Searching the Literature
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This document provides an overview of techniques for searching the scholarly literature. It discusses planning a search by conceptualizing the research question and identifying keywords. It then covers using bibliographic databases to search in a structured way, using search features like truncation and filters. The document also discusses obtaining full texts, citation searching to find related work, and managing references with citation management software. The overall purpose is to introduce strategies for effectively locating and evaluating academic sources.
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Searching the Literature
- 1. Searching the Literature: locating and evaluating scholarly reading material Find this presentation on Slideshare: url Research Support Librarian: Kirstyn Radford Academic Liaison Librarian: Clare Ackerley Research Excellence Training 2017-18 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 • 10 minutes Hands-on practical no.1
- 9. Building a structured search
- 10. Google Scholar Advanced Search has limitations 10
- 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: » E-Resources Guide subjectguides.york.ac.uk/e-resources » Subject Guides subjectguides.york.ac.uk. 3. Choose an appropriate database
- 12. A bibliographic database enables you to combine keywords 12
- 13. …for a closer match 13
- 14. 4. Use truncation and phrase searching 14
- 15. …to ensure you don’t miss relevant material 15
- 16. 5. Filter by date, format, discipline etc 16
- 17. …to narrow your focus 17
- 18. 6. Sort by date, relevance, impact etc 18
- 19. 7. Review / retain your history 19
- 20. Obtaining the full text
- 23. Bibliographic databases are slightly different: 23
- 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 Interlending service to request material delivered to you (£2 charge): 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
- 30. Use a bibliographic database for more control 30
- 31. Scopus for a slightly different analysis: 31
- 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) • 10 minutes Hands-on practical no.3
- 33. Keeping up-to-date: with the literature in your discipline
- 34. Don’t overlook setting up alerts: 34
- 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
- 40. Feedback please complete the evaluation form Find this presentation on Slideshare: url
Editor's Notes
- 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
- 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