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Choosing & Engaging with Scholarly Texts

IN-PROCESS DRAFT

This is an in-process draft I originally created for grad students at ASU. I’m sharing here in case it might be helpful to anyone else:

Choosing high quality texts to read and engage with is an important skill. This means going beyond finding the first few things that show up on the first page of Google and stopping there.

Being a multidimensional scholar with the ability to apply critical lenses means taking a more intentional and thoughtful approach. Here are some thoughts on approaches you might take when identifying and choosing high quality and relevant texts to engage with.

Contents

Finding literature with Google Scholar

  • When looking for research you can start with google scholar
  • Experiment with multiple related search terms
    • You can hone in on relevant search by using Search Connectors (And, Or, Not) as well as quotation marks around specific phrases – see this resource video from ASU  i.e. Beatmaking AND “music education” OR “Teaching artists”
  • Consider the following criteria for making decisions about the studies you think are worth reading, engaging with, and sharing from: Brian M. Belcher, Katherine E. Rasmussen, Matthew R. Kemshaw, Deborah A. Zornes, Defining and assessing research quality in a transdisciplinary context, Research Evaluation, Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2016, 1–17,
    • Relevance: “Relevance is the importance, significance, and usefulness of the research project’s objectives, process, and findings to the problem context and to society. This includes the appropriateness of the timing of the research, the questions being asked, the outputs, and the scale of the research in relation to the societal problem being addressed.
    • Credibility “Credibility refers to whether or not the research findings are robust and the knowledge produced is scientifically trustworthy. This includes clear demonstration that the data are adequate, with well-presented methods and logical interpretations of findings. High-quality research is authoritative, transparent, defensible, believable, and rigorous.”
      •  Note: We could add some nuance to this and consider the notion of trustworthiness and what constitutes something being authoritative or rigorous
    • Legitimacy “Legitimacy refers to whether the research process is perceived as fair and ethical by end-users. In other words, is it acceptable and trustworthy in the eyes of those who will use it? This requires the appropriate inclusion and consideration of diverse values, interests, and the ethical and fair representation of all involved.”
    • Effectiveness “We define effective research as research that contributes to positive change in the social, economic, and/or environmental problem context.”
  • Also consider:
    • To what extent does this study challenge my own understanding, perspectives, or beliefs?
    • How imaginative or creative is this study — does it help me think in new ways? Does it inspire me to be more imaginative and creative in my own work?
    • How inclusive and representative is this study of the diversity of people, perspectives, experiences, and ways of knowing, doing, being?
    • How diverse are the areas of research, the approaches to research, the identities of the researchers of the studies you are finding?
  • I suggest having a dedicated folder to which you can download texts and a system for organizing research with folders, tags, and filenames 
  • See this resource on file naming conventions
  • Some people use their bibliography management system for this as well (i.e. Zotero) I use DevonThink
  • Obtain the studies you want to read
  • Once you find relevant studies, take a look at how many people have cited each study.
    • This is not a definitive marker of high quality research but can help you spot texts that others consider important to read.
  • Use the “Cited by” function in Google Scholar to find related literature
  • Go down the rabbit holes and follow the rhizomes – in other words you can keep repeating this process (along with the above advice) to find studies that you might find with your initial search terms.
  • Run the same search as before but add “Critiques” or “critique”
    • This may seem counterintuitive but it helps in finding counterarguments and helping you develop a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the topic

Making Sense of What You Read

Consider putting some of the following strategies into action as you scan through articles to determine what to read

How To Read A Paper Quickly & Effectively – YouTube video by Dr. Amina Yonis

Read a research paper effectively | Little known tools and tricks! YouTube Video by Andy Stapleton

How to read a book (or article/chapter etc.) by Paul N. Edwards You can apply many of these ideas to any type of scholarly writing.

Reading Strategies by Dr. Raul Pacheco-Vega,

Music Education Journals

Notes: Most of these journals are behind paywalls, however some are available for free (open access). Many provide free access to select articles.

If you do not have access to an article, contact the author – they will likely be happy to send you a copy. You can also search for the article on Google to find out if a version of the article is available for free on sites such as academia.edu or researchgate.