firsthand testimony or direct evidence concerning a topic or question under investigation. It needs to be analyzed.

V. Classifying Sources

A judgement made by the reader based on criteria of evaluation and topic. For instance, you can use criteria the CRAAP Test for popular sources on the web or Lateral Reading. Sometimes the most reliable source is not a scholarly source, particularly if your topic involves analyzing primary sources or the topic is recent or rare.

VI. C. Evaluation

An open-ended question or questions designed to guide your research. In addition to being about your topic, it should also have the following qualities:

• Not be a yes or no question

• be complete (not too broad or narrow)

• be feasible (“What’s the meaning of life?”)

• not be leading or bias

II. B. Research Questions

An article that attempts to summarize the current understanding of a topic.

V. F. Contents of a Journal

Computer software in which search terms are used to identify and locate content in a database, a group of databases, or on the world wide web.

II. A. Where to Search

Also known as keywords, are the words related to a topic that can be used in a search engine or database to find sources on the topic.

II. C. Searching with Keywords

Also called primary or original research, is any published or unpublished work that is one step removed from a primary source of information, usually describing, summarizing, analyzing, evaluating, derived from, or based on primary source materials, for example, a review, critical analysis, second-person account, or biographical or historical study.

V. Classifying Sources

A source of information. They appear in a variety of forms such as: books, articles, videos, etc. They can also be classified in different ways such as scholarly and popular OR primary, secondary, and tertiary.

Also referred to as LibGuides, are web pages curated by librarians that gather useful resources on a subject.

III. D. Subject Guides

A comparative reading with other works on the topic. Find important passages, question the authors, compare with other works, and analyze a discussion.

VI. A. Reading

A reference at the beginning of a book or monograph that helps navigate a lengthy text, provides page numbers for chapters and sometimes sub-headings, and reveals the structure and logic of the author’s text.

VI. A. Reading

A written work, such as an index or entry in a reference book, that collects, lists, or summarizes a collection of primary or secondary sources. It offers no analysis of its own.

V. Classifying Sources

Software that converts digital text to audio and reads the content out loud on a device such as a computer, laptop, smart phone, etc.

VI. A. Reading

An acronym that stands for Uniform Resource Locator. It is essential the address of materials posted to the web.

A note taking system invented by the German sociologist, Niklas Luhmann. Some fundamental principles of his system is that he 1) stored all his notes in one place, 2) identified and linked his notes so that are easily accessible and retrievable, and 3) included the citation information for each note.

VI. B. Note Taking