Students and Their Sources

Date of Data Collection: 2018

Principal Investigators: Jordan Canzonetta (Project Manager), Diana Fidaoui, André Habet, CC Hendricks, Rebecca Moore Howard, Sandra Jamieson, Jason Markins, and Noah Wilson.

Database and technical advisor: Zack Jacobsohn

Description: Data collection for this single-site, multimodal research project is underway in 2018. The study is designed to further educators’ understanding of how undergraduate students in required or introductory composition courses choose and use research sources, and how they themselves describe and explain that process. Using textual analysis, observational research, interviews, and surveys, the combination of qualitative and quantitative data gathered from this research expands the information and perspectives supplied by data collected in previous studies (by the Lilac Group, Citation Project, and Whitney & Olsen). Our results will produce a portrait of each stage of students’ research processes, detailing not only their decision-making and their textual moves, but also their perspectives on these processes.  

Findings & Discussion:

Li, Jinrong, & Sandra Jamieson. “Collaboration & Replication: How the LILAC Project and the Citation Project are working to further understanding of student research and writing – Part 2” [PDF of slidedeck -open as a PDF for embedded video]. Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy, February 22, 2020.

Canzonetta, Jordan, Diana Fidaoui, & Jason Markins. “Assumptions and surprises What SATS research reveals about students’ technological usage and metacognitive process, and pedagogical responses” [Slideshow with notes]. Annual Convention of the Modern Language Association (MLA), January 4, 2019.

Walker, Janice, & Sandra Jamieson “Collaboration & Replication: How the LILAC Project and the Citation Project are working to further understanding of student research and writing – Part 1” [pdf of slide deck]. 7th International Conference on Writing Analytics, January 26, 2019.

Fidaoui, Diana, Noah Wilson, & Sandra Jamieson. “Listening for Structure, Watching for Process: A Study of Information Literacy from Digital Research to Final Paper — and the Challenges of Developing that Study” [pdf of slide deck Georgia International Conference on Information Literacy, September 28, 2018.


IRB proposal (Syracuse University), 2017:

Full IRB Proposal, approved [PDF]

IRB Appendices [PDF] – 93 pages  

Informed consent form [PDF]


Studies whose Methods are Replicated or Adapted

  • Blackwell-Starnes, Katt, and Janice R. Walker. “Reports From The LILAC Project: Designing a Translocal Study,”  In Points of Departure: Rethinking Student Source Use and Writing Studies Research Methods. Ed. Tricia Serviss & Sandra Jamieson.  Utah State UP, 2017. 62-82. DOI: 10.7330/9781607326250.c002
  • [Download PDF].

  • Jamieson, Sandra, and Rebecca Moore Howard. “Sentence-Mining: Uncovering the Amount of Reading and Reading Comprehension In College Writers’ Researched Writing” in The New Digital Scholar: Exploring and Enriching the Research and Writing Practices of NextGen Students. Eds. Randall McClure and James P. Purdy. Medford, NJ: American Society for Information Science and Technology, 2013. 111-133.
  • [Download PDF]

  • Olsen, M. Whitney, and Anne R. Diekema. “Asking the Right Questions: Using Interviews to Explore Information-Seeking Behavior.” In Points of Departure: Rethinking Student Source Use and Writing Studies Research Methods. Ed. Tricia Serviss & Sandra Jamieson.  Utah State UP, 2017. 209-226. DOI: 10.7330/9781607326250.c007
  • [Download PDF]