BACKGROUND: There are ethical aspects to research which should guide your work as a researcher. In this section, we'll focus on the ethics of information use.
1. Read and understand all content of : Ethical Use of Information.
2. Pay particular attention to the section "Avoiding plagiarism" in the section "Ethical Use of Information: Quoting, Paraphrasing, & Citing." Go through some examples at the linked site in II.B.
BACKGROUND: If your research involves human subjects, federal guidelines and DSU policies must be followed. Your research protocol must be reviewed and approved BEFORE you collect data.
Data collected without prior approval may not be used!
Following is a short video on the IRB process. The content is still correct, the speaker, however, is no longer chair of the IRB Committee. If you have any questions now, you may contact Stacey Berry.
Here is the video:
For a more in-depth look at the process, here is a document with the Researcher's Perspective to IRB.
BACKGROUND: As a researcher, you will communicate your research/creative activity to others through some formal communication path -- journal article, conference proceeding, software, etc. By understanding your rights as author/creator, you are in a better position to make decisions that reflect your philosophy of scholarship and its use by others.
1. Go to: Author rights and watch the video "Bargaining for Better Publication Agreements."
a. What is one valuable point about author rights that you learned from the video? Provide your answer in a brief paragraph (2 or 3 sentences).
2. On the Author rights web page, watch the video "Open Access Explained."
3. Go to: Selecting a publisher and read the section "Selecting where to publish - evaluating journals."
a. In the list of links provided, go to Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
b. In JCR, select Browse by Category, use the Select Categories on the left side of the page to choose the subject category "Computer Science, Theory and Methods." Click on submit to bring back results.
c. Clicking on the number (108) in the column #Journals will bring you back journals that publish within that category.
d. Answer the following questions
1) What is the impact factor of the highest ranked journal?
2) Click on the title of the highest ranked journal. What is the full title (not abbreviated title) of the journal?
3) Explore the information provided about the title.
4) Return to the list of journals ranked by impact factor and look at the numbers for the three (3) highest ranked journals. To learn about Eigenfactor, go here. Why is the order in which the Eigenfactor ranks the 3 journals different from the order in which the impact factor ranks the journals?
4. In the above activities, you used a tool that can help you discover the journals in which you might want to publish.
You have to know your audience in order for a joke to be funny. I thought this was the right audience for this one.
Enjoy this tale of peer review from The Onion. https://www.theonion.com/fifth-grade-science-paper-doesnt-stand-up-to-peer-revie-1819567814
I hope that the modules you've completed have been useful and that you will continue to use what you learned throughout your doctoral program.
The more you practice using the research tools available to you, the better researcher you become.
Know that if you need assistance, librarians are always ready and willing to help you discover the resources you need.
If you have suggestions for improving the modules, email suggestions to me.
Cheers,
Mary
Front of the Karl E. Mundt Library, Dakota State University
