Biofuels Reaserch
Getting started in your research.
To find accurate and reliable information about biofuels, databases can be a great source of information; scientific journals contain quality research articles that are reliable. On the SHHS Library website, there is a guide to accessing databases (including signing up for a State Library of NSW membership card online).
In discussion with a Yr 12 Chemistry student, one student described that the types of journal articles we were finding were too specific for the early phase of the research process they were currently in. I suggested that starting with more magazine-style articles was a good idea as magazines tend to try to give more of an overview of a topic and make the information more accessible, for example, have a look at this article from Biofuels International (magazine): https://biofuels-news.com/news/future-trends-in-biofuel/. Once you have a broader understanding and start to find specific areas of interest, then you can dive deeper into the subject with journal articles from databases.
Another interesting source potentially is The International Energy Agency (IEA): https://www.iea.org/reports/renewables-2021/biofuels?mode=transport®ion=World&publication=2021&flow=Consumption&product=Ethanol. The IEA "Renewables 2021 Analysis and Forecast" report is available in full here, it’s 175 pages long so the Table of Contents is your friend for seeking more relevant sections.The report is more economic in its orientation, but you might find useful information in there (caution: I am not a chem teacher!).
A free open access journal is Biofuel Research Journal: https://www.biofueljournal.com/. The best way to use this is click on “BROWSE” > “KEYWORD INDEX” > “ALL VOLUMES” then look or search (ctrl+f) for your keywords.
Here is an added bonus for you, a possibly useful journal article on the sustainability of biofuels:
“Environmental sustainability of biofuels: a review”: https://royalsocietypublishing.org/doi/10.1098/rspa.2020.0351
For the Biofuels task, you have to develop your own enquiry question, on the SHHS Library website there is a comprehensive guide to developing enquiry questions, I suggest that if you are pressed for time just jump to the section on “Blooms Taxonomy / Question Stems” which is one of the embedded PDF’s, and make sure that your question will give you the chance to think in one of the top three zones (analysing/evaluating/creating): https://sites.google.com/education.nsw.gov.au/shhslibrary/research/questioning.
When it comes to your annotated bibliography, a part of the evaluation of your source can be referring to the author's “h-index” and the journal's ‘Journal Impact Factor” (if it’s from a journal). This is called citation analysis, if you want to learn about this, have a look at this university guide to metrics. This is not essential to your task but might help a little. From that guide, the thing I recommend most is checking an author’s h-index publishing statistics and using Scopus for that: Scopus Author Search. Citation analysis is only a part of justifying your source, not all of the analysis.
Students are welcome to come and see me (Mr Jones) in the library and I will help you. For the rest of you, I can help you with databases during your study periods or sometimes during breaks.