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SOCI 1101H: Introduction to Sociology Honors (Robinson)

Your Librarian

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Amber Prentiss
she/her
Contact:
Miller Learning Center 373
706-542-7674

Chat with a Librarian

Recording Your Search Strategy

Create a document that includes:

  • important keywords you want to search for
  • where you searched -- databases, search engines, library catalogs)
  • what you searched for -- search strings, i.e. "academic achievement" AND (poverty OR "low socioeconomic status")
  • when you searched 

Organizing Your Files

When it comes to organizing your documents, keep it simple. 

  • Make sure to rename downloaded articles, book chapters, etc. using the first author's last name and a short title (lastname_shorttitle.pdf).
  • Keep them in the same folder on your computer or citation manager. 
Example
If I downloaded this article,

Older, C. E., Diesel, A., Patterson, A. P., Meason-Smith, C., Johnson, T. J., Mansell, J., & ... Rodrigues Hoffmann, A. (2017). The feline skin microbiota: The bacteria inhabiting the skin of healthy and allergic cats. Plos ONE, 12(6), 1-18. doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0178555

I would rename it older_felineskinmicrobiota.pdf.

Synthesis Matrix

Considering using a table to organize your study summaries and create a synthesis matrix. A synthesis matrix lets you track themes across multiple sources.

Alternately, you can create custom fields in your citation manager of choice to keep track of this information. Request a training session with a librarian to learn more about doing this.