ENVM 4003 / 6103 Guide Ask Us

Welcome to the ENVM 4003 / 6103 library research guide!

This guide is designed to help by connecting you with the most fitting research tools, tips, and resources accessible through UNB Libraries. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to reach out to Emily Connor Dafoe, your subject librarian - happy researching! 

This guide provides an essential roadmap to effectively utilizing the library’s vast resources and services, which are pivotal for your academic success.

Before beginning your research or assignment, be sure to read the "Getting Started Guide" and explore the content on "Library Help Videos". It introduces you to all the relevant resources available in the library and is essential for all your courses.

Key Resources

When researching, it is important to remember that searching is non-linear and iterative. If you don't find what you're looking for on your first attempt, try to play around with your keywords and where you are searching. 

Boolean searching

If you are searching for multiple keywords or concepts, try combining them using boolean operators. This will expand or narrow your results and give you more control over your search. 

• Adding AND between keywords will narrow your results and only retrieve items including both concepts.
• Adding NOT between your keywords will narrow your results and eliminate results using the word following not.
• Adding OR between your keywords will expand your results and retrieve results using either keyword.

Truncation and Wildcards

Truncation and wildcards can be applied to a keyword search in a database or search engine to broaden your results and allow you to look for variations of words.

For example, if you search for conservation you will only retrieve items using the keyword conservation. However, if you search for conserv* you will retrieve results using the keywords: conservation, conserve, conserved, conserving, conservation, and conservancy. 

Phrase searching

When searching a keyword or concept that is multiple words, combine them using quotation marks. This will search for these words as a phrase, rather than individual concepts. 

For example, search for "sustainable management" rather than sustainable management. 

Scholarly and Non-Scholarly Publications:

• Scholarly publications, often referred to as academic articles, scientific literature, or peer-reviewed articles, are written by experts in a particular field. The intended audience is often researchers in the same field, academics, and students. These publications undergo a rigorous peer-review process, during which other experts evaluate the content for its accuracy, validity, and contribution to the field before publication.
  • Author(s): Credentials given, usually a scholar with subject expertise
  • Purpose: Disseminate original research and/or analysis within a specific academic field. 
  • Audience: Scholars, researchers, students
  • Format: Scholarly publications typically follow a structured format including abstract, introduction, methodology, results, discussion, conclusion, and references. 
  • Examples: Peer-reviewed journal articles, scholarly books
• Non-scholarly publications are generally aimed at a general audience and are not necessarily written by experts in the field they discuss. They do not undergo a peer-review process and are often used to inform, entertain, or persuade a wide readership.
  • Author(s): Journalists, freelance writers, general public
  • Purpose: Inform, entertain, or persuade the general population.
  • Audience: General public
  • Format: Varies greatly depending on the source
  • Examples: News articles, blogs, websites, and social media content. 

Primary, Secondary, and Tertiary Literature

• Primary Literature sources are original studies based on direct evidence. It is where new findings and data are first reported. These original materials often authored by researchers and published in peer-reviewed journals.
  • Examples of primary literature include research articles, theses and dissertations, and conference proceedings. 
• Secondary Literature sources review articles and synthesize and summarize existing research rather than present new findings. 
  • Examples of secondary literature include systematic review articles and textbooks.  
• Tertiary Literature sources aim to provide the distilled essence of knowledge. These sources typically lack a specific author because their primary mission is to compile and present existing ideas and information. 
  • Examples of tertiary literature include textbooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, handbooks, and manuals.

Grey Literature

Grey literature refers to materials that are not published through traditional channels, such as academic journals or commercial publishers. This category includes a wide range of documents, such as government reports, policy statements, early versions of research articles (pre-prints), finalized research papers that haven't been published yet (post-prints), geological and geophysical surveys, conference materials, maps, newsletters, bulletins, and fact sheets.

To learn more about grey literature, view our What is Grey Literature video tutorial. 

What is a citation style?

A citation style is a set of rules on how to cite sources of information in your academic writing. There are many different citation styles out there, this page will cover APA style. 

APA Quick Reference Guide.pdf

Journal article format in APA citation style:

Author, A. A., Author, B. B., & Author, C. C. (Year). Title of article. Title of Periodical, volume number(issue number), pages. https://doi.org/xx.xxx/yyyy

Grady, J. S., Her, M., Moreno, G., Perez, C., & Yelinek, J. (2019). Emotions in storybooks: A comparison of storybooks that represent ethnic and racial groups in the United States. Psychology of Popular Media Culture, 8(3), 207–217. https://doi.org/10.1037/ppm0000185

Elements of a Citation

Here are the key elements of a citation: 

• Author(s): Who wrote the source? In some cases you may have editors instead or in addition to authors. 
• Publisher: What company published the source? This is most common with books and websites. 
• Date of Publication: When was the source published? 
• Title: When was this source published? If citing a scientific article you will use both journal and article titles:
  • Journal Title: The name of the publication that your article was published within. 
  • Article Title: The name of the specific article you are citing. 
• Volume: Common with scientific articles and typically references how many years that journal has been publishing. 
• Issue: Common with scientific articles and typically references how many times within a specific year that journal has published. 
• Page range: Page range of source, if applicable. 
• URL/DOI: When citing scientific articles include a DOI, not URL. 

Managing Your Research

Zotero is a free, open source software that allows you to keep track of your research and format citations. For support using Zotero, please reach out to your subject librarian, or view our Zotero library guide. 

Generative AI Tools for Research 

While there are many generative AI tools available to you, it is important to remember that they are not all created equally. Some tools are more meant for general purpose (ChatGPT, Google Gemini), while others are intended for academic research (Web of Science's Research Assistant, Consensus). 

Academic research generative AI can often be more reliable because of the data the tools are trained on. For instance, Web of Science's Research Assistant is trained on data from within the database which largely contains peer-reviewed scientific publications. Whereas a tool like ChatGPT is trained on unvetted data from the web (sources such as Reddit, online fourms, and the like). 

Key Resources

Prompt Writing 

When retrieving outputs from generative AI, it is important to construct an appropriate prompt. This ensures that the output will match what you are looking for, as clearer prompts result in clearer outputs. 

One method to ensure you are building an appopriate prompt is to use the CLEAR method, which is a framework for developing effective prompts for use in generative AI interactions (2023). 

Lo, L. S. (2023). The CLEAR path: A framework for enhancing information literacy through prompt engineering. The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 49(4). https://doi.org/10.1016/j.acalib.2023.102720