Information & Research Literacy - A self-guided Program

Information creation is a process!

Can you  recognize different formats, channels, and mechanisms are used for the production, organization, and distribution of information and data  and apply information  prudently?

Take a look at this poster from Bucknell University and think.

Self-reflection:  How often do you ask yourself:

• Who (person or organization) made this information (video, podcast, article, etc.)?
• How was the information created?
• Who (person or organization) is sharing this information?

 Self reflection:  Do you regularly consider the channels or methods by which the information you search for and find is created and shared?

Thanks, Bucknell University: https://researchbysubject.bucknell.edu/framework/process

 Information and knowledge creation and dissemination (sharing, spreading, selling) do not happen in a vacuum. People create and spread data, information, knowledge, and wisdom within social, cultural, political, and economic systems.

Two good principles to think about when trying to understand such systems are:

• Follow the money!
• Cui Bono (who benefits)?

Example:

The Hong Kong government funds universities to teach students and conduct research. Researchers get paid to do research and publish. Many of the journals they publish in do not pay the researchers. Instead, researchers hand over their manuscripts, which are peer-reviewed by other scholars (for free) and the publishers edit and make the research available at a cos, which university libraries subscribe to. Many of the more world-leading. famous well-known, & prestigious journals publish in English.

• Who mainly benefits?
  • The publisher, for selling back the fruits of the research of Hong Kong researchers, supported by funds from the Hong Kong government and its people.
  • The researchers, especially those with facility in English - publishing in a "good" journal can lead to prestige and perhaps promotion
  • The university researchers and students across the world who can pay to access the research.
• Who doesn't benefit so much?
  • The Hong Kong public, who has paid twice: for the research to be conducted & then for the research result to be shared.
  • University researchers and  students across the world who lack access to the research because they or their researchers can't pay.
• What alternatives are there?
  • Pre-prints (ArXiv, etc.) & Institutional Repositories - but sometimes less prestigious for the researcher
  • Open Access Journals
    • Free to read
    • Often the authors must pay publication fees, which might lead to
      • Dodgy and untrustworthy journals
      • "Pay to play" only wealthy or well-funded researchers can get published, get prestige, share results

Question to ask yourself:

• Do I have information privilege by the fact that my university library subscribes to many leading journals & buys lots of good academic books?
• Do I make good use of this information privilege, or do I tend to do most of my reading and researching on "free" web resources?
• Do I lack information privilege if English is not my first language, but I am expected to read, write, speak, and publish in it?
• Will I lose information privilege after I graduate if I cannot access the "high ranking" journals and expensive academic books after I leave university?
• Are other ways of knowing and sharing information, ways that are not formal publications in English, discouraged or disparaged in universities in Hong Kong? If yes, why is it this way? If yes, is it a problem? If it is a problem, wis there anything we can do about it?

Example:

Further Reading

Ellenwood, Dave. “Information Has Value”: The Political Economy of Information Capitalism – In the Library with the Lead Pipe. August 25, 2020. https://www.inthelibrarywiththeleadpipe.org/2020/information-has-value-the-political-economy-of-information-capitalism/.

What type of research information you seek, from whom, and at what stage varies by your goals (targets) and by the availability.  Look below and think about what methods you would use to find information for research and knowledge.

Research  is Conducted by:

Associations | Businesses | Charities | Governments | Individuals (people)  | Institutions (universities, think tanks, etc.) | Pressure groups | Trade Unions  

►    Information is Generated from:

Research  |  Critical evaluations  | Interpretive work

►   Information from, on, or about Research is Communicated   and STORED via:

Anthologies | Blogs | Books (monographs) | Book chapters | Conference Papers |  Emails | Journals |  Journal articles | Lectures | Letters | Meetings | Newsletters  | Newspapers | Pre-prints | Reports | Seminars |  Social media posts | Textbooks   Theses | 

► Information from, on, or about Research is Organized  in:

Article Databases | Bibliographies | Data Repositories |  Dictionaries | Encyclopedias | Library Catalogs

Hart, Chris. Doing a Literature Review: Releasing the Social Science Research Imagination. London: Sage, 1998.  (HKUST Library H62 .H2566 1998), p. 4

As a non-specialist, or starting out as a scholar and researcher, learning about these three types of information sources that are published regularly on a schedule, periodically.

Watch this video (2 min 4 sec). and/or read the information and chart in the box below.

There are different types of information sources, don't just use easily accessible information sources from general web search, choose quality and relevant sources suitable for your need.

Periodicals as Information Sources

Periodicals are published at regular time periods:  daily, weekly, monthly and quarterly

• They include journals, magazines and newspapers.
  • Newspapers and Magazines usually contain short general interest articles. They are mostly popular and easy to understand.
  • Academic/Scholarly Journals publish in-depth academic, scholarly research papers (articles).
• Each periodical issue consists of a collection of articles.

Looking for scholarly research articles? Maybe you know to select the "Peer Review" filter in article databases.

But choosing "peer review" will get you many types of articles published in peer-reviewed journals that are NOT original research articles.

Watch this video from North Carolina State University Libraries that will help you learn to identify the most common of these "imposters". so you can find the research article you need.