This document provides an overview of techniques for searching the scholarly literature. It discusses planning a search by conceptualizing the research question and identifying key search terms. It then covers using bibliographic databases to search keywords, citations, and filters. Hands-on exercises demonstrate searching databases and Google Scholar, comparing results. The document also discusses obtaining full texts, performing citation searches, setting up alerts to stay current, and managing references with software. The overall goal is to equip researchers with best practices for efficiently locating relevant academic materials.
1. Searching the Literature:
locating and evaluating scholarly reading material
Find this presentation on Slideshare:
Research Support Librarian: Kirstyn Radford
Teaching & Learning Adviser: Steph Jesper
Research Excellence Training 2018/19
Library
2. Overview of this workshop
• Planning your search
• Search techniques:
» keywords
» citations
• Using bibliographic databases
• Locating the full text of items you find
• Using other libraries
• Keeping up-to-date
• Managing your references
Presentation, demonstration, practical exercises.
Questions welcome!
4. 1. Conceptualise your research question1. Conceptualise your research question
“Is anonymity for social media users necessary to
protect freedom of expression?”
7. 1. Conceptualise your research question2. Identify the key search terms and synonyms
“Is anonymity for social media users necessary to
protect freedom of expression?”
anonymity privacy real-name identifiable
social media Facebook Twitter etc
freedom of
expression
free speech responsibility
8. • Think of the keywords and alternative
terms (and combinations of words and
terms) for your search
• Discuss your topic and keywords
with the person next to you
• 15 minutes
Hands-on practical no.1
11. • Paid-for (subscription) databases
» Login with your University of York ID
• Interdisciplinary databases, for example:
» Web of Science, Scopus
• Subject-specialist databases may index niche
publications overlooked by the larger databases
• Also format-specific databases (e.g. newspapers,
theses)
• Access via Subject Guides subjectguides.york.ac.uk
3. Choose an appropriate database
24. • White Rose Libraries
» borrow from University of Leeds & Sheffield libraries
www.york.ac.uk/library/other-libraries/white-rose-
researchers
• British Library
» minibus to British Library at Boston Spa (near Wetherby)
www.york.ac.uk/library/other-libraries/british-library
• SCONUL Access
» Visit and borrow from other UK university libraries
www.york.ac.uk/library/other-libraries/sconul
Unavailable at York
Or use the Library’s free Interlending service to
request material delivered to you:
www.york.ac.uk/library/borrowing/interlending
25. • Try out your search on Google Scholar and a
bibliographic database. Compare your results.
• Link to the full text if it is available
• 20 minutes
Hands-on practical no.2
Keep a record of at least one
article which is relevant to your
research question. You’ll be using
this for practical no.3.
27. References: where did the author get his/her ideas
from?
Citations: who has discussed the author’s ideas in
more recent work?
Start from the ‘best’ material you can find:
• Highly cited?
• Authored by a leading researcher?
• A close match to your research interests?
Tracing academic arguments
28. • Web of Science
• Scopus
• Google Scholar
Be aware that they don’t all count citations in the
same way: differences in the range of years, source
titles and disciplines covered.
Some subject-specific databases and journal
websites incorporate citation data purchased from
these sources.
Citation search tools
32. • Using one of the citation search tools
Google Scholar, Scopus or Web of Science
search for the article you noted earlier, and
explore the citation data available
• Create a citation alert (if offered)
• 15 minutes
Hands-on practical no.3
35. Or follow your favourite journal / author
www.york.ac.uk/library/info-for/researchers/search/keep-up-to-date
RETT courses:
» social media for
researchers
37. Find
Search and collect references from your favourite search
tools
Store
Organise your references into groups and create your own
searchable database
Create
Automatically build and format bibliographies using Cite
While You Write in Microsoft Word
Share
Share references with groups when you are working on
collaborative projects
Reference management software enables you to:
38. » RETT session on Endnote
» IT Services courses on reference management allow you to play
with Mendeley and Paperpile
EndNote Paperpile Mendeley
Desktop and online Web-based Web-based
Any web browser Use Chrome Any web browser
Has more
sophisticated
organisation options
for researchers
Fabulous for
harvesting
information quickly
and easily including
PDFs
All rounder. One perk
is the ability to
directly annotate
PDFs
Integrates with Word Integrates with
Google Drive and
docs
Integrates with Word
University of York supported packages:
39. More information
• Subject Guides: for specialist advice about
Library collections
subjectguides.york.ac.uk
• Skills Guides: including help with Google
apps and data analysis
http://subjectguides.york.ac.uk/skills/
• Information for Researchers: when you are
writing for publication
www.york.ac.uk/library/info-for/researchers
This question may have been prompted by a specific incident, or you may be looking for case studies
Very quickly off-target eg. linguistics, computer science
Google Scholar is very effective when you know exactly what you’re looking for, or you’re working on a question with highly specific keywords
But the Advanced Search form isn’t very flexible
Web of Science is an inter-disciplinary resource
Use OR to indicate synonymous terms
AND connects concepts: looking for material which addresses ALL of these issues
Add as many rows to the form as necessary to capture all the different concepts
Records 3 and 4 look particularly promising…
Truncation can also be useful for irregular plurals eg. wom*, and British/American English spellings eg. colo*
Different databases rely on different symbols – check the Help
Truncation tends to increase the number of results – grammatically-related terms
Phrase searching may decrease the number of results by eliminating use of the terms in a different context
“Categories” are assigned by the database compiler – use with care
Much fewer results but they’re starting to look really promising
You may be inspired to revisit your keywords to add/remove alternative terms
Relevance is calculated by the database compilers based on the number of keywords and position in the record (eg. title, repetition in the abstract etc)
The number of times an article has been cited is an indicator of its impact on scholarly discourse – favourable or unfavourable!
Newer material may not get cited immediately
Create a personal account to save your history and re-run it
Set up an alert to receive new records matching your search terms monthly or weekly
Authenticated access to articles in subscribed journals, via the YorSearch Library catalogue
Google Scholar also links to non-subscribed journals and other scholarly platforms, which may be paywalled or open access
When you’re not connected to the campus network, you will need to go into Settings and add University of York to your ‘Library links’
The ‘Find it @York’ button connects you to the Library Catalogue, but unlike Google Scholar, you can’t tell whether the Library subscribes to the journal until you actually click it
Brand new feature for WoS: information about articles released for open access by the journal publisher – this is a condition of UK research funding
Use it as a filter to go straight to the articles which are free-to-view – but be aware these are more likely to relate to research carried out in the UK, which may not be what you want
“Gold” (on publisher’s platform) or “green” (on scholarly society or university platform – York authors use White Rose Research Online)
Especially important when you have found a very small number of relevant results – are other people writing about this question using keywords you haven’t identified?
In summary, citation searching enables you to:
find out if articles have been cited by other authors
discover references to a particular author
find more recent papers on the same subject
tracking the history of a research idea and discovering if it has been confirmed, applied, improved, extended or corrected.
Only the largest bibliographic databases support citation searching. Scopus is the main competitor for WoS.
Generally, Web of Science and Scopus offer good coverage of the sciences and social sciences. Google Scholar has good coverage of all subjects, but its tools are less robust and there is little quality control. Coverage of the humanities, especially where there is more reliance on books, is limited.
Follow the link to the citing articles
WoS citation counts are much lower, because they apply editorial control to avoid double-counting, fuzzy matches etc
Use ‘related articles’ with caution – Google does not reveal how these connections are established
Links to cited references (bibliography) as well as citing references
Set up an alert to be informed every time a new article cites your original article
WoS also analyses the data at the level of the journal – do articles published in this journal tend to get cited more often than average for the discipline?
A different total because slightly different sources are indexed
Option to remove ‘self-citations’ by author
Data about who’s read/downloaded the article as well
When comparing individuals or journal titles, stick to metrics from a single source
Register with your UoY account
Choose frequency
Create your own library of all your references, and attach the full text when available.
Find
import references from the Library Catalogue, most subject databases, Google Scholar.
Building your own database - searchable
Store/organise
Create labels and categories
delete duplicates
add your own notes
Write/create
Automatically insert and format references in your text e.g. from Endnote into Word (Cite While You Write)
Format your citations and your bibliography in the correct referencing style.
Share
With groups
- Internal searching
Smart groups (based on searches)
Multitude of different ways of organising