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1
Electronic databases and other search engines
Having access to journal articles and books is essential
to keep up to date with the latest research. There are a
number of electronic databases that allow you to search
for journal articles, such as PsychInfo, Medline and
CINAHL. These electronic databases are usually
accessible through university or hospital libraries.
Whoever does not have access to these electronic
databases, however, is able to search for articles, books
or theses by using Google Scholar (www.googlescholar.
com) or PubMed (www.pubmed.gov), two free services
available on the Internet.
2
Journals
Most university libraries are open to the public, allowing
people who are not enrolled at the university to access
journals. It is of course helpful if you can access journals
from the comfort and convenience of your home or
workplace. Being a member of a university or hospital
library often allows you to access journals online.
As members of Speech Pathology Australia we
receive copies of the two publications of the Association:
ACQuiring Knowledge in Speech, Language and Hearing
(ACQ)
and the
International Journal of Speech-Language
Pathology
.
It is also possible to become an affiliate member of
ASHA (American Speech Hearing Association) and
receive the
ASHA Leader
and subscription to one of the
ASHA journals for US$170 per year. The journals one
can choose from are: (a)
Journal of Speech, Language and
Hearing Research
, (b)
Language, Speech, and Hearing
Services in Schools
, (c)
American Journal of Audiology: A
Journal of Clinical Practice
, and (d)
American Journal of
Speech-Language Pathology: A journal of Clinical Practice
.
For more information about ASHA affiliation: http://
www.asha.org/about/membership-certification/international/affiliate.htm
3
EndNote
EndNote is an electronic bibliography program, which
allows you to manage your references, including
journal articles, books, reports, theses, and so on.
Information that can be stored in the EndNote program
includes the title of the publication, author, page
numbers, abstract and key words. The EndNote pro
gram allows you to enter your own information or to
export information (about journal articles and other
sources) directly from databases.
EndNote allows you to display the references in the
style that you choose. Many journals in the social and
behavioural sciences use the American Psychological
Association (APA) style, and this is often the style
requirement for university assignments and theses in
M
y
T
op
10 R
esources
From a research perspective
Kyriaki Ttofari Eecen
speech pathology university courses. You can select for
your references to be displayed in APA style and
Endnote formats the references for you. Gone are the
days when you needed to manually check all the
references to make sure they followed the correct
format (I wish I had known about EndNote when I was
completing my undergraduate degree!).
Another advantage of EndNote is that you can search
for references using a variety of terms, including, key
words, authors or year of publication.
And finally, EndNote allows you to “cite while you
write”, that is, you can insert references into your
documents (in Microsoft Word) while you are writing.
This places the reference in the correct position in the
document (e.g. (Smith, 2000)) and then puts the full
reference at the end of the document, so your
bibliography is created for you automatically.
For more information:
http://www.crandon.com.au/EndNote/product.html
4
EpiData
EpiData Entry is a free data entry program. It can be
used to enter information collected via questionnaires
or during face-to-face assessments for quantitative
research.
One of the advantages of a program like EpiData (as
compared to entering data via a program like Microsoft
Excel) is that it allows you to put “checks” in place,
such as:
Maximum range of scores.
For example: The maximum
number you can enter for Question 3 is “10” because
that is the maximum possible score one could receive
on that test question. If you enter “11” the program will
not allow you to do this and will come up with an error
message.
Skips.
For example: If you answered “no” to Question 5,
it skips to Question 7, because Question 6 is only
relevant for respondents who answered “yes” to
Question 5.
Such checks reduce the number of data entry errors.
The information collected via EpiData can be easily
exported into a statistical analysis program to allow
you to analyse all the data.
For more information:
http://www.epidata.dk/Reference: Lauritsen, J.M. (Ed.). (2000–2006).
EpiData
data entry, data management and basic statistical analysis
system
. Odense, Denmark: EpiData Association.
5
Stata
Stata is statistical analysis software. Stata allows you to
perform a number of analyses, such as drawing graphs,
determining the mean, standard deviation and confidence
intervals of your data set, and performing regression
analyses. You can also use Stata to “clean” your data,
ACQ
uiring knowledge
in
speech
,
language and hearing
, Volume 10, Number 3 2008
107