This document provides an overview of a computer science library skills training session on effective searching techniques. It discusses searching databases like Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library, and IEEE Xplore. It covers using keywords, Boolean operators, and other search techniques. It also addresses metrics like citations and downloads for evaluating sources. Additionally, it summarizes accessing articles not available through UCT libraries, copyright, and reference managers.

1. Computer Science
Library Skills Training
June 2017
Pepler Head
pv.head@uct.ac.za

2. In this session we will be looking at:
• Effective searching
• Searching using Google Scholar, ACM Digital Library &
IEEE Xplore
• Article/publication metrics
• Access articles that UCT Libraries does not subscribe to
• Copyright
• Reference Managers, RefWorks & EndNote
• Scholarly writing Resources

3. Effective Searching:
How?
Using Boolean operators (AND OR NOT)
Identifying key words
Conducting phrase searching and using quotation marks
Why?
Helps find relevant/accurate results
Saves time
Goes beyond finding anything and everything

4. Effective Searching:
Topic:
• Perceptions of Cloud Computing in South African Government
Identify Keywords:
• Cloud Computing
• South Africa
• Government
Search phrase:
• “Cloud Computing” AND “South Africa” AND Government

5. Effective Searching:
Searching on Google Scholar (21 June 2017):
Search Result
“Cloud Computing” 349,000
“Cloud Computing” AND “South Africa” 9,990
“Cloud Computing” AND “South Africa”
AND Government
7,250

6. Effective Searching:
Makes use of the following:
“ “ – Quotation marks keep phrases together:
• Searching for South Africa as one concept rather than looking for South
and Africa as individual words.
( ) – Brackets around key words allow that which falls inside of it to be
processed first (often in cases of synonyms)
• (eBooks OR “electronic books”) searches for both eBooks and electronic
books.
AND/OR/NOT – typing your operators in capitals helps Databases with
the identification thereof.

7. Effective Searching:
Makes use of the following:
Truncation:
• Usually the asterisk sign (*) to indicate various forms of words, plurals
Eg. Educat* searches for Educate, Educating, Education,
Wildcards:
• Usually the Question mark symbol (?) to search for variations in
spelling. Eg. P?ediatric searches for both American and British spelling.

8. Effective Searching:
The Metrics:
Part of effective searching is evaluating the information you are using by
looking at:
• Citations
• Downloads
Do not grab the first article you find, but evaluate it by looking at the
Abstract, citations and/or downloads.
Citations are useful for expanding your literature.

9. Where do you search?
https://respond.cc/
Enter key: 606700

10. Where to search:
Google Scholar
ACM Digital Library
Computer & Applied Science Complete
ScienceDirect
IEEE Xplore
Web of Science

11. Google Scholar:
• Search all scholarly literature from one convenient place
• Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
• Locate the complete document through your library or on
the web
• Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
• Check article citations

12. Google Scholar:
• If the search results are too specific for your needs, check out
what they're citing in their "References" sections. Referenced
works are often more general in nature.
• Similarly, if the search results are too basic for you, click "Cited
by" to see newer papers that referenced them. These newer
papers will often be more specific.
• Explore! There's rarely a single answer to a research question.
Click "Related articles" or "Cited by" to see closely related work,
or search for author's name and see what else they have written.

13. Google Scholar:
Google Scholar does not search in exactly the same way as the
“academic” databases.
Truncation:
• Google Scholar does not recognize truncation symbols,
instead it uses automatic stemming. It looks for the word
you type in plus additional letters (“South Africa”, “South
African”)
Exact Word searching:
• By Default Google Scholar will search for synonyms of your
search word. To avoid this, it is best to use quotation marks
“ “

14. Google Scholar:
Boolean Operators:
• Google Scholar automatically inserts the AND operator
between words, unless you insert the OR operator.
• When using the operators, always capitalize it so it can be
identified as a command and not as part of the search
phrase
• Insert a dash (-) in front of a word to exclude results that
include that word

15. Google Scholar:
EZ-Proxy/Off campus login

16. Google Scholar:
EZ-Proxy/Off campus login
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/

17. Google Scholar:
Accessing Google Scholar:
Library Home Page: www.lib.uct.ac.za
Search & Find
Databases by Platform
Google Scholar: https://scholar-google-co-za.ezproxy.uct.ac.za/
- All UCT Library pay walled items are also indexed

18. Using Google Scholar:

19. Google Scholar:

22. Google Scholar Exercise:
Find the PDF of the following article:
Muranganwa, Raymond & Thinyane, Mamello.
2014. Design of a multi-agent opportunistic
grid computing platform. Multiagent and Grid
Systems. 10(4): 199 – 212.

23. ACM Digital Library
The ACM Digital Library (DL) is the most comprehensive collection of full-text
articles and bibliographic records in existence today covering the fields of
computing and information technology containing
• 407,367 Full-text articles
• 2.0+ Million Pages of full-text articles
• 18,000+ New full-text articles added each year
• 44+ High Impact Journals with 2-3 new journals being launched each year
• 275+ Conference Proceedings Titles added each year
• 2,000+ Proceedings Volumes
• 8 Magazines (including the flagship Communications of the ACM, the most
heavily cited publication in the field of computing according to Thomson-
Reuters)
• 37 Technical Newsletters from ACM's Special Interest Groups (SIGs)
• 6,500+ Video files
• 594 Audio files

24. Using ACM Digital Library
Basic Searching
• Type key word in lower case
• You can enter a question or concept in plain language (ACM
accommodates both plain language searching & key word searching)
• Capitalize proper nouns
• Use quotation mars (“”) for exact phrase searching
• Use + or – to include or exclude terms
Topic Searches
• If your key word matches an existing topic, you will find that your results
list includes documents that contain more than just the word itself,
because ACM automatically expands the search to include all the words
defined as part of the topic.
• If you don’t want the term expanded as a topic, use quptation marks for
exact phrase searching

25. Using ACM Digital Library
Searching with Wildcards:
• Wildcards function as truncation in ACM Digital Library
• Works with the asterisk symbol (*)
• Col*r returns results for color and colour and all words beginning with
col ending with r
Zone Searches:
• These are specific regions of documents that can be searched
• Available in Markup Language
• To search a document zone, type the name of the zone, a colon (:), and
the search terms.
• Searching h1:cloud storage returns results with the word cloud
computing in the <h1> tag of an HTML document.

26. ACM Digital Library

29. ACM Digital Library
Advanced search

32. ACM Exercise:
Conduct a search using ACM Digital Library on the following topic:
Perceptions of Cloud Computing in South African Government .

33. IEEE Xplore
The IEEE Xplore digital library is a powerful resource for discovery and
access to scientific and technical content published by the IEEE
(Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing
partners.
IEEE Xplore provides web access to more than 3.5-million full-text
documents from some of the world's most highly cited publications in
electrical engineering, computer science and electronics.
The content in IEEE Xplore comprises over 160 journals, over 1,200
conference proceedings, more than 2,500 technical standards, over
1,000 eBooks, and over 300 courses. Approximately 25,000 new
documents are added to IEEE Xplore each month.

34. IEEE Xplore
Searching:
• Use key word for searching the database
• IEEE does automatic stemming, searching for plurals and other
forms of the key word.
• Nesting the keyword ensures that the search is performed as you
intend (Advanced search can assist with this)
• Quotation marks (“ “) is used for exact searching.
• Use wildcards, asterisk symbol (*) for words with different spelling.
Example searching computer will return computers, but searching
computer* will return computers and computerize.

35. IEEE Xplore

36. IEEE Xplore

37. IEEE Xplore

38. IEEE Xplore

39. IEEE Xplore

40. IEEE Xplore

41. How to access material that UCT Libraries does not have access to?
Interlibrary Loans

42. How to access material that UCT Libraries does not have access to?
Interlibrary Loans

43. How to access material that UCT Libraries does not have access to?
Open DOAR (Directory of Open Access Repositories)
Check to see whether any version of the article is not sitting on an
Institutional repository.

44. How to access material that UCT Libraries does not have access to?
You can also try
emailing the author
Check academic social
networking sites like
Research Gate &
Adademia.edu

45. Copyright
For a work to be protected by Copyright it must:
• Original
• Recorded
• Created by a qualifying person

46. Copyright
As an author, you own the copyright of the work you produce, you have the
right to:
• Reproduce the work
• Prepare derivative work
• Distribute copies
• Perform the work publicly
• To display the work publicly…
…Until the author signs a copyright transfer agreement when publishing a
journal article

47. Fair use
It allows under certain conditions a person to use copyright protected
material without permission.
Fair use allows us to quote, scan, share, and make general use of copyright
protected works
Fair use depends on a reasoned and balanced application of four factors:
• the purpose of the use
• the nature of the work used
• the amount used
• the effect of the use

48. Fair use
Copyright allows for fair use, which does not amount to infringement. Special
exception is given to:
• Those working in or undertaking education
• Libraries and their users
• Visually impaired users

49. Creative Commons Licensing
Creative Commons helps you legally share your knowledge and
creativity to build a more equitable, accessible, and innovative world
Creative Commons provides free, easy-to-use copyright licenses to
make a simple and standardized way to give the public permission to
share and use your creative work–on conditions of your choice

50. Creative Commons Licensing

51. Creative Commons Licensing

52. Citation Managers:
• RefWorks and EndNote are reference management tools that enables you
to store and organise your references in your own personal database.
• Both have a write-n-cite plugin for Word that allows you to insert your in
text references and reference list directly in Word

53. • Build up your OWN PERSONAL DATABASE of references
• FREE for Students and Alumni at UCT
• Store references SAFELY on the RefWorks server
• ORGANISE your references in folders
• IMPORT REFERENCES from databases and the Web
• SEARCH your references with the RefWorks search engine
• SAVE the abstracts of articles
• Link to FULL TEXT
• CREATE BIBLIOGRAPHIES automatically
RefWorks:

54. RefWorks:
To access RefWorks, go to the
library home page:
www.lib.uct.ac.za
Under Research Help, you
will see the RefWorks tab.

55. RefWorks:

56. RefWorks:

57. EndNote:
• Mainly desktop based
• Update and maintain references across EndNote and sync with
other devices
• Set preferences to create clear, organized, and easily searchable
names for your PDF documents as you import them.
• Read, highlight and comment on PDF’s within EndNote’s PDF
viewer.
• Organise your research materials better by using new reference
types such as Interview, Podcast, Conference Paper, and Press
Release
• Create your bibliography automatically

58. To access EndNote, go to the
library home page:
www.lib.uct.ac.za
Under Research Help, you
will see the EndNote tab.
EndNote:

59. EndNote:

60. Accessing theses:
Open UCT – for all UCT theses.
National & International theses:
• ProQuest, Databases by
platform
• Search & Find, EDT (Electronic
Theses)
• Search for individual
Institutional Repositories or
Open DOAR

61. Resources for Academic writing - Books
The sense of style
By Steven Pinker
808.042 PINK
The scientist's guide to writing
By Stephen B Heard
808.0665 HEAR
Stylish academic writing
By Helen Sword
808.02 SWOR
Academic writing
and grammar for
students
By Alex Osmond
808.066378 OSMO
Clear and Simple as
the truth
By Francis-Noël Thomas
808.042 THOM
How to write a thesis
By Umberto Eco
808.066378 ECO
Have a look at the Library’s catalogue for more

62. Resources for Academic writing –
Library Guides
Many University Libraries offer guides on academic writing.
Searching for Academic writing guides in Google will find these.
Examples:
• Lund University – Academic Writing in English
• University of British Columbia – Scholarly Publication
• Anglia Ruskin University – Academic Writing
SAGE Research Methods:
Databases A-Z, S, Sage Research Methods

63. UCT Writing Centre
http://www.writingcentre.uct.ac.za

64. Further Assistance:
Please feel free to email me:
Pepler Head - pv.head@uct.ac.za
Remember the Computer Science Library Guide:
http://libguides.lib.uct.ac.za/chemistry
Also have a look at UCT Libraries’ YouTube channel:
https://www.youtube.com/user/UCTLibraries
Check out the Savvy Reseacher Series:
http://www.lib.uct.ac.za/lib/savvy-researcher-workshop-series

68. Thank you,
any questions?