SOSC 13300: Social Science Inquiry

Academic scholarship often uses highly specific terminology to communicate concepts and ideas. While scholars within a field are typically familiar with the jargon of their discipline, those words can be less accessible to the novice or to those outside a discipline. The following non-exhaustive research glossary provides definitions for words you will likely read or hear in your classes or in scholarly research environments.

• Abstract: An abbreviated, accurate representation of a work, usually without added interpretation or criticism.
   
• Academic Journal: Journal that publishes articles which carry footnotes and bibliographies, and whose intended audience is comprised of some kind of research community. Includes both “peer-reviewed” journals as well as journals that are not “peer-reviewed” but intended for an academic audience.
   
• Annotated Bibliography: A bibliography that includes a topical summary of each item listed
   
• Annotation: A note accompanying an entry in a bibliography intended to describe, explain, or evaluate the referenced publication.
   
• Applied Research: Research that represents investigation directed toward the solution of practical problems, usually with commercial objectives rather than for the advancement of knowledge or discovery of new facts, theories, and law

  ---

• Bibliographic Records: Organized citations or references to published works, often using a standard format or structure. 
   
• Bibliography: A list of works , documents, and/or bibliographic items, usually with some relationship between them (e.g., by a given author, on a given subject, or published in a given place); usually listed at the end of a publication.

  ---

• Catalog: Bibliographic records, created according to specific and uniform principles of construction. In a wider sense, a list of materials prepared for  particular purpose. The University of Chicago Library catalog is our system of record for books (print and ebooks); video (DVDs, streaming, etc.); recordings (CDs, LPs, Streaming, etc.); journals, magazines, and newspapers (print and online); music scores; UChicago dissertations; some databases and websites; content from the Hanna Holborn Gray Special Collections Research Center; Links to Google Books; Links to Hathi Trust.

  ---

• Database: An organized collection of computer records such as bibliographic data, documents that are full-text, abstracts, images, and more.

  ---

• Gray Literature: A general term referring to publications that are published and distributed outside of the mainstream. This encompasses materials such as technical reports, government publications, and white papers.

  ---

• Index: A collection of bibliographic records which is used to locate articles in a magazine, journal, or newspaper. Indexes were originally in print, often published quarterly or annually, to help readers locate articles by author or topic in a specific publication or collection of periodicals. Now indexes are searchable databases. Most journal indexes do not include the full article, but will include citations for articles, abstracts, and subject terms--the information needed to locate specific articles. 
• Information: All ideas, facts, and imaginative works of the mind that have been communicated, recorded, published and/or distributed formally or informally in any format.

  ---

• Journal: A periodical, especially one containing scholarly articles and/or disseminating current information on research and development in a particular subject.

  ---

• Literature Review: A comprehensive examination of all published materials on a topic.
• Literature Search: An exhaustive search for all publications on a specific topic.

  ---

• Methods/Methodology: The branch of knowledge that deals with method generally or with the methods of a particular discipline or field of study; the study of the direction and implications of empirical research, or of the suitability of the techniques employed in it.

  ---

• Peer Review: The process by which one or more experts in a field read a manuscript, an article, or a book, to determine whether it should be published. EBSCO further defines peer review as:
  • Blind Peer Review: the occurrence whereby either the author’s identity of the reviewers’ identity is unknown.
  • Editorial Board Peer Review: the occurrence whereby articles are reviewed by an internal board of editors. The author’s identity may be known or unknown.
  • Expert Peer Review: the occurrence whereby articles are reviewed by experts (either internal or external to the journal) whose credentials are known and who are experts within the subject matter of the article under review. The author’s identity may be known or unknown.
• Periodical: A publication that is issued in parts (issues) in regular intervals, usually weekly, monthly, or quarterly. 
• Primary Source: A fundamental, authoritative document relating to a subject, used in the preparation of a later work; Synonymous with original source and source material.
• Prospectus: A formal proposal of a research project developed to convince a reader that the research can be carried out and will yield worthwhile results.

  ---

• Research: Systematic investigation or inquiry aimed at contributing to knowledge of a theory, topic, etc., by careful consideration, observation, or study of a subject. 

  ---

• Scholarly Communication: The process by which the results of research are shared among researchers, typically including personal communication, presentation at conferences, and publishing in scholarly journals.
• Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journal: Journals that are intended for an academic audience and are peer-reviewed. EBSCO has specific guidelines for what they consider to be peer-reviewed, including Blind Peer Review, Editorial Board Peer Review, and Expert Peer Review.
• Secondary Source: A source created from the examination and interpretation of  primary sources.

  ---

• Tertiary Source: A compilation of primary source and secondary source material, or of information about that material; for example, 
  a bibliography, an encyclopedia, or a library catalog.

  ---

• White Paper: 1. An official government report on any subject. 2. An unpublished report for in-house use.