Learn how to systematically research, evaluate and cite literature
On their lifelong learning path, your students will encounter a great number of sources. Over time, they will take agency and learn how to obtain, evaluate and use these sources to further their learning processes.
Maybe they’ll take a liking to it and do scientific work eventually. But even if they don’t, they’ll encounter scientific-looking statements all the time. That’s why the ability to distinguish between facts, opinions and targeted misinformation becomes a fundamental skill for life.
The EVIDENT! infographic assists your students with the literature-heavy part of their research. As such, it complements our DIGISCOVER! infographic, which is your comprehensive guide to critically questioning information and bringing the facts to light.
The infographic may be adapted to your students’ learning objectives and the complexity of the research required. It enables your students to start with the basics and gradually become experts, ensuring they are not easily fooled by the pseudoscience and misinformation they will no doubt encounter.
Our thanks go to Prof. Dr. Achim Wortmann, whose paper “Effektive Methoden der Literaturauswahl und -bewertung für wissenschaftliche Arbeiten – Ein Leitfaden für theoretische Literaturarbeiten, Abschlussarbeiten und Hausarbeiten ” we were kindly allowed to adapt and illustrate!
The best place to look for scientific facts is in scientific publications. Today, many of them are open source. But beware – just because publications have a scientific look and feel, there is no guarantee their authors have done solid scientific work.
To ascertain the facts, your research needs breadth as well as depth.
Your literature search starts with the careful selection of your key search terms. With these, you can search library catalogues, databases (if available) and freely accessible sources for relevant publications.
Scientific search engines are best suited for open source searches. There are many of them, and some are focused on specific subject areas. The University Library of Zurich, for instance, lists information sources and academic search engines per subject area.
As of late, AI tools may also support your literature search. While the results of purely text-generating tools like ChatGPT are generally not reliable, the market for AI-powered research tools for scientific literature is rapidly expanding. However, you should always check the results for completeness, accuracy, and citability.
An overview of AI tools for literature search has been compiled by the library of Frankfurt University of Applied Sciences. There, you can also find important considerations and recommendations for using these tools.
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