Secondary Research

Lecture 1: Conducting Secondary Research

Watch the 9-minute video to learn about how to conduct secondary research for an engineering design project.

Useful online resources include:

Library Genesis - A file-sharing website for scholarly journals and digitized, non-fiction books. This website is blocked in some jurisdictions due to copyright infringement rulings. However, if the site can be accessed, it is an excellent repository for textbooks in pdf and epub file formats.
OpenStax - An online resource with free textbooks for general university-level courses like biology, calculus, statistics, economics, business, and finance.
Directory of Open Access Journals - A directory of research articles which are free and have unrestricted access for all.
Google Scholar - A search tool for research articles.
Google Patent - A search tool which indexes patents and patent applications.
Connected Papers - A tool which helps researchers find papers related to their field of study.
Scimago Journal Rankings - A tool which measures the scientific influence of scholarly journals.
HardwareX - An open-access, peer-reviewed journal article which publishes articles that describe the design, construction, and customization of scientific devices and equipment. A great resource for engineers!
A Parable about Scientific Literacy - This 10-minute audio interview with a science journalist explores how a poorly designed clinical trial led to widespread, harmful public health outcomes during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Lecture 2: Plagiarism and Citations

Watch the 7-minute video to learn how to properly cite your research.

Useful online resources include:

APA Citation Style Guide - If you are uncertain how to cite a resource in the APA style, then you can visit this website for precise instructions.
Guides for Other Citation Styles - If you are using other citation styles (like MLA or IEEE), you can find more information on this University of Pittsburgh website.

Secondary Research

In the space below, record all Secondary Research that you have performed. The performing of secondary research includes the summary of books, news articles, peer-reviewed journal articles, patent searches, and market research. After you have conducted your secondary research, describe the 5-10 most important insights that you learned from your research that will influence the design of a potential solution.

You should write at least twenty different summaries from at least three different types of resource.

Your summaries should contain the following information:

Name of resource (eg. book title, website name, article name, patent name)
Several keywords which capture the essence of resource
Type of resource (eg. book, news article, peer-reviewed journal article, patent, market research)
Bullet point summary or brief description of important/relevant information from the resource.
Pictures and illustrations if applicable.
Reference or citation (eg. link to website, citation of peer-reviewed journal article, etc.)

Time-Saving Hints:

This project requires that you submit a draft patent application. Part of that application requires that you provide a summary of other inventions which solve the same or a similar problem. For this reason, it is advisable that you include multiple patents in your list of summaries.
Your final design report requires that you identify, summarize, and cite the most important secondary resources which influence your project work. In order to save time writing the report, it is advisable that you properly summarize and cite your secondary resources as soon as you finish reviewing them. Your final design report requires that you use the APA formatting style.

For an example summary, see Example Summary 1 below.

Example Summary 1

Name: CRISPR-CAS9 Gene Editing for Sickle Cell Disease and Beta-Thalassemia

Type: Peer-reviewed journal article

Keywords: sickle cell disease, CRISPR, gene editing, therapy

Summary of important information:

After undergoing myeloablation, two patients — one with Transfusion-dependent β-thalassemia (TDT) and the other with Sickle Cell Disease (SCD) — received autologous CD34+ cells edited with CRISPR-Cas9 targeting the same BCL11A enhancer.
More than a year later, both patients had high levels of allelic editing in bone marrow and blood.
Three serious adverse events followed the treatment for the patient with Sickle Cell Disease.

Citation:

Frangoul, et al. “CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing for Sickle Cell Disease and β-Thalassemia” January 21, 2021.N Engl J Med 2021; 384:252-260 DOI: 10.1056/NEJMoa2031054
Website: CRISPR-Cas9 Gene Editing for Sickle Cell Disease and β-Thalassemia | NEJM

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