A presentation used for an Honours Project workshop for Religious Studies students.

1. Library workshop for
REL and PHIL students
Angela Wong
Information Services Librarian
HKBU Library
April 2014
Research Strategies for
the Honours Project

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Learning Outcomes
After today’s session, you will be able to:
 Recognize the types and range of scholarly sources you
will need to use in the Honours Project
 Use discipline-specific databases to find information on
your Honours Project topic
 Choose an appropriate method to obtain article full text
 Discover Mendeley, an online bibliographic management
tool to organize your citations

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How will you learn today?
Mini-
lectures
Real-time
polls
Live
Demo
In-class
exercises

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Schedule for the Honours Project
Active Consultation with lecturers for topic
selection
Apr of Yr 2
Tentative title submitted to the Department By Apr 30 of Yr 2
Provisional assignment of Chief Adviser by the
Department
May of Yr 2
Tentative title approved by Chief Adviser June of Yr 2
Amendment of title Sept 30 of Yr 3
Final assignment of Chief Adviser by the
Department
Early Oct of Yr 3
Final title approved by the Programme
Management Committee
Early Oct of Yr 3
Department assign Second Examiner Mar of Yr 3
Final product submitted to the Department by 5pm Apr 1 of Yr 3
Adopted from the Dept. of REL and PHIL – Honours Project Handbook 2014-2015, p.6

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Guidelines for writing an Honours Project
“Note that proper acknowledgement of sources of
information or idea is extremely important. You
should cite a source when you quote, paraphrase, or
summarize another person’s original idea.
Any use of reference materials without proper
acknowledge of sources is a serious breach of
ethics.”…
Adopted from the Dept. of REL and PHIL – Honours Project Handbook 2014-2015, p. 14

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Online Polling Setup
Let’s get up for real-time polling!
Go to this URL:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/libworkshop

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Information Sources for
the Honours Project

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Online Poll #1
Pretend that you are an Honours Project supervisor
On your handout, there are 3 bibliographies produced by
3 different students
Which student has produced the best bibliography?
Discuss with the person next to you and respond to the
online poll:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/libworkshop

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What makes a Good Bibliography?
A good bibliography reveals the quality, reliability, validity,
and authority of sources you have consulted
The bulk of a good bibliography should be made up with
books, peer-reviewed journal articles and dissertations
Websites can be used if the source is authoritative
(i.e. .gov, .edu, .org)
The easiest way to locate and obtain the above information is
through Library resources!

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Library Honours Project Database

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Hardcopies of REL Honours Projects
You can review the past REL Honours Projects at the
REL and PHIL Department

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Finding Scholarly Sources:
Disciplinary Databases

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Online Poll #2
 When you need to do a piece of academic writing (e.g. an essay or a
project), what is the first information search tool that you will use?
 Think about this and response to the online poll:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/libworkshop

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Introducing disciplinary databases
General search engines are useful for getting started on a topic
However, for in-depth scholarly research like the Honours
Project, disciplinary databases are important
Examples:

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Religion and Philosophy Databases Guide

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Why use disciplinary databases?
Focused search
Specialized Search Limits
Subject Thesaurus

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Focused Search
Broad search of scholarly literature on
the Web
Covers formal theological studies and
commentary on topics of general
interest from the perspectives of many
world religions.
Broad search of scholarly literature
across different Library-subscribed
databases

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Specialized Search Options

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Specialized Search Options

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Subject Thesaurus
Apart from simple keywords searching, databases
usually provide a thesaurus of subject terms, this
allows for more precise searching

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Subject Thesaurus
For example, the subject term for “homosexual” is
“homosexuality” and some related terms like bisexuality,
gays & lesbians … etc. can be found in the databases

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Narrow Down Results by Filters
You can narrow your results by different filters, such as
Peer Reviewed, Source Type, Publication Year … etc.

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Citation Information
Regarding the format, students are free to choose between
the Turabian’s or MLA styles…
Adopted from the Dept. of REL and PHIL – Honours Project Handbook 2014-2015, p. 8-9
Footnotes are placed at the bottom of the text
pages where their corresponding citations
appear and should be in numerical order.
The first time a work is mentioned in a footnote,
the entry should be in complete form; that is, it
should be include not only the author’s full name, the
title of the work, and the specific reference (i.e. vol. if
any, and page no.), but the facts of publication as
well.

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Citation Information
Adopted from the Dept. of REL and PHIL – Honours Project Handbook 2014-2015, p. 10
A bibliography lists the sources used in writing
the paper. A bibliographical entry should include
name(s) of author(s), full title of work, place, publisher,
and date of publication. The bibliography is usually
arranged in alphabetical order by family names of
authors.

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Citation information
Article Title
Authors Journal Title Volume and
Issue Number
Publication Year
Page Number

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Automatic Citation Generator
Select the appropriate citation style,
e.g. MLA 7th edition
Caution: You still need to double-check the result!

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中國期刊全文數據庫
For Chinese academic journals, CNKI (中國期刊全文數據庫)
is a key source

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Online Poll #3
 We have looked at many features that databases offer. In your
opinion, what is the most important reason for using databases
instead of Google when doing an academic research?
 Provide your answer in a couple of sentences in the online poll.
 Then, provide a correct citation in MLA (7th ed) format for a journal
article on “applied ethics” from either ProQuest Religion or ATLA
Religion Database.
http://www.polleverywhere.com/libworkshop

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Obtaining Articles in
Full Text

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No PDF?
Sometimes you will find results where there in NO full text
available from OneSearch or the database
When there is no PDF, look for this button:

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Get Full Text Diagram
Citation (no full text) Click this button:
Interlibrary
Loan
Check for link
to Library
e-subscription
Check Library
Catalogue for access
to print version
NoNo
Full Text
YesYesYes

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Interlibrary Loan

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Interlibrary Loan

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Online Poll #4
 Look up the following article in ProQuest Religion:
Holbrook, Teri, Christi Moore, and Michelle Zoss. "Equitable Intent:
Reflections on Universal Design in Education as an Ethic of
Care." Reflective Practice 11.5 (2010): 681.
 How would you obtain the full text of this article?
Make you choice in the online poll:
http://www.polleverywhere.com/libworkshop

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Organizing your
citations – Use Mendeley

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Mendeley
An online tool that helps you organize your research,
generate citations and bibliographies, and collaborate
with other scholars
Mendeley Demonstration

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Mendeley
Mendeley Research Guide: http://hkbu.libguides.com/mendeley
Let’s sign up for a free Mendeley Plus Account!

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Honours Project Research Support Services
HKALL service
JULAC Library Card
Honours Project Research Consultation

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HKALL Service
Request books online from other HK university libraries

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JULAC Library Card
Physical access to other HK university libraries
Online application is required

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Honours Project Research Consultation
 This workshop has given an overview of the major skills and tools you will
need to be successful in your Honours Project research
 For more help, you can request for an one-to-one consultation meeting
with a professional librarian
 Make an appointment on the Library website – the link is marked in your
handout

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Summary
 You are expected to consult a range of different scholarly source types
when completing your Honours Project
 Use disciplinary databases to make finding and citing scholarly sources
easier
 The Library can get full text for you in most cases – remember ILL!
 Use Mendeley to organize your citations and generate the bibliography in
an easy and effective way

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Still need Help with anything?
Ask a Librarian!
In-person: Information Desk
Email: libref@hkbu.edu.hk
Phone: 3411-7363
Chat: Library Homepage

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