Introduction to Research Skills:Autumn 2012

Sue BirdBodleian Subject Librarian

This session

Introduction to Bibliographic Databases

Introduction to Reference Management Software

www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/science

GUIDE to RESOURCESlibguides/engineering

Databases vs. Search engines

• Contents are indexed by subject specialists

• Subject headings• Limiting functions e.g.

publication types, languageAllow 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!

Databases (Scopus or Web of Science) enable you to:

• Refine results overview to find the main journals, disciplines and authors that publish in your area of interest.

• Link to full-text articles and other library resources

• Click on the cited by and reference links to track research trends and make connections. You can do this within or across disciplines you are interested in.

• Find out who is citing you or your supervisor, and how many citations an article or an author has received.• Use Citation Tracker to simply find, check and track citations in real-time

• Use Author Identifier to automatically match an author’s published research including the h-index

• Use Journal Analyzer to provide quick insight into specific journal performance• Analyze citations for a particular journal issue, volume or year.• Use this information to complete grant or other applications quickly and easily.

• Use Alerts, RSS and HTML feeds to help you stay up-to-date

• Document Download Manager to easily download and organize multiple full-text articles simultaneously

• Data export via bibiliographic managers such as RefWorks, EndNote and BibTeX

SCOPUS

Includes the COMPENDEX database

Abstract and citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature and quality web sources. With over 19,500 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers, including 340 book series.47 million records:

26 million records with references back to 1996 (of which 78% include references).

21 million records pre-1996 which go back as far as 1823.

4.9 million conference papers from proceedings and journals.

435 million scientific web pages indexed via Scirus

24.7 million patent records from five patent offices

eReader Formats The eReader Formats application allows users to convert ScienceDirect articles as seen in the browser into ePUB or Mobipocket format, whichever is appropriate for the user's electronic reader device.

Patent Search Find top-ranked patents for your query and see a detailed patent profile on PatentMiner. This application uses the US Patent Office information.

Methods Search Methods Search application helps you find the methods you need for your research.

E-Journals

I didn't check for the hard copy - so used to getting online access!

Project Techniques

Search Tip : 1– Use Boolean Logical Operators AND, OR, NOT also

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

Project Techniques

Search Tip : 2

• 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.

Project Techniques

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.

Avoiding Plagiarism

"...You must always indicate to the examiners when you have drawn on the work of others; other people's original ideas and methods should be clearly distinguished from your own, and other people's words, illustrations, diagrams etc. should be clearly indicated regardless of whether they are copied exactly, paraphrased, or adapted...

...The University reserves the right to use software applications to screen any individual's submitted work for matches either to published sources or to other submitted work. Any such matches respectively might indicate either plagiarism or collusion...

...Although the use of electronic resources by students in their academic work is encouraged, you should remember that the regulations on plagiarism apply to on-line material and other digital material just as much as to printed material..."

Section 9.5 Proctors' and Assessor's Memorandum

Good academic practice

So by following the citation principles and practices in place in your subject area, you will develop a rigorous approach to academic referencing, and avoid inadvertent plagiarism.

Citing your references

An article in an online journal which also exists in print should 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

A specific quote must include the page reference in the citation.

Also any number of style manuals:-

The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism /Colin Neville. 2nd ed 2010 RSL LB 2369 NEV – also available on-line !Cite them right : the essential referencing guide / Richard Pears and Graham Shields. 2010 RSL LB 2369 PEA

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 SOLO

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

Reference Management Systems

RefWorks

(web based – access your records anywhere - free to members of university – even after you leave)

• ProCite, Reference Manager and EndNote (works without web access – but software needs to be installed on own machine – charge of c£80 from OUCS)

• 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

• Mendeley, etc.

http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/reference-management

Compatibility of different reference management packages

• Mobile Devices

• Some reference management packages have mobile versions offering generally more limited functionality and adaptations to better suit small screens. Some software also has dedicated app versions for iPads. – RefWorks – mobile version.– EndNote Web – mobile version.– Mendeley – dedicated iPad app.– ColWiz – dedicated iPad app coming very soon.

Oliver.bridle@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

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.

Web of Knowledge

Similar but not the same : a.k.a. Web of Science

WEB of Science: ISI citation indexes

Broad Coverage – all subject areas

Inspec : now included under this umbrella but best searched separately

(Journal Citation Reports – help choose the most effective title in your area)

Bibliographic Databases

Search :- wind turbine* AND (energy OR power) AND (home OR domestic OR residential) 2008-2011(2012)

Scopus = 157 articles

Web of Science = 80 articles

Inspec (via Web of Knowledge) = 90 articles

RefWorks (after de-duplication) = 210

Conclusion

• Maintain a balanced diet!• Five a day…

– WoK, Scopus, Solo, subject-specific database, Google Scholar…

Introductory Research Skills

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