Advanced Research Skills : Water Science, Policy & Management Autumn 2015 Sue Bird Bodleian Subject Librarian Geography
Elective Essay Assessment Aims: Does the essay have a clear aim, question or perspective that is relevant to the literature or an issue? Presentation: You are expected to know how to cite references Literature: Does the essay address a range of relevant literature, and demonstrate a good level of understanding of the literature on the topic. You need to conduct initial scoping lit review key themes, etc. Followed by a more focused & deeper literature review. Peerreviewed literature acts as a form of substantiation
Timetable Week Michaelmas 1 Research design 2 Epistemology and methodology 3 Methodology 4 Presenting arguments 5 Fieldwork Planning 6 Topic selection 7 Research Question 8 Literature review
Research Design & Skills Wk 8 Literature review Identify 3 key papers on your topic/research question Discuss in groups How did you identify them? Literature gaps identified and how it relates to your topics Common characteristics?
Dissemination of your Research Research Partners: What are their expectations? Ethics: Should you be communicating with your partners? Short Resume: Will you allow this to be made publicly available? You need to specifically allow publication on a web-site or users could infringe your copyright.
This session More on Bibliographic Databases Searching techniques for journal articles, conference papers, book chapters etc Keeping up to date
Subject searching Better to use specialist indexes covering the world s literature to find articles Access via OxLIP+ (http://oxlip-plus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk) Use inter-library loan for items not held in Oxford and not online
E-Journals I didn't check for the hard copy - so used to getting online access! I had just googled the article rather than using SOLO, so that was the issue & why I d been asked to login, or use Athens
Newspapers Electronic newspapers Some are freely available. Alphabetic list on OxLIP+ Best source for the Text Only of huge range of newspapers and magazines is Nexis UK. Goes back approximately 10 yrs in most cases and is very current i.e. today s daily news items
Newspapers Electronic newspapers Factiva - from Dow Jones & Reuters Company Business news & challenges, market trends & info. 14,000 + sources inc. local & global newspapers, newswires, trade journals, newsletters, etc. Archive back to 1969-28 languages from 159 countries Dun & Bradstreet company profiles, Reuters Fundamentals, etc.
Legal Resources Jurisdictions, topics, cases etc. Lexis Library WestLaw both UK & US editions But there are a lot more (if necessary ask the Law Library for help)
Bodleian Maps
SOLO Map Search
Databases vs. Search engines Contents are indexed by subject specialists Subject headings Limiting functions e.g. publication types, language Allow you to View Search history Combine searches Mark and sort results Print/save/email/export Save searches Set up alerts Searches done by automated web crawlers No thesaurus / subject headings just free text searching No limiting functions Usually none of these!
Databases (Scopus or Web of Science) enable you to: Refine results overview to find the main journals, disciplines and authors that publish in your area of interest. Click on the cited by and reference links to track research trends and make connections. Find out who is citing you or your supervisor, and how many citations an article or an author has received. Use Author Identifier to automatically match an author s published research including the h- index Use Journal Analyzer to provide quick insight into specific journal performance Analyze citations for a particular journal issue, volume or year. Use this information to complete grant or other applications quickly and easily. Use Alerts, RSS and HTML feeds to help you stay up-to-date Data export via bibiliographic managers such as RefWorks, EndNote and BibTeX
Bibliographic Databases SCOPUS OVID SP ProQuest Web of Knowledge Vast range
Search Strategies Boolean logic Truncation Wild cards Synonyms Which language are you using?
Boolean connectors AND combines terms to restrict results OR useful for covering synonyms NOT excludes unwanted areas of research
OR, AND, NOT Water resources Middle East Climate change
SCOPUS THE bibliographic database for the Earth, Geographical and Ecological Sciences Abstract & citation database containing both peer-reviewed research literature. 22,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers. Now starting to include more book material 57 million records: 36 million records with references back to 1995 21 million records pre-1996 which go back to 1823 Details from over 100,000 books
Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 1 Important to remember that although each database covers thousands of journal titles no single database is ever comprehensive. If you are having difficulty finding material on a topic use the keywords you find in any relevant reference to extend your search.
Bibliographic Databases ProQuest Aqualine ASFA: Aquatic Sciences & Fisheries Abstracts Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management Oceanic Abstracts (under ASFA) Water Resources Abstracts (under ESPM) IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences Sustainability Science Abstracts (under ESPM) EconLit
Bibliographic Databases OVIDSP CAB Abstracts natural resources Forest Science - biogeography GeoRef physical geography & geology Zoological Abstracts (1864-2009 only) (for more recent material use Zoological Record from W.o.K.)
Web of Knowledge Similar but not the same : a.k.a. Web of Science WEB of Science: Core Collection Broad Coverage all subject areas (Journal Citation Reports help choose the most effective title in your area)
Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 2 Take time to explore the various databases & platforms available. Some will be more useful to you than others. Scopus ProQuest OvidSP Web of Knowledge
Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 3 Boolean Logical Operators AND, OR, NOT Proximity operators Adj (literally adjacent); Near(same sentence); With(same field) Field descriptors: AU(author); TI(title); AB (abstract); SO(source or reference); DE (general descriptor) etc are likely to be specific to each database and won t operate in cross searches Combining searches: #1 and #2
Other tricks: Use symbols for wildcards and truncation? or $ for a single character globali?ation / globali$ation (is it an s or a z ) * for truncation or variant spellings govern* for governance, governmentality, etc use quotation marks for searching for phrases e.g. resource management
Synonyms & Language Topic = Reduction of domestic water consumption Search: A) domestic water consumption B) domestic water consumption C) water use OR water consumption AND personal OR domestic OR household Context : supply security OR hydrological change
Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 4 Consider subject synonyms & British and US spellings. Apply truncation, usually * to find plurals/alternative word endings and? to replace a single character. Expand search by following hypertext links esp. subject headings Authors names: Check the online help for formats. Use the database index to find different forms of author s name otherwise truncate first initial.
Bibliographic Searching Three ways to keep up to date: Saving and rerunning searches you save a search and run it again in the future. E-mail alerts / RSS feeds: Specify a search to be repeated and the results emailed to you at chosen intervals or on a continuous basis Select your favourite journal(s) & the database will tell you when the next issue of a journal is available. Citation Alert you will receive an email every time a particular article is cited in another WoS or Scopus indexed article.
Bibliographic Databases Search :Integrative water resources management (IWRM) (2011 only) Scopus = 94 articles (2012-14 = 323; 2015 alone=203) ProQuest = 21 articles (adds 7 to the total) (2012-14 = 88; 2015 alone=101) Ovid = 29 (also adds 7) (2012-14 = 214; 2015 alone=133) Web of Science = 38 articles (a further 3 ) (2012-14 = 201; 2015 alone=130) RefWorks de-duplication = 111 unique items!! (for the 2011 search)
GUIDE to RESOURCES http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/geography
Advanced Bibliographic Skills Your feedback is greatly appreciated Please complete a short survey @ https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/rslmt2015