Do I need to orient myself in a topic?
The first category of sources are those that help us gain a basic overview of the topic that we’re delving into. Typically, these are the four following sources, which won’t be used in the scientific text itself.
Wikipedia
Wikipedia is a great source of information for orientation, even in the case of a scientific paper. By using it, we can gain a basic awareness of the topic, even though the description is slightly vague or general. At the same time, we’ll find a guidepost here to find other sources. The fact that anyone can contribute to Wikipedia makes its content massive. At the same time, thanks to anonymity, Wikipedia is limited to these purposes, and there’s nothing wrong with that.
Textbooks and learning material
The very name “textbook” implies its function. Textbooks help us learn, and this appears in what is called “didactically processed content”. This means that even serious or real issues are divided into small parts and simplified primarily to allow us to understand them. They often use diagrams, icons, metaphors, stories and other elements. Although the writing of textbooks and other learning material is scientific and difficult, their use ends with the understanding of a problem. Instructional videos, courses or educational series function in a similar manner.
Popularizing articles and books
Popularizing texts are a great opportunity. Popularization belongs to science and has a certain obligation to prevent knowledge and its complex structures from remaining trapped within a given community of experts. Popularization translates research; it does not provide new knowledge. Just like textbooks simplify, popularizing texts serve to inform people on what is happening in a given field that we ourselves are not experts in – at least for now, or in a field we’ll never hold expertise in. Popularization texts can also be a great source of inspiration when searching for a topic or generally maintaining one’s education and overview of current issues. Popularization not only includes texts, but also documentaries or television series.
Popularizing articles and books
Popularizing texts are a great opportunity. Popularization belongs to science and has a certain obligation to prevent knowledge and its complex structures from remaining trapped within a given community of experts. Popularization translates research; it does not provide new knowledge. Just like textbooks simplify, popularizing texts serve to inform people on what is happening in a given field that we ourselves are not experts in – at least for now, or in a field we’ll never hold expertise in. Popularization texts can also be a great source of inspiration when searching for a topic or generally maintaining one’s education and overview of current issues. Popularization not only includes texts, but also documentaries or television series.
Graduation theses
Graduation theses are works written by students. They are works that can serve as inspiration on a topic or method for learning to grow with our scientific writing. This, however, is also their limitation – in addition to their certainly original ideas and ideals, they also have significant insufficiencies that are linked to beginner writing. But, we can also have a look at the evaluations of these theses, which are also publicly available.
Nejprve web Theses plný závěrečných prací studentů vysokých škol. Pak Google Scholar - vyhledávač odborných článků. Zdroje: Theses, Google Scholar. Autor screenshotů: KISK.
Do I need information, thoughts and arguments in order to weave the text itself together?
Orienting yourself in a topic is somewhat like sticking your head up above the clouds, or at least going up higher than the first floor. Suddenly we see the problem from a slightly higher elevation; we can look around in order to finally immerse ourselves deeply in a more complex problem. The following sources typically help us do this, although we’ll still be selecting according to the type of scientific text that we’re planning to write – things are a bit different with an essay or an empirical study.
Scientific articles
A scientific article is something you’re preparing to write. It’s an effort to insert your scientific insight into a topic. This doesn’t necessarily mean you have to have twenty years of experience, but you’ve carefully studied sources, processed the topic, and upheld a certain level of methodology.
Scientific articles can be found in printed form, but also on websites and blogs.
Peer-reviewed scientific articles
Peer-reviewed articles are simply scientific articles that two people have evaluated in a review process and, based upon their comments, the article has either been approved, reworked, or not accepted for a journal.
Impact scientific articles
It might seem that we’re getting too deep into things, but mentioning so-called “impact articles” is important for an overview of how science works. Impact articles are ones that have gone through a review process of at least two people and are also published in a journal, which counts how many times the article has been cited, i.e. how many times someone has used it for his or her own work. The article’s quality is taken from the frequency of its use; thus the most cited = the best. This is somewhat controversial, but it’s presently one of the metrics of science and academic work.
Scientific books
Books! They’re great and absolutely necessary for the depth of our understanding and thought in general. However, books aren’t all the same. Scientific books usually have reviewers, a large number of sources, original conclusions and a certain methodology. Sometimes it’s difficult to differentiate a scientific book written in a reader-friendly manner and a popularization book – it’s necessary to cultivate a certain feeling for this.
Data
Data belongs to a specific category. We need it every time we find ourselves using thought “shortcuts” and stereotypical phrases like “a lot of people…” or “women typically…”. This is when a big red exclamation point should appear, beginning our search for evidence if we ourselves don’t have access to the given empirical findings. We can then write something into the text like “According to research XY, 30% of people…“ or: “According to research YZ, a majority of women tested, i.e. 80%, …”.
Národní portál otevřených dat je nabitý informacemi, které máte volně k dispozici. Zdroj: Portál otevřených dat. Autor screenshotu: KISK.
Do I need them for analysis or as a subject of research?
A specific situation arises when the source of information is the subject of our analysis. This means that we’ll use a textbook in a situation when we want to point to gender stereotypes in education using the textbook as an example, in which “strong men” help “weak women” or “smart women” help “foolish men”.
We can use Wikipedia in a similar manner if we want to analyze a certain phenomenon. For example, “wiki marathons” were held last year to create pages for female scientists, as there was a lack of these articles on Wikipedia and elsewhere.