This document provides an overview of resources and strategies for finding research evidence. It discusses developing effective search strategies, evaluating information quality and relevance, managing references, and using library databases and tools like Summon, RefWorks, and Web of Science. Key resources covered include journal databases, citation searching in Web of Science, and getting materials through interlibrary loans if they are not available in the library. The document emphasizes evaluating information sources based on their authority, relevance, intent, objectivity, and currency.
2. In this workshop we will look at...
• How to find information
• Developing an effective search strategy
• Resources available and how to use them
• Evaluating information for quality and relevance
• Managing references
3.
4. Find out more
MyUniHub > MyStudy > MyLibrary > My Subject > Science & Technology
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/pdde/Resources
10. Journal Databases
myUniHub > My Study > My Library > Databases
• ACM Digital Library
• IEEE Xplore
• Science Direct
11. Summon and journal databases provide:
• Access to quality information
• Information not available elsewhere
• Up-to-date
• Focussed/specific
• Full-text access
• Access on/off campus
• Personalize
• Citation and journal impact info
12. Citation searching
• Which articles have cited an earlier article
• Find articles on similar/related subject
• How many times an article has been cited
• Best journals in your field
15. It’s not in the Library!
• Inter Library Loans http://bit.ly/InterLibraryLoans
• Sconul Access http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/sconul-access
• Other libraries http://bit.ly/visitingotherlibraries
18. Evaluating information
• Imagine you are researching ‘The right to be forgotten’
• Go to http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/EvaluatingInformationPG
• Have a look at the 5 items and then answer the following question:
How do we know if the information is reliable?
20. Need further help?
Your Librarian is:
Vanessa Hill v.hill@mdx.ac.uk
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/PDDE/Help
Editor's Notes
Welcome and intros.
How to find information for your projects
How to develop an effective search strategy when you need to find information for an essay or project
The range of resources available and how to use them to find good quality and relevant information
Evaluating information for quality and relevance
Managing references
Research from Uni of Huddersfield shows that correlation between library usage and good grades.
Magazine (A regular publication aimed at a profession, business or interest....trade/popular)
Good: Latest news: events, jobs, products etc, concise info, easy to obtain
Bad: lacks detail, can be bias, old issues hard to come by
Standards (An agreed, often legally binding level of quality or way of doing something....regional, Nat, Internat, profession/sector)
Good: Created by experts, confidence
Company/market research report (Well researched overview of a company or product market. Could contain future trends, financial data, competitors and SWOT analysis)
Good: Up-to-date: latest research/data, Insider information: information not freely available elsewhere, objective, accurate
Bad: Hard to locate
Webpage
Good: All subjects covered, easy to use, mobile
Bad: accuracy, no editorial control, anyone can add information, provenance
Newspapers
Good: Daily information ie. up-to-date, edited, current issues accessible
Bad: Sensationalist, biased (unbalanced), harder to get back issues
Conference proceedings (Collof aca papers distributed after a conference, cont the contributions made by researchers, academics etc)
Good: Up-to-date: latest research, ideas, thinking on a subject, focussed/specialist, stringent quality control
Bad: Too specific
Journals
Good: Up-to-date, Focussed: specialist subject areas, quality
Bad: Too specific
Books
Good: overview, background knowledge, edited/quality
Bad: Currency, detailed/specific information
More information about the range of resources available on the Library Subject Guide plus useful online guides eg. how to find information for your project.
Thinking about keywords.
Important to consider:
What you are searching for
Alternative words
Detail
Broader subject
Related subject
Hand out worksheet. 5 mins. Feedback.
The students (roughly 5) are supposed to write a survey essay of 6-8 A4 page / 4000-6000 words double column IEEE reference style and format. The review needs to be related to be one particular area of robotic systems and control applications, such as (but not limited to) Interaction between humanoid robotics and neuroscience, Autonomous robots, Motor skill learning, Control strategies for robotics, Advances in assistive robotics. The focus would be an overall survey and then a detailed research on any one of the above specialized topic (most of the students would have chosen their topic of specialization, but this can change).
Need to carry out a literature review:
Finding the information available on a subject
Finding information to inform, underpin and shape your research
Finding what has already been written on a subject
Analyzing, evaluating and making judgements about the info found
Identifying the main trends
Finding appropriate information: the information needs to be suitable for your need ie. right level, current if important, sufficient breadth or detail etc
Explain to students what Summon is.
Go to UniHub > Login in to MyUniHub > My Study > My Library > Summon
Ask students to search for information for their project.
Remember to use some of the keywords that we have discussed.
Show the students how to refine their search using:
FT
Content type
Subject terms
Publication date
Language etc
Have another go.
Students can also search individual databases.
Access to quality academic information eg. Peer reviewed journal articles, conference proceedings , research etc
Information not available elsewhere
Up-to-date
Focussed/specific....not designed to sell you things, search results not sponsored
Full-text access
Access on/off campus
Personalize eg. In MyEBSCO, once signerd up you can:
Save preferences
Organise research within folders
Share folders
Save search history
Create email alerts/Rss feeds for searches and subjects
Can provide citation and journal impact info > more info on next slide
Which articles have cited an earlier article ie. Way of looking forward in the literature-if have found excellent article, can use a citation index to see which articles have subsequently cited it
Find articles on similar/related subjects: Citation implies subject relationship, so can find papers on a similar topic without using any keywords or subject terms
Find out how many times a paper has been cited ie. gauge the usefulness/quality. esteem of a paper
Determine which are the best journals in your field: citation data used to rank journals within particular subject areas…..useful way of seeing how journals perform in relation to others in the same subject area
Citation data and journal citation reports available from Web of Knowledge
Inter Library Loan service: request copies of books and journals not held by MDX. £3 charge. Register as DL first. More info on our website.
SCONUL Access http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/ The SCONUL Access Scheme provides reciprocal access and borrowing rights for staff and students to approximately 170 member institutions in the UK. Apply online.
Other libraries (specialist, catalogues etc):
British Library http://www.bl.uk/
COPAC http://copac.ac.uk/ COPAC is a union catalogue that gives access to the merged online catalogues of members of the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL). Twenty major university libraries currently contribute to COPAC.
Search25 http://www.search25.ac.uk/: helps you discover library resources across London and the South East. You can also see where the libraries are and find out how to visit them.
SUNCAT http://www.suncat.ac.uk/ SUNCAT, a union catalogue of serials (periodicals) for the UK, is a tool for locating serials held in UK libraries.
A84
Uni email
How do you decide if the information is any good? Especially important with the Internet.
What do you think about this quote?
Paul Bernal’s blog ‘The right to be forgotten roadshow- and the power of Google’
Blog about Privacy, Human Rights, Law, The Internet, Politics and more. PB is Lecturer in Information Technology, Intellectual Property and Media Law at the University of East Anglia Law School.
Wikipedia ‘Right to be forgotten’
Lots of refs.
BBC News Technology ‘What is the 'right to be forgotten'?’
Dave Lee author is BBC Technology reporter. Contact details.
The Guardian ‘EU to Google: expand 'right to be forgotten' to Google.com’
Contact details for author. Substantial. Facts etc
Computer Law & Security Review ‘The ‘Right to be Forgotten-Worth remembering?’
Substantial article, lots of refs, peer reviewed, good source.
Take feedback and discuss.
Authority : Who is the author? What is their knowledge base/qualifications? How have they carried out their research?
Relevance : Is this what I need? Will it answer my question? Is it at the right level?
Intent : What is the purpose of information e.g. financial gain, propaganda, academic etc?
Objectivity : Balanced view? Opposing views represented? Links to supporting information?
Currency: How old is this information? When was it last updated and by whom?