Transcript Keeping up with Current Research: October 2009

Advanced Research Skills :
Environmental Change & Management
Autumn 2012
Sue Bird
Bodleian Subject Librarian Geography
Elective Essay Assessment
 Aims: Does the essay have a clear aim, question or
perspective that is relevant to the literature or an issue?
 Presentation: You are expected to know how to cite
references
 Literature: Does the essay address a range of relevant
literature, and demonstrate a good level of understanding of the
literature on the topic.
 You need to conduct initial scoping lit review – key themes, etc.
Followed by a more focused & deeper literature review. Peerreviewed literature acts as a form of substantiation
This session
More on Bibliographic Databases
Searching techniques for journal articles,
conference papers, book chapters etc
Keeping up to date
Subject searching
Better to use specialist indexes covering the
world’s literature to find articles
Access via OxLIP+ (http://oxlip-plus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk)
Use inter-library loan for items not held in
Oxford and not online
E-Journals
“I didn't check for the hard copy
- so used to getting online access!”
“I had just googled the article rather
than using SOLO, so that was the
issue & why I’d been asked to login,
or use Athens”
Newspapers
Electronic newspapers
• Some are freely available. Alphabetic list on
OxLIP+
• Best source for the “Text Only” of huge range of
newspapers and magazines is Nexis UK. Goes
back approximately 10 yrs in most cases and is
very current i.e. today’s daily news items
Newspapers
Electronic newspapers
• Factiva - from Dow Jones & Reuters Company
• Business news & challenges, market trends & info.
• 14,000 + sources inc. local & global newspapers,
newswires, trade journals, newsletters, etc.
• Archive back to 1969 - 28 languages from 159
countries
• Dun & Bradstreet company profiles, Reuters
Fundamentals, etc.
Newspapers
Legal information, cases etc.
• Lexis Library
• WestLaw – both UK & US editions
• But there are a lot more
(if necessary ask the Law Library for help)
Bodleian Maps
Databases vs. Search engines
• Contents are indexed by
subject specialists
• Subject headings
• Limiting functions e.g.
publication types, language
Allow you to
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View Search history
Combine searches
Mark and sort results
Print/save/email/export
Save searches
Set up alerts
• Searches done by
automated “web crawlers”
• No thesaurus / subject
headings – just free text
searching
• No limiting functions
• Usually none of these!
Databases (Scopus or Web of
Science) enable you to:
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Refine results overview to find the main journals, disciplines and authors that publish in your
area of interest.
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Click on the cited by and reference links to track research trends and make connections.
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Find out who is citing you or your supervisor, and how many citations an article or an author
has received.
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Use Author Identifier to automatically match an author’s published research including the hindex
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Use Journal Analyzer to provide quick insight into specific journal performance
Analyze citations for a particular journal issue, volume or year.
Use this information to complete grant or other applications quickly and easily.
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Use Alerts, RSS and HTML feeds to help you stay up-to-date
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Data export via bibiliographic managers such as RefWorks, EndNote and BibTeX
Bibliographic Databases
Abstracting and Indexing Services
Vast range.
SCOPUS (includes GEOBASE)
OVID SP
ProQuest
Web of Knowledge
Search Strategies
• Boolean logic
• Truncation
• Wild cards
• Synonyms
• Which language are you using?
Boolean connectors
• AND – combines terms to restrict results
• OR – useful for covering synonyms
• NOT – excludes unwanted areas of research
OR, AND, NOT
Environmental policy
E.U. / European union
Climate change
SCOPUS
THE bibliographic database for the Earth,
Geographical and Environmental Sciences
Scopus -Abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature
and quality web sources. With over 19,500 titles from more than 5,000
international publishers, including 325 book series.
47 million records:
26 million records with references back to 1996 (of which
78% include references).
21 million records pre-1996 which go back as far as 1823.
4.9 million conference papers from proceedings and
journals.
eReader Formats
The eReader Formats application allows users
to convert ScienceDirect articles as seen in the
browser into ePUB or Mobipocket format,
whichever is appropriate for the user's
electronic reader device.
Interactive Map Viewer
Interactive Map Viewer displays
supplementary geospatial data from
Elsevier online articles as an interactive
map.
Methods Search
Methods Search application helps you
find the methods you need for your
research.
Bibliographic Searching
Search Tip : 1
– Important to remember that although each database
covers thousands of journal titles no single database
is ever comprehensive.
– If you are having difficulty finding material on a topic
use the keywords you find in any relevant reference
and search again.
Bibliographic Databases
ProQuest
• Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management
• Environmental Impact Statements
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IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
Sustainability Science Abstracts (under ESPM)
EconLit
PAIS International
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
Bibliographic Databases
OVIDSP
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CAB Abstracts – biogeography
Forest Science - biogeography
GeoRef – physical geography & geology
Zoological Abstracts (1864-2009 only)
Web of Knowledge
Similar but not the same : a.k.a. Web of Science
WEB of Science: ISI citation indexes
Broad Coverage – all subject areas
(Journal Citation Reports – help choose the most effective
title in your area)
Bibliographic Searching
Search Tip : 2
Take time to explore the various databases & platforms available.
Some will be more useful to you than others.
• Scopus
• OvidSP
• ProQuest
• Web of Knowledge
http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser
Bibliographic Searching
Search Tip : 3
Boolean Logical Operators AND, OR, NOT
Proximity operators
Adj (literally adjacent); Near(same sentence); With(same
field)
Field descriptors: AU(author); TI(title); AB (abstract);
SO(source or reference); DE (general descriptor) etc are
likely to be specific to each database and won’t operate in
‘cross searches’
Combining searches: #1 and #2
Other tricks:
Use symbols for wildcards and truncation
? or $ for a single character
globali?ation / globali$ation (is it an ‘s’ or a ‘z’)
* for truncation or variant spellings
govern* for governance, governmentality, etc
use quotation marks for searching for phrases
e.g. “resource management”
Synonyms & Language
• Topic = Personal energy use reduction
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Search:
A) personal energy use
B) “personal energy use”
C) “energy use” OR “energy consumption” AND
personal OR private OR household
• Context : “carbon footprint” OR “carbon neutral”
(including food mile* (i.e. miles or mileage)? )
Bibliographic Searching
Search Tip : 4
• Consider subject synonyms & British and US spellings.
• Apply truncation, usually * to find plurals/alternative word
endings and ? to replace a single character.
• Expand search by following hypertext links esp. subject
headings
• Authors names: Check the online help for formats. Use the
database index to find different forms of author’s name
otherwise truncate first initial.
Bibliographic Searching
• Three ways to keep up to date:
• E-mail alert – you can specify a search to be repeated
and the results emailed to you at chosen intervals or
Zetoc will tell you when the next issue of a journal is
available.
• Saving and rerunning searches – you save a search and
run it again in the future.
• Citation Alert – you will receive an email every time a
particular article is cited in another WoK or Scopus
indexed article.
Bibliographic Databases
Search :Food security following global warming or climatic change
& its effects on behaviour
(2009-2012 only)
Scopus = 31 articles
ProQuest = 16 articles (adds another 13 to the total)
Ovid = 18 (overlap of 5 with Scopus giving a further13 unique items – all from CAB
abstracts)
Web of Science = 14 articles (9 overlap with 1 or more databases – so a further
5 unique items)
RefWorks de-duplication
= 62
unique items!!
GUIDE to RESOURCES
http://ox.libguides.com/geography
Keeping up with Current Research
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