BIOGRAD: �Literature Searching
The Set up : Context
The Open Science Research Cycle
Discovery
Search Literature
Let’s run our own survey
Jeroen Bosman and Bianca Kramer, 2016�https://101innovations.wordpress.com/survey-results/research-activities/search/
Let’s look at our results...
Wait?
What is this ‘literature’ that you speak of?
There are three main Discovery Tools:
Google Scholar (is not Google!)
Features of Google Scholar
Google presents the results of your search in order of an algorithm that weighs a variety of factors including full-text access, where it was published, and number of its citations. Also note: 284,000 results!
Web of Science! (more than just science)
Features of Web of Science
Web of Science allows you to search for articles that match particular search terms and to find the articles that cite a particular work.
Notice that these search terms are returned by date and that the number of results is exactly �20, 058 items
Scopus
Scopus generally produces more results than Web of Science but less than Google Scholar
Question Two!
Interlibrary Loan - Digital only at this time
Interlibrary Loan - aka RACER
Question Three!
https://h5pstudio.ecampusontario.ca/content/6625
Bonus slides:
Searching with dark magic
Lesson one: a word after a word is power*
The choice of what keywords you choose to search with will greatly influence what kind of documents will be returned to you.
If you search using the common speech such as ‘heart attack’ you are unlikely to get as many medical articles as they will use medical terms such as ‘myocardial infarction.’��Being mindful of what terms you use is especially important when you are searching for particular groups of people.
Some database such as PsycINFO and PubMed provide additional indexing that offer standardized category names to articles covering the same subject.
This allows the researcher to be more confident that their search collects articles that use different wording to express the same topic.
MeSH :
Using the scientific name of an organism will generally bring up less results but works that are more specific.
In this example, a search of ‘trout’ brings 75,007 results in Web of Science and a search of ‘Oncorhynchus mykiss’ brings up 27,781 results.
If you want to search for a particular phrase, you can place quotation marks around those words. This means you will be only get results in which the only records are returned will have those words only if they follow each other.
Normally when you use quotations around two or more search words, you should receive more specific but fewer results than if you searched without using quotations marks.
Google Scholar does not act this way and I have no idea why this is so. Black magic!
To make more refined searches in Google Scholar, click on the ‘hamburger’ icon in the top left hand corner
A drop down menu will appear; from it select Advanced Search as a means to limit or expand your searches.
Web of Science can allow you to search very granularly. Be careful not to be too specific, lest you miss good research.
It’s best to do a very broad search and then add another limitation and search again. Then add another if you need it.
Scopus also has its own Advanced Search which includes the ability to search by CAS# for particular chemicals
Any questions?
mita@uwindsor.ca