Research skills

Capstone home.

Research skills: the very basics

• Class brainstorm: Where do you get information about what’s happening in your field? (Add to class scratchpad)
• NYU Library resources:
  • It’s difficult to state just how valuable a resource the university library is. I love NYU’s Library with my full heart. Honestly one of the main reasons I even work here is to have access to the library. You’ll miss it when it’s gone.
  • There’s no substitute for physical library locations.
  • Search
    • For books and periodicals
    • We’ll search for something together in class and look at the interface. (Advanced search, availability, subject, etc.)
    • Particularly important: the “Virtual Browse” function
    • Use the “Permalink” to copy a URL so you don’t lose the reference later. Or start using citation management software! I recommend Zotero, but NYU has a sitewide licenses for EndNote and RefWorks too.
  • Articles and databases
    • Many subject-specific databases for articles, papers, etc.
    • Each database has its own quirks and interfaces
  • NYU Library Research Guides
  • Ask a librarian (great for quick questions)
  • Get research help from a subject specialist: schedule a meeting with someone who knows what they’re talking about
  • Accessing online library resources off-campus (the NYULib Proxy link will change your life)
• Google search
  • Advanced Google Searching by librarian and friend of ITP/IMA, Margaret Smith
• Google Scholar
  • Advanced Google Scholar Searching (again by Margaret Smith)
• Often academic conferences will post their proceedings online, e.g. TEI’s 2019 Proceedings. (Use web search or your social network to find out relevant conferences for your field of practice.) Some conferences don’t have “papers” per se, but do have videos of talks or slides that you can download. See IxDA’s Interaction conference program for an example.
• Tip: Follow references up (what papers, articles, books does this reference?) and down (what papers, articles, books are referenced by this?). It’s helpful to find the “least common denominator” references. A shared reference can be one of the defining characteristics of a field.

Writing abstracts

• Components of an abstract (not necessarily in this order):
  • What you did (“I present X, a Y that does Z”)
  • Why you did it (the research problem you’re addressing)
  • How you did it (what techniques did you use? what were your methodologies for evaluation?)
  • The results (did it work? how do you know?)
• Tips and links
  • Find examples in the papers, proceedings and talks you find.
  • You’ll be tempted to use convoluted academic language. This can be fun, but you don’t have to if you don’t want to.
  • How to Write an Abstract