Research as Information Creation
As you move forward in your academic career – as a researcher, creating new information from others' previous works – it is your responsibility to understand and exercise agency over your own research conduct.
"Science has the power to illuminate, but not to solve, the deeper problems of mankind. For always after knowledge come choice and action, both of them intensely personal."
Professor Paul B. Sears, University of Oklahoma
Deserts on the March (Bizzell Memorial Library GF 503 .S42 1980)
Your research activities at OU are governed by preexisting ethical and legal systems. When the intellectual property of others – and even your own if it is from a previous project or assignment – informs your research, responsible and integritous academic conduct means providing attribution and accurate citations. In today's world, conversations about intellectual property and how we conduct research are enriched by collaboration and the sharing of resources between researchers, too, like Open movements or data reuse and licensing.
Thankfully, OU provides resources to help you navigate these foundations of scholarship:
- Academic Integrity at the University of Oklahoma: OU.edu/integrity
- OU Libraries Tutorials: Citations & Academic Integrity
- OU Libraries LibGuides:
- OU Undergraduate Student Handbook
- OU Graduate Student Handbook
- OU Faculty Handbook
- OU Staff Policies and Handbooks
- What is Copyright? from the U.S. Copyright Office
- Open Science Framework (OSF) is a free and open-source project management tool and data repository, run by the Center for Open Science. Its flexible file and contributor structure makes it great for managing individual projects, for lab management and protocol storage, and for collaborations. You can link it to services you already use in your projects such as github, Dropbox, or Google Drive, while keeping those documents linked all from one central location easily sharable with collaborators. OSF has great introductory materials, including written tutorials online. If you'd like to contact a Research Data Specialist or a Science Librarian about OSF or data management, please visit our open office hours weekdays 1-3pm at Data Services Zoom office hours or contact us for an appointment.
- Data Analytics and Visualization is a research guide created by Science Librarian Claire Curry to provide information and resources to those working with research data.
- Citation vs. Attribution
- Attribution vs. Citation: Do you know the difference?
- Don't Attribute Open Data, Cite It!
- Introduction to Intellectual Property Rights in Data Management – "This fact sheet provides a brief overview of some of the issues associated with managing IPR [Intellectual Property Rights] in data projects." This document is a great way to understand why you might want to use an Open Data License instead of Creative Commons and how these are different from software licenses.
- Rein in the four horsemen of irreproducibility – Nature World View article, "Dorothy Bishop describes how threats to reproducibility, recognized but unaddressed for decades, might finally be brought under control."
- Reproducibility and Replicability in Science
- World Bank Group Library Guide: Open Science and Citizen Science
Understanding Research Practices
The list below includes articles, books, and websites available to the OU community. These resources delve into the research process from a variety of perspectives. Our hope is that the readings and references listed serve as tools for students and faculty alike, plus scientists and scholars at large and at any point or place in their careers. Have a question? Or maybe you have a reference you’d like to see added to the list? Please feel free to email the STEM Services Team at the University of Oklahoma Libraries at libstem@ou.edu
- How to (seriously) read a scientific paper"Although it is clear that reading scientific papers becomes easier with experience, the stumbling blocks are real, and it is up to each scientist to identify and apply the techniques that work best for them."
- Guide to Reading Academic Research PapersOne data scientist's approach to reading scientific papers, with his step-by-step workflow.
- Art of reading a journal article: Methodically and effectivelyA medically focused how-to article for reading scientific journal articles.
- Web Literacy for Student Fact CheckersMostly focused on web and media, the approaches herein are useful for checking and tracing popular claims about science outside of the scholarly literature in particular.
- Retraction WatchRetraction Watch is a blog that reports on retractions of scientific papers and on related topics. Retraction Watch also features a database of information on retracted scholarship.
Evaluating Research Articles from Start to Finish by Call Number: Q 180.55 .E9 G57 2010ISBN: 9781412974462Publication Date: 2010"Containing 25 engaging samples of ideal and flawed research, the text helps students assess the soundness of the design and appropriateness of the statistical analyses."
How to Think about Statistics by Call Number: HA 29 .P5175 1996ISBN: 0716728222Publication Date: 1995Addresses math-phobia right at the start and covers statistical topics conversationally and with general examples. This would be useful both as a supplement to using statistics in a class or as a guide to help you understand statistics you encounter in the news or in scholarly papers.
Statistical Reasoning for Everyday Life by Call Number: QA 276.12 .B45 2018 (RESERVES)ISBN: 9780134494043Publication Date: 2018"Designed to teach [...] core ideas through real-life examples so that students are able to understand the statistics needed in their college courses, reason with statistical information in their careers, and to evaluate and make everyday decisions using statistics. The authors approach each concept qualitatively, using computation techniques only to enhance understanding and build on ideas step-by-step, working up to real examples and complex case studies. "
Experiment! by ISBN: 0470688254Publication Date: 2012"Provides an excellent introduction to the methodology and implementation of experimentation in the natural, engineering and medical sciences. [...] This book focuses on general research skills, such as adopting a scientific mindset, learning how to plan meaningful experiments and understanding the fundamentals of collecting and interpreting data. It is directed to anyone engaged in experiments." Particularly suitable for undergraduates or other novice researchers learning about designing their own experiments.
Graduate Research by ISBN: 9780128037911Publication Date: 2016-02-17Discusses a broad range of topics including time management, library and literature work, and grant support. Includes a new chapter on career planning and development with advice on careers in academia, government, and the private sector.
- Conducting research through an anti-racism lens"This guide was developed in response to librarians fielding multiple requests from UMN researchers looking to incorporate anti-racism into their research practices."
- Open Educational ResourcesOU Libraries' Open Educational Resources (OER) research guide helps students and instructors get started searching for Open Educational Resources for teaching and learning.
- Synchronized editing: the future of collaborative writing"A growing suite of tools allows teams of researchers to work collectively to edit scientific documents."
- Ten simple rules for building an antiracist lab"Here we present 10 rules to help labs develop antiracists policies and action in an effort to promote racial and ethnic diversity, equity, and inclusion in science."
- How to include Indigenous researchers and their knowledge"Researchers from Native American and Indigenous communities explain how colleagues and institutions can help them to battle marginalization."
- Decolonizing field ecology"Within the humanities and social sciences, a growing recognition of this issue has led to calls to “decolonize” research practice by interrogating and seeking to move away from European modes of knowledge production (see, e.g., Radcliffe, 2017)."
- A Guide to Developing Academic and Research Relationships in Oklahoma Indian Country"The purpose of this work was to provide tools, resources, and other materials necessary for non-Native scholars, researchers, faculty members, and government employees to better understand, reach out to, and build collaborative relationships with those who share an affiliation with Oklahoma Indian Country."
- Safe fieldwork strategies for at-risk individuals, their supervisors and institutions"It is paramount that all fieldworkers be informed of the risks some colleagues may face, so that they can define best practice together: here we recommend strategies to minimize risk for all individuals conducting fieldwork."
- Ten Steps to Protect BIPOC Scholars in the Field"recommendations to prepare faculty and students for discrimination and racialized violence before traveling and to protect them once in the field."
- Progress: Encyclopedia of Science, Technology, and Ethics"In the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, progress became the mantra of industrial capitalism, proclaiming the blessing it conferred on society even as the reality of progress came under attack, first by the Romantics, then by philosophers and intellectuals more broadly, and finally by social and political activists."
- Science, Technology, and Society"Science, Technology and Society is a peer-reviewed journal that takes an interdisciplinary perspective, encouraging analyses whose approaches are drawn from a variety of disciplines such as history, sociology, philosophy, economics, political science and international relations, science policy involving innovation, foresight studies involving … "