Transcript The Geographer`s Toolbox (or a few things to help you get started)

The Graduate Student Toolbox:
Getting Started
1. Journals
2. Databases
3. Note-taking
Matt Fry
ENV 210F
[email protected]
Questions this brief session will help
you get started with:
• How do I come up with a thesis/dissertation
topic?
• How do I get started searching for literature or
articles on this topic?
• What does ‘body of literature’ or ‘theoretical
framework’ mean?
• What journals should I be reading?
• What are ‘Geography’ journals?
• How do I know which articles are the most
influential?
Getting started:
• Talk to the professors in your department
about your ideas
ALWAYS bring a notebook
and pen/pencil
(or other note-taking devise)
Getting started:
• Use and book mark UNT library page:
http://www.library.unt.edu/
Getting started:
• Three useful databases:
Web of Knowledge/Web of Science
JSTOR
Google Scholar
• Also, the UNT library page
Geography Journals?
• Journal Citation Reports:
http://admin-apps.webofknowledge.com/JCR/JCR
Relevant Journals?
• But there are more discipline oriented journals
out there!
• Talk to professors.
ALWAYS bring a notebook
and pen/pencil
(or other note-taking devise)
Getting started steps:
1. Use your notes to identify topics and key
words
2. Use databases to search key words
3. Refine key words as you go
4. Start building folders of article pdfs based on
topics/themes/key words
5. Some of these will become the ‘bodies of
literature’ or ‘theoretical frameworks’ you
use in your thesis