Transcript OULS Electronic Resources

WISER Social Sciences
Information sources for education,
sociology and applied social sciences
Louise Clarke & Judy Reading
Oxford University Library Services
Session Overview
Accessing electronic resources
 Cambridge Scientific Abstracts for
sociologists and applied social scientists
 British Education Index and ERIC
 Subject searching on OLIS
 Other key resources

Accessing electronic resources

OxLIP (Oxford Libraries Information Platform)
 http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/index.html





Finding aids – catalogues, abstracting and
indexing services
Full-text – journal articles, official documents,
newspapers, ebooks
Tools for current awareness – digests, theses,
alerting services
Datasets and statistics
Reference works
Accessing electronic resources

Some resources require a password or offer
password access when you are off campus. A
number of publishers have agreed to a single
password system called Athens
 Registration
http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/athens/
 MyAthens http://www.athensams.net/myathens/

For off campus access to non-password
resources register for the VPN or Dial-up
 http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/network/remote/
CSA: ASSIA
Cambridge Scientific Abstracts (CSA)
 ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Indexes
and Abstracts)
 Indexes and abstracts 650 journals
 1987 onwards
 Emphasis upon practical applications of
social science and health research

CSA: Sociological Abstracts
Sociological Abstracts
 Indexes and abstracts over 1,800 journals
 Also provides abstracts of selected books,
book chapters, dissertations, and
conference papers
 1953 onwards
 Emphasis is on covering the international
literature in sociology & related disciplines

CSA: Other databases

Social Services Abstracts
 current
research focused on social work and human
sciences from over 1,600 serials beginning 1980

National Criminal Justice Reference Service
Abstracts
 U.S.

and international publications from 1972
Worldwide Political Science Abstracts
 1,500

serials in political science from 1975
Education Resources Information Center (ERIC)
 educational-related
materials from 1966 onwards
CSA: Database records



TI = title
AB = abstract
AU = author


DE = descriptors


Use the database thesaurus (under search tools) to find
descriptors.
KW = keywords


Use the database author index (under search tools) to find
alternative forms of the authors name
Searches the TI, AB, DE and ID (identifiers) fields
SO = source

Look in the serials source list for abbreviated journal title
CSA: Combining search terms






Use and to narrow a search and retrieve records
containing all search terms
Use or to broaden a search and retrieve records
containing any of the search terms
Use not to narrow search and retrieve records excluding
search terms
Use near to find terms within 10 words of each other or
specify within ‘x’
Use ( ) to group terms/define relationships
Otherwise searches for terms as a phrase
CSA: Search tips

Use * to truncate a search term
 feminis* retrieves feminist, feminists, feminism
 behavi*r retrieves behaviour and behavior

Use ? to find alternative spellings
 wom?n

If searching for acronyms include both the
acronym and the terms spelt in full
 ESRC

for women and woman
or (Economic and Social Research Council)
Click on ‘help & support’ for online help, or ask a
librarian.
CSA: Cited reference linking

Some databases in CSA, e.g. Sociological
Abstracts, contain links to cited references
 locate current research based on earlier research
 find out how many times, and where, a publication
is
being cited
 identify who is referencing a particular paper
 explore how a particular research topic is being used
to support other research
 analyze the impact of a publication on other research
in the field
 track the history of a research idea
 keep track of your own research
CSA: Scholar profiles



Records from selected CSA Social Science
databases that describe articles published after
2000, have been matched to Scholar profiles to
provide verified links between articles and
authors
Scholar profiles include contact information,
education, research interests, home page, and
verified publication lists as available
Covers 1,500 US and Canadian Universities
British Education Index





Indexes journal articles, theses and web documents.
Most British journals and major international journals
The database covers all aspects and fields of education
from preschool to adult and higher education
Material indexed very easily available in the UK – most
in Oxford University libraries
See also other services from British Education Index
ERIC





Available from various platforms including Firstsearch
Contains annotated references to educational materials
issued in the monthly Resources in Education (RIE) and
to journal articles issued in the monthly Current Index to
Journals in Education (CIJE).
Much more content than the BEI but journals indexed
are less likely to be available here
Includes full-text papers and reports available online
Produced in the US but does have international
coverage
Subject searching on OLIS






OLIS (Oxford Libraries’ catalogue) offers a subject index
- Library of Congress Subject Headings
Look at the index terms attached to a resource you know
is relevant to get you started
Use the browse option to identify relevant subject terms
– follow cross-references
Use the keyword options to combine those terms
Use the web version of the catalogue if you want to mark
and print or email records identified
OLIS does not index journals – you need to use a journal
index to identify articles and then locate the journal title
in OLIS.
Official papers and web resources



Useful guidance is available from the Bodleian Official
Papers webpage
http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/dept/readerserv/official/collect
ions.html
For education, see the Educational Studies website
http://www2.ouls.ox.ac.uk/edstud/weblinksindex.html
For the applied social sciences, two helpful websites are:



Social Care Online http://www.scie-socialcareonline.org.uk/
Social Policy Digest
http://journals.cambridge.org/action/displayJournal?jid=JSP
OXLIP has links to key resources including UKOP
Other key resources
SCOPUS
 New research service from Elsevier
 World’s largest abstracts database of over
15,000 titles from 4,000 publishers
 Records from 1966 onwards
 The TOUR icon will link you to full-text

Other key resources
ISI Web of Knowledge
 Abstracts of 1,700 journals from 1981 Index of citations from 1956 Reports on articles cited, other papers
using the same citations, and later
citations of the paper
 Citations create a “web of knowledge”

Other key resources

International Bibliography of the Social Sciences
 Economics
 Political
Science
 Sociology
 Anthropology


1951 – present
Abstracts included for most articles from 1999 -
Other key resources
PsychINFO
 Index and abstracts of 1,900 journals
 1872 onwards
 Covers psychology and related disciplines
 WebSPIRS database

Other key resources




TDNet: A system for managing Oxford’s access to
electronic journals
Current journals from major publisher sites (e.g.,
Science Direct, Ingenta)
‘Delayed’ publication journals from JSTOR and
Project MUSE
LexisNexis Electronic newspapers
 To
restrict your search to a specific newspaper; in the
additional terms search box use the prefix PUB followed
by the term in brackets, e.g. PUB (Financial Times)
Other key resources
Don’t forget Library staff are here to help you –
you are welcome to make an appointment for
assistance:
Contacts: [email protected],
[email protected]
 Look at the other training available from OULS –
see http://www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/information_skills

Finally
Please give us feedback on this session
and let us know what was helpful and what
else would be.
 Fill in the form at

http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/courses/feedback/index.xsp
before you leave