Data is Beautiful

Recording of a talk I gave at Leap Into Research 2017 late last month. The slides are available here.

Citation Needed

Spectacles and vertebrate zoology by Sigfrid Lundberg

One student excitedly exclaimed "I never thought I would say this, but I can't wait to go to the Library and reference something!"

When most people think of referencing they picture the Author-Date system, or Harvard-Style Referencing, but the truth is that there are thousands of referencing styles currently in use. I'm not sure if anyone has attempted to quantify them, but I do know that Endnote for example, supports over six thousand referencing styles. These can be broadly divided into two categories, Harvard-Style, and Vancouver-Style. The primary difference between these two styles is where the citation appears, either contextually in the body of the work, or as footnotes or endnotes. Personally, I prefer to use latter, Vancouver-Style Referencing because the references themselves do not interrupt or impose upon the reading of the text, and also because it allows you to go off on  cheeky tangents in your footnotes. But Tutors and Lecturers often prefer Harvard-Style Referencing because it allows them to check references while reading and marking the text.

Referencing is a fairly new invention. The printing press was in use in Europe as early as 1436CE. Prior to this and for several centuries afterwards the written word was not an everyday part of human life. You were lucky if you learned how to read, and really lucky if you read more than a handful of books in your lifetime. And even though St Augustine preached against those who 'steal words from his neighbor,' referencing wasn't needed because it was largely accepted that people would recognise text incorporated from elsewhere. The pool of potential places to copy from was relatively small. That isn't true today. Turnitin, the most popular anti-plagiarism software on the market today, boasts a database of 130 million articles and 50 billion web pages to check content against.

It was in 1881, Cambridge, Massachusetts, that Professor Edward Mark devised what is now known as the Harvard Referencing system. Prior to this, there was no recognised style when writing for academia. When referencing works Mark included the surname of the author, the year it was published, and the relevant page number in parentheses at the end of sentence. He included detailed publication information in a list at the end of his paper. This convention has remained unchanged since then.

And while your humble Subject Liaison finds the history and diversity of academic referencing particularly fascinating, the students I work with for the most part approach the subject with reluctance, apprehension, or a near-complete lack of interest. To students referencing is confusing. Many don't understand why it is needed, and most find the conventions surrounding different referencing styles completely bewildering. Students who speak English as an additional language can find the process alien and fraught with anxiety.

So yes, I am very well versed on the subject, but when it came to imparting that knowledge to a class of students, I have to admit that I was a complete loss. This is perhaps compounded by the fact that the scheduling of sessions for academic referencing is at times problematic. For example, I gave a referencing session to a group of students who had already had one instructional referencing session from their Lecturer, and another from Their tutor in the space of a fortnight. For some reason I was asked to deliver a third! In another example I delivered a session to group of students in preparation for their upcoming assessment, only to discover that referencing wasn't required as part that assessment in the first place.

Another factor contributing to the difficulty in delivering referencing sessions is the lack of buy-in from academic staff. Our college presently does not have an academic policy, or a preferred referencing style. Tutors and Lecturers are frequently relaxed in their attitudes to referencing, because "this is only FE," and only a small number include referencing as part assessment criteria. Failing to address the issues of attribution and plagiarism does not adequately prepare students for the workforce. Not to mention the disservice we do to students who will be moving on to Higher Education.

In the end I decided to shake of the hindrances and get on with it. I created (what I certainly hope is) a quick and easy Guide to Referencing, and in all my classes recommended that students invest some time in experimenting with a citation manager. The problem with citation managers is that the vast majority of them are targeted at Higher Education, and specifically, professional researchers. I have reservations about promoting Endnote or Mendely because of their inherent commercialism. While Open Source alternatives such as Docear and Zotero while commendable, are a bit too complicated for our purposes. One programme that I have had success with is RefME. RefME is beautifully simple, and works on multiple devices. It can develop a full citation with only a URL. The app version of RefME can also format a reference using a scan of a book's barcode through the devices camera. After demoing this students are usually floored. One student excitedly exclaimed "I never thought I would say this, but I can't wait to go to the Library and reference something!" In another class, two students stood up and applauded when they realised referencing doesn't have to be a chore.

And after all, that's what this is all about isn't it? Sharing that appreciation of a much maligned subject with students in a way that they can understand, and more importantly, put to use.

An Experiment Using Doodle Polls

I love visiting classes and talking to students. It can often be daunting, especially when you're greeted with a sea of perplexed faces. Or even worse - bored faces! (I once gave a session to a group of Accountancy students where a someone fell asleep halfway through...) I usually only get to see a class once, at the beginning of the year, where I try my hardest to pimp the Library and the amazing services we offer. If I'm lucky I might get invited back by the Lecturer or Tutor to give another session on Harvard-Style Referencing, or a more in-depth session designed to help students prepare for a Graded Unit. Sometimes I also deliver sessions and workshops on using a particular resource - Westlaw for example.

When I first started delivering sessions my initial instinct was to try and cram in as much information as possible - because I knew I probably wasn't going to get a chance to follow up at a later date. I quickly learned that this route was a big mistake - students became overwhelmed with all the new ideas, resources, and processes they were being exposed to. I wish I had the opportunity to visit classes once a week, over a couple of weeks. This would give me the chance to introduce everything comprehensively, and over time. Such is life I suppose!

Recently I was asked to give a catch-up session to class and I thought this would be an excellent opportunity to try something a bit different. Two weeks before the session (the Lecturer involved is amazingly organised) I sent out an email to the students asking them to participate in a Doodle Poll to help me gauge which areas they wanted help with, and those that they already felt confident with. Some of the feedback I've received from other sessions has been along the lines of "but I knew about all of this already!" The last thing I want to do is waste students' time - especially when a lot of them feel time-poor at this time of year.

Doodle Polls are excellent for gathering informal feedback about an event. It took me all of three minutes to set-up and send out to the class. I asked for their preferences among the following;

• Help with defining your topic
• Help with refining your key terms and points
• Where to look for the right information
• How to search for the right information
• How to evaluate your findings
• How to save and collate your research
• Help with academic referencing
• Actually, I'm feeling pretty confident with all of the above (go you!)

Students were given the option to use their name, and to select multiple options. To avoid any complications arising from using the personal email addresses of students and a third party I sent to poll to myself first, and then used our internal mail system to forward to details on to the class.

I had my first response within minutes. Something which I admit left me feeling pretty positive! However, from a class of twelve I only received four responses in total. I also found that given the breadth of choices, the responses weren't so useful for preparing for the session. Of the eight options 'Where to look for the right information' and 'How to search for the right information' were the most popular items and I did find while giving the session, these where the areas that students needed help with the most. I'm glad that they were able to identify the research skills that were needing development!

I think that contacting the class has the potential to be useful for any other follow-up sessions, but this will be largely dependent on whether or not students reply. There's very little incentive with a Doodle Poll - so perhaps I can investigate alternatives in the near future.