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Health Science

Library Survey of Student use of Generative AI

Library Survey on Student Use of Generative AI for Library Research

 

The library would like to understand how our students are using, or plan to use, AI chatbots in research for their assignments, so we've created this survey to hear from you.

AI chatbots such as ChatGPT, Copilot, Perplexity and others can help students at various stages of the research process, within guidelines set by their instructors and KPU's own policy on Academic Integrity.

This survey will enable the library to better meet the needs of those students using, or planning on using, AI chatbots for their academic work. 

Please use the QR code below or this link: https://kpu.libwizard.com/f/AI_library_research_survey

Questions about the survey? Please contact Celia Brinkerhoff or Caja Blomley.

QR code for Library Survey

More Infographics examples

Your instructor has given you examples of health infographics. Here are a couple more sources to look at for inspiration. Click on the images below to see examples from the Public Health Agency of Canada and American Public Health Association. 

Screenshot of Stroke in Canada infographic from Public Health Agency of Canada. Screenshot of How Climate Change Affects your Health from the American Public Health Association

 

Free tools

The following are a few of the many infographic creation tools. Most are free for the first several infographics. 

This comparison may be helpful for choosing the tool that works best for you.

You also have access to the PowerPoint Infographic templates through KPU's licensed Microsoft Office suite.

The following are sources for free images that you can use in your projects. Always make sure you can verify the terms of use (copyright) before using. It is good practice to credit the source of your images, regardless of whether they were freely available on the web. Attribution is always nice!

For more details on how you can use images in your presentations, see the Images page of the Library's Copyright Guide.

 

Creative Commons

 

Consider putting a Creative Commons License on your finished product so that others are permitted to use it. You determine the level of restrictions: leave it completely open, ask for some attribution (credit), or allow others to adapt, modify, and reuse.

See Creative Commons for full details on various licenses, and the benefits of applying one to your work.

Annotated bibliographies

An annotated bibliography is a list of sources you will be using in your presentation. It will include an APA-style reference for each source, arranged alphabetically according to the authors' names, as you would normally do for a reference list.

However, below each entry you will also include a paragraph telling your reader something about the article and how it relates to your own research topic. Working through an annotated bibliography is usually done as part of the researching and writing of a larger project; it's also good practice in reading scientific articles and learning to summarize and evaluate them in terms of your own research. Learning how to critically read scientific information and integrating it with your own writing is a crucial skill for communicating in the sciences. 

See the example below of an annotation of an article from American Journal of Public Health.

Annotated Bibliography Entry in APA (7th ed.)

Sample annotated bibliography entry

The above example is from: Graves, R. (n.d.). Nursing 494 Annotated Bibliography Scholarly Paper, [PDF]. https://sites.ualberta.ca/~graves1/documents/Nursing494.pdf

 

Guidelines vary on how long your annotations should be, but in general 3-5 well-organized sentences should be enough to convey the most important information. You will probably write something in the range of 150-200 words. 

But what should be included?

At a minimum, your notes should provide:

  • a brief summary sentence or two on the nature and scope of the research
  • an indication of the author(s) credentials or expertise in the area
  • possible shortcomings, biases, or errors in methods
  • your own consideration as to the significance of the work and how it relates to other research in the area
  • reflect on how it is going to be used in your own work 

Tip: Check with your instructor for more specific instructions on formatting and content of annotations.

Here's a quick video that will outline the major points to consider when writing an annotated bibliography. 

Still have some questions about how to write an annotated bibliography? The following links should help you find your answers. 

 

What is a high-quality source of information?

Evaluating health information

The following checklist activity is based on Evaluating Internet Health Information: A Tutorial, from MedlinePlus and the National Library of Medicine.

Click the arrows below to expand the description. Consider these criteria when determining the quality of health information you find online, and in the library's collection.

What is peer review?

For this assignment, you are asked to use at least one peer-reviewed journal article. 

These articles often provide the kind of academic, high quality information you need to bring evidence and data to your assignment. 

The following short video from NCSU Library to find out what peer-reviewed articles are and why they are such an important information source.

If you're not sure what to look for, check out the Is this article scholarly activity

 

Scholarly books

For this assignment, you are asked to include at least one scholarly, academic book/ebook as a source of information.

Keep in mind these criteria to help you judge whether a book is high-quality enough to use.

Is the author an expert?

  • check the biography to determine whether they hold andvanced degree in the subject covered by the book
  • is the author affiliated with a university / professional organization?
  • can't tell from the bio? do a quick Google search to see

Are there cited sources?

  • all scholarly books will have a list of references and extensive notes
  • is there an index?

Who is the Publisher?

  • university press or an academic publisher
  • don't know? do a quick Google search to find something out about the publisher

Is the Writing Specialized?

  • uses terminology of the discipline
  • is written for other scholars / students

Adapted from Is my book scholarly? by Sigrid Kargut, KPU Library.

Grey literature

 

In addition to searching the scholarly, peer-reviewed literature for sources on your topic, you will also want to search another important source: grey literature.

Grey literature includes reports and results of research published by organizations and various levels of government. For more information on how to access this material, see the Grey Literature and Statistics page of this guide. 

 

Summon search- Finding items @KPU

Summon Search

Use the library's main search box to locate books/ebooks, research documents, and more.  This is a good way to start research on your topic.

Summon Search

Start with a few keywords that describe the health topic and target population you are investigating. 

For example: college students housing affordability

From the set of initial results, use the filters and limits on the left to narrow your results by content, date, or discipline 


Here's a screenshot of a sample search using:

  • "college students" housing affordability
  • limit to last 5 years
  • limit to scholarly & peer-reviewed articles
  • limit to topic "affordable housing"

Summon search using keywords and limits

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This short video will introduce you to finding sources in the Library's collection using Summon Search.

Evidence-based medical research

Try Canada Commons Public Document search to find grey literature on your topic. Recall this is evidence-based information from NGOs, think tanks, policy groups, and various levels of government.

Statistics

There are many ways to access health information on the Statistics Canada site. Starting with some of these basic tools will provide you with a quick overview of your topic.

 

Keep in mind that most health data is the responsibility of Statistics Canada. The following link searches Statistics Canada by Province. Use the filters on the left to locate by subject.

Statistics Canada- Find statistics by region or area

The links below are to BC specific statistical sources.

Verify your sources!

Verify your sources

If you have used generative AI to help find sources for your assignment, you will need to go the extra step and verify that they actually exist. You've probably heard about "hallucinations" and fake sources that might appear in the search results of some generative AI tools. In some cases, the journals themselves may be legitimate, but the articles or authors don't exist.

Be suspicious! It is up to you to ensure that the sources you include in your assignment exist and are credible!

If you cite sources that don't exist, you will be in violation of KPU's policy on Academic Integrity.

Here's how you can check:

1. If the article citation includes a DOI, check to make sure it leads to an article on a journal or publisher's platform. 

  • You can do this using the Crossref search tool. Copy the DOI (without the https://doi.org/) into the search box. You should be directed to the article on the publisher's site. 
  • Double check the author and title to make sure it's the same article.

2. Put the entire title of a book or article into the Library's Summon search.

  • Refine the results to "scholarly and peer review articles" or "books/ebooks". Your item should be at the top of the list. 
  • Double check using the authors' names: are the authors of your article or book the same as the ones listed?
    Still not sure?

3. Copy the entire title into Google Scholar.

  • Again, verify this is the same article cited by the generative AI tool.

 

Your instructor will offer guidelines as to the acceptable use of Artificial Intelligence for your course assignments. Refer to Academic Integrity's infographic on ChatGPT and Other AI Tools at KPU. Or review KPU Library's guidelines on our Artificial Intelligence guide.

Remember to cite your sources

Refer to the Library's APA citation style guide for examples of properly formatted references. The links below will take you directly to the page providing details for each type of source.

Figures, images, and data

You will also need to note data sources for any figures, graphs, etc. that you include in your infographic. Whether you create the figures using data from another source, or you incorporate a figure from somewhere else, you still need to let your readers know where the information came from.

See the Tables, figures and images tab on the library's APA guide for details.

 APA does not provide clear guidance on how to cite statistical sources. If you are using data found in a report or journal article, you will cite that source. However, if you are using data directly from a collecting agency such as Statistics Canada or BC Stats, you will need to include all the information necessary to guide your reader to your source. 

Statistics Canada has a page outlining how it would like users to cite its products. 

See How to Cite Statistics Canada Products for full details. 

Here is an example of citing data found in one of its tables:

Screenshot of a citation for a data table from Statistics Canada.

Source information

The following online guides provide some tips for including information about your sources on your infographic. While APA does not explicitly say how to do this, make sure you clearly acknowledge where you are getting your data from. This will lend more credibility to your work, and allow your readers to follow up.

Practice!

Time to practice. Work through the following exercises to review how to cite an article, report, and data. Refer to the links in the box above to see details on how to cite particular kinds of sources.