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as well as at the research stage, such as planning where to look for resources (76%).
They also used some time- and energy-saving routines, such as ending a search after
finding the citations they required (41%), and choosing an entirely new topic if they
could not find research materials in their first couple of attempts (36%). On the other
hand, one particularly discouraging finding was that most students were “cheating
themselves” by using the same research topic for multiple courses (41%).
3.7
Major Issues in Conducting Research
Difficulties during the entire research process, from the moment students receive the
assignment until they turn in their research paper, are inevitable. In order to better
understand the issues students encounter when conducting research, respondents
recorded their agreement and disagreement with several statements describing
common research difficulties.
Table 3 shows these statements and the students' responses. For nearly three-quarters
of the respondents (73.2%), the most difficult step of the research process was starting
the assignment, followed by defining a topic (62.6%), narrowing down a topic (60%),
and finding web sources (57%). When these three difficulties were organized by
academic level and discipline, a significant association was observed between discipline
and difficulty in starting an assignment, with social science students reporting greater
difficulty in starting their research than students in other disciplines. Other major barriers
reported by respondents include determining a website's credibility (57%), time pressure
(56%), finding articles in library research databases (47%) and finding up-to-date
resources (46%). On the other hand, taking notes (41%), knowing how to cite sources
(39.4%) and, writing about their findings (36.3%) were the steps with which students
relatively felt themselves equipped to their research.
Table 3.
Major issues in conducting research
Agree
(%)
Neither Agree
Nor Disagree (%)
Disagree
(%)
Declined to
State (%)
Getting started is difficult
73.2
17.80
5.8
3.10
Defining a topic is difficult
62.6
20.9
14.3
2.20
Narrowing down a topic
60.2
24.7
11.8
3.30
Finding articles in research
databases of the library
47.0
30.7
19.8
2.40
Finding Web sources
57.4
21.2
18.5
2.90
Determining whether a Web Site
is credible or not is difficult
56.6
22.0
18.0
3.30
Finding up-to-date resources
46.1
27.4
23,9
2.70
Taking notes
29.9
26.1
41.0
3.10
Writing about what is found
41,2
19.2
36,3
3.30
Knowing how to cite resources
30.0
27.2
39.4
3.30
Time limit
55.9
21.2
19.4
3.60
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