This document summarizes a presentation given by Robin Featherstone and Marisa Mitchell, research librarians at the University of Western Ontario (UWO), about various research tools. They discussed RefWorks for managing citations, Scopus for literature searching and citation mapping, COS for finding funding opportunities, Survey Monkey for creating surveys, and Journal Citation Reports and Eigenfactor for ranking journals. The librarians provided exercises for attendees to practice using these tools and asked for any questions at the end.

1. Saving Research Time
Feb 25, 2009
Robin Featherstone Marisa Mitchell
Research & Instructional Research & Instructional
Librarian (Nursing) Librarian (Health Sciences)
rfeathe@uwo.ca mmitch2@uwo.ca
(519) 661-2111 ext: 86383 (519) 661-2111 ext: 80959
Today’s slides will be available at: http://uwohealthlibrarian.blogspot.com/

2. Literature searching:
Managing citations:
Creating manuscripts:
Research
Life-cycle
Publishing:
Fund searching:
Collecting data:

3. RefWorks – the bibliographic management
program
• Why use it?
– free to all UWO faculty, staff, and students
– web-based so available anywhere and anytime
– data is stored on a server in Toronto
– data is backed up every night so you will not lose
your data

4. RefWorks…….
• It allows you to:
– Save citations as you search
– Organize your research
– Include citations while you write your paper
– Build a bibliography in a variety of formats (APA, MLA, etc.)
– Import references from many data sources including
databases, the UWO catalogue, even from web pages.
– Enter citations manually
– Create bibliographies in different document formats (Word,
RTF, HTML, etc.)
– Share citations with friends, colleagues, students, etc.

5. RefWorks

6. Getting Started
http://www.lib.uwo.ca
Make sure to
sign in if
you’re off
campus

7. Exercise
• Login to RefWorks or
sign up for an
individual account
• Tip: make sure to
use your UWO email
address

8. Exercise
• Once you have an account, create a new
folder called “Research Workshop”

9. Literature searching:
Managing citations:
Creating manuscripts:
Research
Life-cycle
Publishing:
Fund searching:
Collecting data:

10. Scopus
• Large, multidisciplinary database
• Supports “citation mapping”

11. Getting Started
http://www.lib.uwo.ca
Make sure to
Sign in!

12. Exercise
In Scopus, find the following article:
Hiatt, R. A., & Breen, N. (2008). The social determinants of
cancer. A challenge for transdisciplinary science. American
Journal of Preventive Medicine, 35(2 SUPPL.), S141-S150.
How many articles reference it?

13. Exercise
Select the 7 citations that reference the Hiatt article
Use the “Output” button to send them to RefWorks

14. Exercise
• In RefWorks, move your citations from the
“Last imported folder” into your “Research
Workshop” folder
• Now you can remove the citations from the
“Last imported folder”
Put in folder.... Remove from folder....

15. Exercise
• Format a bibliography in APA style from the
citations you exported from Scopus
• Create an HTML document and save it to your
desktop with the title “Bibliography”

16. Literature searching:
Managing citations:
Creating manuscripts:
Research
Life-cycle
Publishing:
Fund searching:
Collecting data:

17. Google Docs
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eRqUE6IHTEA

18. Getting started:
http://docs.google.com/

19. Exercise
• Create a Google account (if you don’t have one
already) – will send you an email verification
• Upload the bibliography document
• Invite me to share the file as a collaborator
robin.featherstone@gmail.com

20. Literature searching:
Managing citations:
Creating manuscripts:
Research
Life-cycle
Publishing:
Fund searching:
Collecting data:

21. COS Funding Opportunities
• World’s largest funding database
• Data obtained directly from the sponsoring
agencies
• Covers all disciplines
• Opportunities for undergraduates, graduates
and professionals

22. Getting started:
• IP authenticated subscription database (paid for by
Research Western)
• From off-campus, login to www.lib.uwo.ca
• Follow the link from the “Grants & Funding
Opportunities” section (under “Research &
Scholarship” tab)

23. Exercise
• Use the Search Wizard to locate funding
opportunities of interest to you
• If you want to save your search (optional),
create an account with COS

24. COS User Training
• Three upcoming, online training sessions:
2:00 pm Wednesday, March 4th
2:00 pm Tuesday, March 17th
2:00 pm Monday, March 30th
• Enroll online at: www.cos.com/usertraining/

25. Literature searching:
Managing citations:
Creating manuscripts:
Research
Life-cycle
Publishing:
Fund searching:
Collecting data:

26. Survey Monkey
• Web-based survey creation tool
• 2 kinds of subscriptions
1. Basic (Free!)
100 participants maximum
2. Professional ($20/month, $200/year)

27. Getting started:
http://www.surveymonkey.com/
• Start a basic (free) account

28. Exercise
• Select “Create Survey”
• Enter the title name:
“Workshop – *your name+”
(i.e., Workshop – Robin F.)

29. Exercise
• Create a short one-question survey
• In the “Edit Survey” function, select to “Add
Question Here”

30. Exercise
• Choose “Multiple Choice (Only One Answer)”
• Display Choices as Buttons
• Ask any question you like
• Enter possible answers on separate lines
• Save your changes

31. Exercise
• After you’re done designing your survey,
select “Collect Responses”
• Create a link (default) called “Workshop
Survey”

32. http://tinyurl.com/taylorsurvey

33. Literature searching:
Managing citations:
Creating manuscripts:
Research
Life-cycle
Publishing:
Fund searching:
Collecting data:

34. Ranking Journals
…….Using quantitative data based on the number of times a
journal article is cited
• Eigenfactor
•JCR Impact Factor

35. Eigenfactor
“Ranking and Mapping Scientific Knowledge”
• Basic Search
– By journal title
– By subject category
• Advanced Search
– By journal title
– By Eigenfactor and JCR subject categories
– Other (eg. ISSN, publisher)
• Cost Effectiveness Search
www.eigenfactor.org

36. Journal Citation Reports (JCR)
• The Journal Citation Reports is a comprehensive, and unique
resource for journal evaluation, using citation data drawn
from over 8,400 scholarly and technical journals worldwide
• Coverage is both multidisciplinary and international, and
incorporates journals from over 3,000 publishers in 60
nations.
• Published yearly in two editions
– Science edition
– Social sciences edition

37. JCR can show you the:
• Most frequently cited journal in a field
• Highest impact factor in a field
• Largest journals in a field
How?
3 search options
•By subject category
•Search for a specific journal
•View all journals

38. Journal Citation Reports
• Evaluate a particular journal
– Impact factor
– Immediacy factor
• Consider other journals
– Look at related journals

39. Impact Factors Article
IMPACT FACTORS:
USE AND ABUSE.
M. Amin & M. Mabe
Elsevier Science
Perspectives in Publishing No. 1, October 2000
Available Online:
http://www.elsevier.com/framework_editors/pdfs/Perspectives1.pdf

40. http://www.lib.uwo.ca/programs/nursing

41. Exercise
• Find the Journal of Emergency Nursing in the
2007 JCR Science Edition
1. What is its 2007 Impact Factor?
2. What is the most closely related journal?
3. Which one has a higher Impact Factor?

42. Exercise
• Conduct a subject search in the 2007 JCR
Science and/or Social Science Edition
1.Which journal has the highest Impact Factor?
2.Which journal has the highest Immediacy
Index?

43. Questions?
Robin Featherstone Marisa Mitchell
Research & Instructional Research & Instructional
Librarian (Nursing) Librarian (Health Sciences)
rfeathe@uwo.ca mmitch2@uwo.ca
(519) 661-2111 ext: 86383 (519) 661-2111 ext: 80959