The document provides information about resources for forensic science research. It summarizes the speaker's background as a former forensic chemist and current librarian who helps forensic science students access information. It outlines various sources for background information, scientific literature, and full-texts, and tips for advanced searches. Sources discussed include Wikipedia, newspapers, scientific journals and databases like PubMed and Google Scholar. It also discusses identifying relevant materials, obtaining full-texts, and tracking literature through alerts.

1. Forensic Science Resources:
How to get what you need
Linda Galloway
Biology, Chemistry & Forensic Science Librarian
October 9, 2013

2. Agenda
• Who I am, what I do
• Finding background information on a topic
• Scientific literature
– Identifying relevant materials
– Obtaining full text of documents
• Advanced search techniques
• Questions?
researchguides.library.syr.edu/forensic

3. About me…
• Former forensic chemist (drug & arson) for the
Syracuse Police Department
• Librarian for Biology, Chemistry, Neuroscience
& Forensic Science
• Help people access the content they
need, teach (guest lectures and
classes), purchase electronic & print
resources, create web content, etc.

4. • Undergraduate
– Integrated Learning Major in Forensic Science
– Minor in Forensic Science
• Graduate
– M.S. in Forensic Science
– Combined M.S. in Forensic Science and J.D. in Law
– M.S. in Biomedical Forensic Sciences (lab analysts)
– M.S. in Nuclear Forensic Science (with Brookhaven
National Lab)

5. FSC 632
Research and Career Resources is a course designed to help
the graduate student meet forensic employers'
expectations and bring together concepts that may only be
touched on in other courses during their studies. Areas to be
covered will include effective research techniques and
literature interpretation, critical thinking
skills, communication methods specific to forensic science and
their potential discovery issues, trial practice/procedure and
topics relevant to employment in the field of forensic
science. It is expected that the skills learned in this course will
assist students to perform to a higher standard and to give
them an additional competitive edge when they enter the
job market.

6. Background Information

7. Wikipedia
• A great resource for background information
– Corroborate facts before you use them
– Use the resources (links to other articles or to
other sources; found at end of Wikipedia article)
• Wikipedia is written by volunteer
contributors, but most of the content is
reviewed and edited by experts

9. Hyperlinked, substantial bibliography

10. Before you really start your research…
• Be familiar enough to talk about your topic for
5 minutes
• Decide what kind of information you need
– Background information
– Newspaper or magazine articles
– Scientific or scholarly articles
– Images, photos
– Other?

11. Newspaper Articles

12. News Resources
• Most newspapers provide limited free access
to stories via web portals
• Access to older articles, or print version of
articles, is often behind a pay wall
• Print and electronic versions of articles are
often different
• Most public & college libraries provide online
access to newspaper databases

13. Scientific Literature

14. Do you know the difference between a
magazine and a journal?
• Written by scientists
• First reporting of research results
• Peer review
 suitability for publication
 credibility
 quality control
• Written by journalists
• Sometimes a first person account
• Often a synthesis of several
sources

15. Some terms to be aware of….
• Citation – reference to a source, so that
someone can find this again
• Abstract – summary of a published work
• Peer-reviewed article – before
publication, article is evaluate & edited by
experts
• DOI – Digital Object Identifier, unique number
for each digital publication

16. Finding Scientific Articles
• PubMed – huge database of biomedical
literature from MEDLINE, life science
journals, and online books. Citations may
include links to full-text content from PubMed
Central and publisher web sites.
www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed
• Google Scholar – Google for scholarly
articles and publications
scholar.google.com

17. PubMed – huge database of biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science
journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from
PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

20. Review Article
• Summarize current literature on a topic and
provide an analysis of the topic.
• Great to gain a thorough understanding of a
topic

21. articles, theses, books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic
publishers, professional societies, online repositories, universities and
other web sites.
scholar.google.com

24. Finding Full Text
• Always check Google Scholar first; .pdf may be
available or put article title “in quotation
marks”
• College or University libraries offer walk-in
access to licensed resources
• Public libraries may offer access
• Purchase from publisher – around $39/article
• Use an article service such as DeepDyve

25. Government websites offer access

27. “article title in quotation marks”

28. Purchasing Access to Articles
• Societies often offer journal subscriptions
to their members
• From publishers, usually around $39 per
article
• Use an article service such as DeepDyve

29. Deepdyve
• Free account with DeepDyve gets you free access to full-text
articles for five minutes a day
• $20 for five 30-day rentals, or $40/month for 40 monthly
rentals
• Cannot print or download articles unless you purchase them
• Deepdyve offers individual & group plans for article rentals &
purchases

30. Searched for “bath salts” analysis
chose ‘Chemistry’ as subject area

31. www.deepdyve.com
Questions???

32. More about

34. Using Ggle Scholar Smarter…
• Creating a Google Scholar profile allows
Google Scholar provide links of interest
• Set ‘Library Links’ if affiliated with a college
library
• Sign up for ‘Alerts’ in your area of interest
• Use ‘Advanced Search’ to be more specific
• Read the abstracts of articles before
requesting

36. Keep up with literature in your field…..

37. RSS Alerts
• Set up RSS feeds in Google Scholar to be
alerted when new articles in your field of
interest are published. (I use Scopus to do
this).
• Can set up alerts from many resources– by
author or topic
• Be cognizant of the amount of information
you might get….

39. Advanced
Search Techniques

40. Advanced Search

41. Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources Policy
Scroll down page
Advanced Search

42. To specify language that results
should appear in
Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources Policy

43. To specify that result should only
appear in one file type
e.g. in ppt, pdf
Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources Policy

44. To specify site or domain of result
e.g. .edu, .gov, .org
Appropriate Use of Electronic Resources Policy

46. Google Search Operators
When you search using an operator, don't add
any spaces between the operator and your
query. A search for site:nytimes.com will
work, but site: nytimes.com will not.
Exclude a word; -query
Search within a site or domain site:query
Search for pages that link to a URL link:query
Search for either word query OR query

47. Questions???