Researching Your Topic | Some Advice on Internet Searching | Annotated Bibiography | Finding a Good Funding Source

Researching Your Topic
Each proposal stands or falls on the quality of its research. Though some proposals may rely less than others on library research, all need a solid foundation of published and authoritative facts, studies, theoretical works, and other documents. Without published sources you will be very hard pressed to develop a paradigm. As Kuhn argues, paradigms are developed through publication in professional journals.

Today there can never be the excuse that you "couldn't find any research" on something. Just try a search on the ABI/Inform Index (from the library home page: http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu/) or run a search on HotBot and you'll see that there is usually too much information on any topic. You have to learn, in fact, to be selective.

The best place to start is the Rutgers Libraries home page (address above), which can be easily referenced at any library computer terminal or via Netscape at any computer lab. The library home page is set up for easy use, listing the IRIS Catalog (which lists all book and periodical holdings at all Rutgers Libraries), Indexes (which offer expansive bibliographic references, and sometimes full text, of articles in various fields), and Web Guides (helpful guides to quality web sites prepared by Rutgers librarians).

The only way to learn how to use the library or its home page is by using it. If you haven't used computers to search for information, now is your time to learn. The resources are so simple to use -- just point and click with a mouse -- that it isn't even worthwhile for me to explain them here. But for those who need extra help, every section of this course has a library tour to familiarize you with the resources available at Rutgers and to give those familiar with searching for information a chance to ask a reference librarian more advanced questions. Remember, the reference librarians are paid to help students. Ask them questions and seek their advice whenever you get stuck looking for information. They can help you best, though, if you ask a specific question (and they'll help you most vigorously if you have an interesting topic).

If you can't locate a source at Rutgers, you can order any book or journal article through interlibrary loan, often within a two week period. If you start your research early, you should be able to get all the information you need.

For those who need something fast, though, there is always the New York Public Library system, which you can search remotely at http://www.nypl.org, using the "sibl" system. Unfortunately, unless you have a New York library card you can only use books on site. But these libraries are still a valuable secondary resource. One of the most useful New York Public Libraries for this class is the one devoted to science and industry, which is only a short walking distance east of Penn Station. It's called: The Science, Industry, and Business Library, 188 Madison Avenue at 34th Street, New York, NY 10016 (212-592-7000). If you don't find it there, you won't find it anywhere.

Finding a Good Funding Source
Although students may not see the need of finding an appropriate funding source immediately, this is a crucial first step toward defining the needs and concerns of the audience, a key component in a successful proposal. Consider the following questions when choosing a funding source:

• What is this group's mission statement or objective? Do they have a philosophy that informs their approach to funding?
• Does this group have the funds to support the kind of project I am considering? What is the typical grant amount that they award?
• Have they funded similar projects?
• Are there any factors that might limit my qualifications for a project grant? (For instance, some funding agencies will only underwrite projects by applicants who are of a certain ethnic background, gender, or academic standing, or who represent a group falling into a certain socio-economic category.)

For many students, the funding source will be the group responsible for carrying out the project such as the local Board of Education, Rutgers Board of Governors, a town council, or a state department. Sometimes students need to look farther afield to find the money needed to make their ideas a reality. Many non-profit foundations and agencies exist for the purpose of funding good ideas, and venture capital groups can sometimes be persuaded to fund an idea that may lead to future profit.

To identify a funding agency, you can either look up a print directory or Yahoo (under Education - Financial Aids - Grants). Important directories on research funding opportunities and major web sites for grants information are listed below.

Grants Information on the Internet

• GrantsWeb - Society of Research Administrators --A very organized list on government and private funding opportunities, and policy issues.
• GrantsNet --A searchable database of funding opportunities for training in the biomedical and medical sciences
• Research funding opportunities and Administrators - TRAM --It contains a search engine for locating funding opportunities from many different agencies.
• A BRIEF GRANT SEEKERS GUIDE --It contains links to free grants money, scholarships and loans to individuals from schools, colleges, federal government and private fundings.
  

Print Directories on Grants Information
Please search IRIS for the locations and call numbers of the following print sources, or go to the reference section and ask the librarian at the desk how to find the foundations and agencies directories.

College money in New York and New Jersey : scholarships, grants, loans and awards
Directory of biomedical and health care grants
Directory of research grants
Grants, etc. / Armand Lauffer.
Grants for nonprofit organizations : a guide to funding and grant writing
The government financial aid book : the insider's guide to state & federal government grants and loans
Peterson's grants for graduate & postdoctoral study
Peterson's scholarships, grants & prizes
The scholarship book : the complete guide to private-sector scholarships, grants, and loans for undergraduates
Scholarships, grants, fellowships, & endowments : free money

There are many other more specialized sources that you can find by browsing the library.

Some Advice on Searching the Internet
You should never rely upon the internet as your main source of information. Internet sources tend to be too simplified and too much driven by self-interest to serve as the basis for your research. Often, if you are researching a product or service, you will find many advertisements disguised as information. These sources should be judged carefully and should not be used as the factual basis for any claims you make in your proposal.

You should always seek a wide variety of sources, using books for depth of coverage, peer reviewed journals for thinking in your field, and periodicals for timely coverage of recent events. The internet should be only a supplement to these sources. These suggestions are therefore intended to give you some ideas about using the internet as an assistant rather than a crutch.

• If you are seeking government statistics, check out "thomas" the government center for information at http://www.thomas.gov/. For New Jersey information, try http://www.state.nj.us/.
• An increasing number of statistical sources are available on line. You can also use Statistical Abstracts of the United States and Statistical Reference Index, which are available in the reference section of most campus libraries.
• If you are beginning with a broad subject (cancer, AIDS, alcohol, guns), try starting with the "web guides" prepared by Rutgers Librarians (accessible from the Rutgers Libraries home page at http://www.libraries.rutgers.edu). Use the guides to help narrow your topic and to get ideas. Keep track of successful search terms; they will come in handy later.
• If you have already narrowed down your subject a lot, or you know exactly what you want to work on for the project, then try a search engine like AltaVista or HotBot These sites will do a more comprehensive search than Yahoo and other classified search engines. For an even more comprehensive search, try a metasearch engine such as Dogpile or Meta-Crawler (http://www.metacrawler.com) to simultaneously search on several engines.
• If you're looking for a specific web site, often you can guess its address. Most begin "www," then a period, then the name or acronym of the site, then a period and the type of site. These types include "com" (commercial), "gov" (government), and "edu" (education).
• Develop a long list of keywords to search with and keep adding to that list as you go, trying to get more and more specific. Put a "+" before a word you want to include and a "-" before one you want to avoid. Put quotes around specific phrases, like "binge drinking." Usually a phrase will help narrow your search.
• Remember the basics of boolean logic: use "and" to narrow and "or" to expand categories.
• If you find a good web site, see if it contains links to others or lists of references you can find in the library. Often, web sources are abstracted versions of much better journal articles or books. Go to the original source!

Annotated bibliography - six sources minimum

An alphabetized and properly cited list (prepared according to APA Style) of at least six sources, three of which must be academic-quality (i.e.: books, scholarly analysis, or articles in trade journals). You should also include interviews, on-line information, newspaper articles and other materials you will use, for a minimum of six total items. You should begin your research at the Rutgers University Libraries home page. Another useful place to start is the Research Guide to Scientific and Technical Writing, which is a very similar course, at http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~mlo/stw/. The guide offers a lot of help to students, especially on finding sources of grant money, statistical information, and government information. Try also the Business Research Guide put out by Rutgers Libraries for the most comprehensive business links.

Here are some sites you might find useful in doing your research:
The Research Guide to Scientific and Technical Writing offers many useful links.
The Rutgers University Libraries web page is essential.
The Daily Targum site, for local news stories, past and present.
Thomas, for government information.
For statistical information, try the Bureau of Economic Analysis, the Census Bureau, the Economic Report of the President, or Federal Statistics.
For grant information, try the SRA's Grant Web.

For information on APA style, please consult Joseph F. Trimmer's A Guide to MLA Documentation (contains some APA style). You might also check out some of these sites for extra help:

• http://www.apa.org/
• http://www.columbia.edu/cu/cup/cgos/idx_basic.html
• http://wally.rit.edu/pubs/guides/apa.html

Your annotated bibliography should be set up like a regular APA References page, with properly formatted entries, double-spaced, with the first line tabbed in.  You should follow each entry with approximately three sentences describing the source and how it will be useful for your project.  A sample entry is below:

Jackson, N. L. (1996). Stabilization of the shoreline of Raritan Bay, New

Jersey. Estuarine Shores: Evolution, Environments, and Human Alterations, 17,

397-420.

Seawalls are discussed in this article, along with other methods of alleviating the same problem. This will help me decide is a seawall would be helpful at Bayport, and if so, will help me determine what height the seawall should be.