Transcript Bibliographic Searching

Bibliographic Search Strategies:
November 2009
Sue Bird
OULS Reader Services Librarian Geography
Web of Science
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
Search :- Ecotouris* 2009 only
Scopus = 123 articles
W.o.K. = 89 articles
Ovid = 86 after de-duplication of 108 articles, etc.
C.S.A = 75 articles (70 after de-duplication)
EbscoHost = 2 articles
RefWorks de-duplication
= 271
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
• Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA Illumina)
• Web of Knowledge
but there are others –
e.g. International Bibliography of the Social Sciences via EbscoHost
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/services/information_skills/wiser
Databases vs. Search engines
• Contents are indexed by
subject specialists
• Subject headings
• Limiting functions e.g.
publication types, language
Allow you to
• 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!
Newspapers
• Electronic newspapers
– Best source for the “Text Only” of huge range of
newspapers and magazines is Nexis UK.
– Totally international
– Goes back approximately 10 yrs in most cases and is
very current i.e. today’s daily news items
• Legal information, cases etc.
- Lexis Nexis Butterworths
- WestLaw – both UK & US editions
E-Journals
“I didn't check for the hard copy
- so used to getting online access!”
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
Water resources
Middle East
Climate change
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
Truncation
• Amazon rainforest or Amazonia or Amazonian
region?
• Amazon* will cover all eventualities
*
is the most common symbol
• occasionally “ $ “ or “ : “ are preferred by a
particular database
More Wild Cards
• Globalisation or Globalization
• Globali?ation should cover this one
• occasionally # will be used (OVID again)
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
• Use tagging facilities within database to mark articles for printing,
emailing, downloading or exporting.
• Authors names: Check the online help for formats. Use the database
index to find different forms of author’s name, otherwise truncate first
initial.
Reference Management
Systems
• ProCite, Reference Manager and EndNote (works without web
access – but software needs to be installed on own machine –
charge of c£80 from OUCS)
• RefWorks
(web based – access your records anywhere - free to members
of university)
• EndNote on the Web
(free to members of university, but has limited feature set –
designed to be used alongside desktop version)
• Zotero is a free plug-in for Firefox browser (only) – limited but
growing capability
So what can reference
management software do?
• Store references to items in many different formats and material types
• Search, select and output references in a variety of pre-determined
styles, or one of your own making
• Import references direct from databases like Scopus or Web of
Knowledge, or library catalogues like OLIS
• Search external databases from within the reference management
software, and save references retrieved
• Insert references into a word-processed document and format them in a
particular style at the touch of a button
• Store links to documents – pdf’s, images – or copies of them within
database
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.
Further assistance:
This presentation available on-line
http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/science/training/biosciences
More courses available:
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/
Other presentations
http://sers018.sers.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser
[email protected]
Bibliographic Databases
OVIDSP
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Biosis Previews – biogeography
CAB Abstracts – biogeography
Forest Science - biogeography
GeoRef – physical geography & geology
EconLit – economic geography
Zoological Abstracts - biogeography
Web of Knowledge
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
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-indexed
article