Sociology 205: Graduate Writing and Publishing Seminar (Polonijo - Spring 2025)

Check out this short video (5:30) from the University of Minnesota for tips on reading scientific articles. 

Organizing Your Research

How to Avoid Plagiarism

• Give proper credit to those whose ideas you are borrowing in your own work through citation.
• One great way to track where you get your ideas is to take good notes during your research process.

Ways to Take Notes During the Research Process

Tips

• Highlight useful search words and subject headings
• Keep track of where you found your sources in case you or another researcher needs to go back to verify the information you cite. This can also help you be efficient by avoiding repeating the same searches.

Long description of "Organize Your Research" for Web Accessibility

Long description of "Do I Cite This?" Flowchart for web accessibility

What is considered "common knowledge" can vary within a discipline. When in doubt, cite it or ask your instructor.

FAQs

Do I need to cite another person's ideas even if I paraphrase it in my own words?

• Yes. You need to cite the ides of others whether you paraphrase or quote them directly.

Do I need to include a URL in my citation?

• It depends on your citation style. Please see the official style manual or handbook for guidance.

Where can I learn more about each style?

• Use UC Merced Library's introductory tutorials to get started:

Official Style Manuals

There are many different types of academic and professional writing styles. The four guidebooks below represent some of the major ones. Use these guides to learn how professional researchers and writers prepare their manuscripts for publication or sharing.

For other styles, please search UC Library Search. 

Online Style Resources

Although these resources are not official, they are still credible and very useful! If one of these websites doesn't answer your question, check out the official style guide or contact a librarian for help!

Guides from UC Merced Library 

For the ASA style video playlist (7 videos) from USCA Library, visit bit.ly/asa_usca

Pronounced "IHM-rad", this acronym refers to the four (or five!) major section of an empirical research article. The 'a' can stand for 'and' or sometimes 'analysis.'

I - Introduction
What's this study about? What population, or phenomenon, are we studying? Why are we studying it? What gaps in knowledge exist that make this study necessary?

M - Methods or Methodology
How will we answer the questions posed in the introduction? Who or what are we studying? What group (men, women, adults, children, lower economic class, middle economic class, upper economic class, et c.)? How will we study them: survey, experiment? How will we measure our results? How will we measure our results -- what scales will we use?

R - Results
What were the results of all that measuring? This section of an empirical study journal article is likely to have a lot of tabular data: charts, tables, graphs, et c.

AND

D - DISCUSSION
What's it all mean? What impact do the results have on the field or discipline? What gaps in knowledge have been answered?