Page 38 - ELG2001 Jan Issue 468

El•Gazette 468.qxp_El•Gazette 468 08/01/2020 15:59 Page 38

RESOURCES .

WIKIMEDIA Finding it for free

Search Google
1Scholar

Use Google Scholar rather than just Google. You can easily sign up
(search Google for Google Scholar) and search academic content on
the web.
Unlike the databases used by universities (e.g. Web of Science), Google
Scholar includes all academic books and journals – including ‘fake’
journals from predatory publishers – so you will need to check the source
if you are unfamiliar with the journal.
Google scholar ranks the results depending on how many times the
article has been cited by others. That means you can easily spot the
more influential articles on a topic. This can also lead to a cycle of
cited articles getting more citations, making it hard for other articles
to be noticed, so look further than the top results.

Bodleian Library, University of Oxford
Open Access
Searching for 2options

free research Don’t assume you have to pay – always check whether the term
‘Open Access’ appears somewhere on the page with the article
abstract. Some articles, even in subscription journals, are set for open
access.
ELT Journal has some Open Access articles and other free content,
Gillian Ragsdale’s guide to finding like the six-monthly ‘Key concepts in ELT’. CALICO (US-based
the right research journal for CALL) research articles become open access after three
years.
Search the Directory of Open Access Journals (doaj.org) for journals
great deal of research is carried out on language learning in your field. TESL-EJ (the electronic ESL journal), L2 Journal (US-
and teaching. This could help teachers develop the most based journal on language learning and teaching in general), Language
effective programmes and resources for their situation and Learning & Technology (US -based) are all free to view.
Afurther their professional development. In reality, though, Check reputable collections such as OASIS, ELT Research Bites or
few practitioners make use of published research, for three reasons. MESH (for teachers generally) for article summaries. ELT Research
The first major issue is access. Historically, research has been Bites also has a list of Open Access Journals (at the time of writing,
published to be read by other researchers, who access journals via the contact page was disabled so it is unclear if this site is being
their university’s paid subscriptions. This has kept most original maintained).
research behind a paywall and beyond the reach of non-academics.
Teachers can buy research – but that’s expensive, typically £20-30 for
a 10-30-page article, the same price as a good 200-page textbook. Access to subscription-only
There is a growing movement towards freely available, online Open 3articles
Access publishing. In fact, under UK law, any research funded by the
government must available for free, though the law is different in
different countries. Sometimes the abstract tells you as much as you need to know, but if
A few newer journals are completely Open Access, but most you want the full paper you can probably get it. Very often, the first
journals are still subscription only, although some now have a mix. In author will have links to the pdf of their papers on their personal or
some cases, authors can opt to pay to make their article Open Access. departmental webpage. If not, a polite email requesting a copy of their
Overall though, the bulk of research is still being published behind a paper is likely to be met favourably – authors love it when people
paywall that only those with access to a university library can access. want to read their papers.
The second major problem is the sheer quantity of published
research. So many hours of my life have been lost down the rabbit
hole of literature searches. It might begin with looking for studies on a Check the
new method for teaching reading skills and somehow, hours later, I am 4source
reading about how ancient Greek was taught in Roman times.
A good way into a particular topic is to find the most recent review
article, which should cite the major papers and researchers in the field Check the article comes from a peer-reviewed journal listed on, e.g.
(add the term ‘review’ to your search). https://mjl.clarivate.com/home or https://www.scimagojr.com/.
The third issue is jargon-dense, impenetrable content. Too often in There are a lot of fake journals making money by asking authors to pay
academia writers prioritise impressing their peers over being clearly to publish. These have no review process, they will publish anything.
understood. Some topic areas are worse offenders than others. Entirely different are the new peer-reviewed Open Access journals,
Linguistics certainly has more than enough technical jargon as a who ask authors to pay for publication but make the content freely
subject and would benefit from a clear and simple writing style. available.
38 January 2020