Conducting a Literature Search

Geography 3442: Geographies of Development

Dan Sich, Geography LibrarianSeptember 2011

Overview:

Library course guide How to search (basics) Finding academic sources How to read an article Finding grey literature Citing sources

Library course guide has:

Link to this slideshow Summary of topics covered today Additional resources

Other Disciplines?

MDG #2

MDG #3

MDG #4 & #6

Foundations of searching

black AND (cat* OR feline* OR “felis catus”)

Foundations of searching

black AND (cat* OR feline OR “felis catus”) NOT (licorice OR comic*)

The toolset?1. “phrase searching”2. truncat*3. OR4. AND, NOT5. (brackets OR parentheses)

Search tool #1

Use “quotation marks” to connect 2 or more words that you want to find together E.g., “millennium development goals” “poverty reduction” “health care” “gender equality” “maternal health”

Search tool #2

truncation* Use the asterisk * at the end of root

words to find variant endings E.g., Canad* finds: Canada, Canadian,

Canadians E.g., “Millennium Development Goal*”

finds: Millennium Development Goal(s)

Search tools #3 & 4

Use AND & OR to connect search terms

Search tool #3

OR finds mORe!Use OR to connect similar

concepts, keywords, or phrases

E.g., poverty OR “poverty reduction” OR “poverty eradication”

Search tool #4

AND makes things more specific; NOT removes inappropriate results

Use AND to connect concepts E.g., “Millennium

Development Goal*” AND poverty AND Africa

Search tool #5

Use Parentheses ( ) to group (words or phrases) for the (same or similar) concepts E.g., (holiday OR vacation) E.g., (“non fat” OR “fat free” OR skim)

Shows order in which relationships should be considered E.g., (gender OR women) AND equality E.g., (hunger OR malnutrition) AND “food

security”

For your own topic:

1. Identify key concepts

“Millennium Development Goals”

Poverty “millennium development

goal*” MDGMDGs

“poverty reduction”“poverty

eradication”

“Latin America”

ChileArgentina

PeruEl Salvador

2. Think of synonyms, alternate words/phrases (i.e. keywords)

For your own topic:

3. Put it all together using the 5 search tools

(“Latin America” OR Chile OR Argentina OR Peru OR “El Salvador”)AND

(poverty OR “poverty reduction” OR “poverty eradication”)

AND( “Millenium Development Goal*” OR MDG OR MDGs)

Using these search tools

Same toolset, many different applications:Library catalogueGeobasePAIS InternationalSocial Sciences AbsEldisGoogle Scholar

The ad:

Academic resourcesWhat are they, and why use them?

Pros

AuthoritativeIn-depthAnalysis,

interpretation, makes sense of stats

Peer-reviewedMore timely than

books

Cons

Less timely than newsTricky to find*Tricky to read*

Finding academic sources

…using journal article databases: Geobase PAIS International (Public Affairs Info

Services) Social Sciences Abstracts

Questions: What’s in it? Search bells & whistles? How is it better than Google Scholar?

Geobase

Searching Geobase

Geobase results: Geography, etc.

Refine your search

Geobase

Geobase

What’s in it? Geography & related subjects Journal articles, monograph chapters,

conference articles Search bells & whistles?

Geographic terms Controlled vocabulary

How is it better than Google Scholar? More thorough coverage of geography Limit search results to geography

PAIS (Public Affair Information Service)

International

Refine your search

PAIS International

What’s in it? Public Affairs Information Articles, features, books, websites,

government & official documents, news, book chapters

Search bells & whistles? Apply subject limits on search

How is it better than Google Scholar? More thorough coverage of public affairs Limit search results to public affairs

Social Sciences Abstracts

Results

Abstract

Social Sciences Abstracts

What’s in it? Social Sciences Feature articles, interviews, review

articles Search bells & whistles?

Narrow results by subject How is it better than Google Scholar?

More thorough coverage of subject matter

Find academic sources

…using the right journal article databases: Geobase PAIS International (Public Affairs Info Services) Social Sciences Abstracts

…using this toolset:1. “phrase searching”2. truncat*3. OR4. AND, NOT5. (brackets OR parentheses)

How to read an article, or,How to select & eat a burger

1. Abstract (the menu description)2. Intro (top bun, mustard, onions,

etc.)3. Conclusion (bottom bun, grease)4. Middle (the meat)

Grey literature

What is it? Government, IGO and NGO information sources Data, reports & more

Why would you use it? Up-to-date Provides details not covered elsewhere

Where can you find it? Eldis Gateway to Development Information Many other places (see library course page and

assignment description)

Eldis

What’s in it? Development, policy, practice and research Full text docs, resource guides, country

profiles, Search bells & whistles?

Refine by categories How is it better than Google Scholar?

Documents are “editorially selected and abstracted”

Everything is full text

Grey literature

Give you details often not covered elsewhere

See library course page and assignment description for more sources

Citing sources (and avoiding plagiarism)

Citing & Writing > Style Guides RefWorks

Creating a bibliography with RefWorks

Create a Bibliography

select output style

References from which folder?

American Psychological Association

What you get:

Things to Remember

Library course guide: slideshow, more journal article databases, more web sources

Same basic toolset, usable anywhere Academic sources provide analysis Choose search engines according to your

topic How to read an article Grey literature provides details Cite your sources

More help:

More help:

Questions?

Thanks for Listening!