Transcript Slide 1
Information Skills for Research
in Earth Sciences
Roger Mills
OULS Bio- & Environmental Sciences Librarian October 2008
This session
How to do subject searches for journal articles, conference papers, book chapters etc
How to cite electronic sources correctly
How to avoid plagiarism
Subject searching
SOLO, OLIS and Oxford e-journals cover Oxford holdings only
Better to use specialist indexes covering the world’s literature
Access via OxLIP+
Use inter-library loan for items not held in Oxford and not online
Major sources
Today we cover:
Web of Knowledge
SCOPUS
GeoRef
Google Scholar
Many others available: see OxLIP+
Going home
These are mostly subscription databases
Only available on Oxford network
Outside Oxford, login using your SSO – Single Sign On – username and password (as for Webauth / Herald e mail)
Athens/VPN no longer needed
What can you find on Oxlip+?
Library catalogues including OLIS
Bibliographic databases (journal article summaries & tables of contents)
Full-text electronic journals
Internet sites (subject gateways)
Reference works & Statistics
Glossary
Bibliographic Database
= an indexed source of citations of journal articles (Use these to search for content, e.g. book chapters and journal
articles
)
Library Catalogue
= a list of books, journals, maps, records, etc. held in the library and arranged in a systematic manner
(
Use this to search for a book or journal, once you know the title of the journal or the author or title of a book)
Bibliographic databases
Excellent for locating journal articles, book chapters and book reviews (NB. References only, NOT necessarily [though increasingly] full text)
General or Subject specific coverage
Different interfaces but similar functionality
Not tied to library holdings
Some will provide a link to full text
Bib. databases - Interdisciplinary
Web of Knowledge
(http://wok.mimas.ac.uk)
Web of Science covers journals in all subject areas
Citation searching
Scopus
(http://www.scopus.com/scopus)
Provides an alternative to WOK for cross disciplinary search and citation searching; incorporates Geobase
Relevant Subject Databases
GeoRef
(for geology)
Biological Abstracts
(life sciences and environment)
CAB Abstracts
(environment)
These are available on OvidSP Gateway software and can be cross-searched there
Search strategy
Ask a clear search question What is the impact of tropical deforestation on our climate?
Break the question into search concepts tropical deforestation, climate change
Combine terms into a search strategy using Boolean connectors
Find more terms from retrieved records whilst you are searching
Boolean connectors:
AND, OR, NOT AND
to narrow the search
OR
to broaden the search (synonyms)
NOT
excludes search terms
OR, AND, NOT
Tropical deforestation Environment Climate change
Other tricks:
Use symbols for wildcards and truncation
? for a single character
wom?n will find woman or women
* for truncation or variant spellings
enzym* for enzyme, enzymes, enzymology etc
use quotation marks for searching for phrases e.g
. “ non-ferrous metals ”
Sample search
What is the impact of tropical deforestation on our climate?
AND = narrows OR = widens
Search string could be:
“Climate change” and “tropical deforestation”
Getting your hands on the full- text
Is there a link to full text from the database?
Is the journal available electronically in Oxford?
Check Oxford e-Journals ( http://journals.ouls.ox.ac.uk
)
Is there a print copy in an Oxford library?
Check SOLO ( http://solo.ouls.ox.ac.uk/olis/ )
If not, try Inter-Library Loan from the Earth Sciences Library or RSL
Default means of delivery is SED = Secure Electronic Delivery
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!
Google Scholar
Has links to many, but not all, journal publishers
So not all journals can be found through GS
Records can only be selected singly
But quick route to full text when relevant article found
Citing your references
An article in an online journal which also exists in print can be cited in the same way as print
To cite something which only exists electronically, e.g. a web site, follow special rules which include the date
viewed
Avoid plagiarism
Easy to copy and paste paragraphs and make it look like your own work
Heavy penalties if caught!
Make sure you always give correct citation
See: http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/referencing.php
[or Google ‘plagiarism uk’]
http://www.jiscpas.ac.uk/referencingcitations.php
Keeping track of your references
Make sure you keep a systematic listing of your references, so you can find them again when you need them
A simple listing in Word should be fine, but if you have a large number of references, software like RefWorks (free) or EndNote (£80 from OUCS) can be very helpful.
Some databases allow you to export references directly to RefWorks or EndNote.
Maps
If you need to do much mapping, consider using the MapInfo software. The Bodleian Map Room staff can give you guidance.
http://oxlip-plus.ouls.ox.ac.uk/
To find the databases go to OxLIP+ search by the database title:
Web of Knowledge
SCOPUS
GeoRef
Nb turn off pop-up blockers!
Quick Reference Guides
Web of Knowledge:
Quick Reference Card
SCOPUS:
Online tutorials User Guide
OvidSP
Tutorials and guides
These slides are available on
www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/isbes/training
Any questions in the future, contact your subject librarian:
Try these
Petrogenesis in Europe
Intracrystalline deformation in the Alps
Sequence stratigraphy in volcanic areas
Ultra-high pressure metamorphism