This document provides information and strategies for conducting advanced academic research. It discusses evaluating the quality and credibility of sources, using key databases like JCR and SCOPUS, advanced search techniques like footnote chasing and truncation/wildcards, and applying bibliometric tools to identify high impact journals, authors, and fields. The document emphasizes developing skills to critically evaluate vast information and identify truly excellent resources worthy of publication through quantitative metrics and qualitative judgments.

1. Writing &
Publishing
Research
Library Research & Resources

2. Learning Objectives
• The researcher will know how to evaluate quality
advanced resources worthy of publication.
• The researcher will be able to list advanced searching
tools and utilize in their own research.
• The researcher will be able to list key databases that
support high level research such as JCR and SCOPUS
• The researcher will be able to apply these tools to
understand and identify the major publishers, authors,
and fields that may impact your publishing goals

3. Information Literacy for
Advanced Research
• Evaluating sources
o What are the author's credentials?
o What is the purpose of the source?
o What is the scope of the source?
o Who published the source?
o How current is the source?
• Vet the Journal
• Discipline Specific
o Search discipline journals and sources.

4. Online Searching Tricks
• Footnote Chasing
• Truncation & Wildcard
• Phrase & Proximity

5. Footnote Chasing

6. Truncation & Wildcard
• Truncation is used to expand results by instructing the computer to
look for the root of the word and all alternate word endings.
• Nurs* searches for nurse, nurses, nursing.
• Truncation symbols may differ depending on the database or engine
you are using. Common truncation symbols are:
• * (an asterisk)
• ? (a question mark)
• # (the pound sign)
• Wildcard Symbol: Allows for multiple spellings of a word...
• Example: sul*ur
• Finds sulphur and sulfur
• Example: orthop*dic
• Finds orthopedic and orthopaedic

7. Phrase & Proximity
• Phrase searching
• Most of the databases and search engines will AND the words of a phrase
together. If you wish to search the term as a phrase, put quotation marks around it
to refine your search.
• Nursing Theory= Nursing AND Theory
• “Nursing Theory” keeps the words of the phrase together
• (this will make your search much more precise and relevant when you have
chosen your keywords carefully)
• Proximity Searching
• Proximity operators: Proximity (or adjacency) operators allow you to search by
phrase or with two or more words in relation to one another. Use the database's
Help tab for to verify what symbol to use since they can vary between databases
• Near (n): if it does not matter which word appears first.
• Example: Prozac n3 adverse effects
• Finds Prozac within three words of adverse effects
• With (w): if your terms must be in the same order in which they are entered.
• Example: physical w1 therapy
• Finds records where the word physical is listed first, followed by the word therapy,
and where no more than one word separates the two terms.

8. Quality Open Web Research
• Government Websites & Statistical
Access
o U.S. Census.gov
o Data.gov
o USA.gov
o Congress.gov
o GPO.gov
o FDLP.gov
• Think Tanks
o RAND
o Brookings

9. Beyond Research
• Popularity, Prestige, and Impact
Factors

10. Best of the Best
• Wealth of content at your disposal can be
overwhelming; necessary to be capable of sifting good
from great resources
•
Bibliometrics can aid in raising your information literacy
skills
o Application of statistical analysis to bibliography
•
We live in a “database” world now, providing
sophisticated interfaces for us to interact with data; not
just searching, but evaluating
•
Quantitative metrics can be applied to aid in defining a
sense of quality
• What does most relevant or important mean to me?

11. Prestige, Popularity, and
Impact
• Metrics such as Impact Factors are calculated to
illustrate a given publication’s impact/influence within a
field
o Many factors (size of journal, number of authors per paper, frequency, subject
area, number of scientists working in this field, etc.)
• Impact Factor: an industry standard implemented by
Thompson Reuters’ JCR; basically, a measure of the way
a journal receives citations to its articles over time
o Common for citations to rise and peak within 2-6 years post-publication
o # of current citations to a journal in a time period / # of articles published by
that journal in that same time period
• These metrics paint a picture of relevance over a few
years, a specific year, or even how long articles continue
to be referenced post-publication

12. Citation Counting: Why
It Matters
• Tools like JCR and Scopus are built on powerful
indices such as the Science Citation Index,
specifically built to measure influence, patterns
o For journals AND people
• Scopus: you can use this massive resource to track
journal and author level metrics; analyze, visualize
o Relevant articles/topics in your literature review phase
o Discover where to publish (top authors/journals in your discipline)
o Who is citing you?
o Identify potential collaborators
o Editors often check citations, h-index and compare to others

13. Questions?
Seth Porter Michael Manasco
smp0024@uah.edu mdm0027@uah.edu
256-824-6130 (256) 824-6965
Instructional & Reference Librarian Electronic Resources Librarian