We asked all students how confident they are with performing certain activities in the research process; these are listed in order below.
Undergraduates report being most confident with understanding the ethics of information and with incorporating sources into their papers; they are least confident with figuring out which library databases to use, and citing sources correctly. This is a change from the 2011 survey when we asked about comfort with performing research activities, and students reported being least comfortable with evaluation and with determining if the library had needed items.
Compare responses to this question:
Off-Campus Graduates | On-Campus Graduates
Compare with faculty opinion of undergraduate student research ability
[su_table]
| Average score (5 = “Very Confident”) | Very + Somewhat Confident | Not Confident+ Somewhat Not Confident | Select Thumbnail to View Chart | |
| Choosing a research topic | 4.32 | 88.3% | 2.3% |  |
| Narrowing a research topic | 4.19 | 83.2% | 3.8% |  |
| Figuring out which library databases to use | 4.02 | 73.9% | 8.7% |  |
| Searching within library databases | 4.16 | 79.2% | 5.3 |  |
| Figuring out how to get or request full text | 4.09 | 74.9% | 8.7% |  |
| Evaluating information sources | 4.11 | 78.5% | 6.1% |  |
| Incorporating sources into your paper | 4.34 | 86.8% | 2.5% |  |
| Citing sources correctly | 4.07 | 77.1% | 6.8% |  |
| Understanding the ethics of using information | 4.37 | 87.1% | 4.0% |  |
[/su_table]