Literature search and review with an emphasis on on-line search methods Grad 501 Graduate Research Skills in Science & Engineering Chapter 4

What is literature? 0 "a body of written works" (Encyclopedia Britannica ) Scientific literature: 0 "... writings on a particular subject" (Concise Oxford English Dictionary & Merriem Webster)

Types of literature Primary Literature (also called primary sources) : 0 Scientific journal articles (mainly full articles but also letters to editor, short communication articles etc.,) 0 Proceedings Collection of printed articles (in book form) that have been presented in a scientific conference or symposium 0 Theses & dissertations (the difference is minimal) 0 Patents...

Types of literature Secondary Literature (secondary sources) : 0 Literature revive articles (articles summarizing the recent research articles in a narrow field) 0 Indexing and abstracting databases (for locating and accessing the primary literature. E.g., Science Citation Index)

Types of literature Tertiary Literature: Everything else 0 Dictionaries and encyclopedias 0 Handbooks 0 Books 0 Textbooks etc…

Use the following literature with "extreme precaution 0 Internet. sorting out the reliable sites in internet may require experience and expertise. 0 Newspapers. Newspapers do not intend to publish "purely scientific" articles. 0 Scientific magazine journals. 0 They lack original research, and they are usually profit oriented.. 0 Unpublished work through mutual communication.

Objectives of literature search 0 establish the state of the art (enable you to familiarize with existing knowledge and understanding of your topic.) 0 identify deficiencies in current knowledge (reveal previously unknown or unfamiliar sources of data and related research) 0 critically assess the most fruitful direction(s) for future research. (get entirely new ideas and approaches to the problem, evaluate and compare your research with accepted research standards)

a good literature review: 0 demonstrates that you know the field. 0 justifies the reason for your research. 0 allows you to establish your theoretical framework and methodological focus.

Never forget : "Two hours in the library can save six months in the laboratory"

Where to find literature? Library vs. Internet. : 0 almost all printed material became available in internet in electronic form. 0 They are: 0 cheaper, subscriptions are affordable, 0 Searchable 0 Downloadable 0 Archivable 0 Accessible from everywhere 0 Future researchers will not know where is the libra ry!!!

Initial search: Where to start from? 0 General rule: Start with general information sources, hence, gain some broad background, and proceed with specific information sources.

How to use the library effectively? 0 Orient yourself with the library layout. Learn where are the "references", "books", "periodicals", "CD collection", and "special collections" sections 0 Own a library card. Your student id card is your library card at EMU 0 Get acquainted with the cataloguing system.

How to use the library effectively? 0 Learn how to use the on-line or card catalog system to check for the availability of the books in the library. 0 Be aware of the "interlibrary loan system" for the books that are not available in the library. 0 Be aware of copyright issues. Respect the intellectual properties.

Developing search and reading strategies 0 Develop a source list 0 Make a separate so-called "bibliography card" for each item in the source list

Developing search and reading strategies 0 Develop a systematic archiving (filing) system for your printed material. 0 Save electronic copies systematically 0 Do not read everything if you don't have to. 0 Highlight or take notes while you read. 0 Avoid unnecessary branching or zapping while you read a source.

How to search for all the books published in your field? 0 Amazon.com !!! (be precautios) 0 better: use book indexes 0 "Global Books in Print" (Bowker) 0 "Book Index with Reviews" (EBSCO Host)

How to search for all the books published in your field? 0 Get access from a library web page with subscription and follow the links

How to search for all the books published in your field? 0 Get access from a library web page with subscription and follow the links

How to search for all the books published in your field? 0 Get access from a library web page with subscription and follow the links

How to search for all the books published in your field? 0 You can fine tune your search either on the results page or by clicking the advanced search option

How to search for articles on your research topic? What are citation indices or databases? 0 Bibliographic Databases or Indices (indexes): continuously updated searchable databases of all research articles published worldwide 0 "ISI Web of Science" (Thomson Reuters), 0 "Electronic Journals Service" (EBSCO), 0 Compendex of Engineering Village, 0 MathSciNet (American Mathematical Society), 0 Chemical Abstracts (American Chemical Society) 0 etc.,

How to search for articles on your research topic? What are citation indices or databases? 0 An index or database is merely a searchable table composed of rows and columns. 0 There is a row (record) for each article 0 There is a column (field) for each bibliographic data: 0 "Article Title", "1st Author", "2nd author",...., "Journal published", "Publisher", "Volume number", Issue number", "Page number", "Language", "Abstract", "Keywords" etc 0 Indexes can be searched through «search engines» (similar to Google. Google is not a scientific literature search engine) 0 Each indexing service has its own search engine.

How to search for articles on your research topic? What are citation indices or databases? 0 What is a citation index? 0 A citation index is a database of all published articles (as mentioned above) together with cited references in a record. 0 This means that citation indices does not only contain the bibliographic information for each article, but also gives the "list of references" of that article.

How to search for articles on your research topic? What are citation indices or databases? 0 What is a citation index? 0 Hence you can directly jump to a cited reference, or, the indexing service can provide the number of citations a given article received so far. 0 They also have the links to the full-text version of an article and times cited by other publications.

What is "SCI", "SCI - Expanded", AHCI" and "SSCI"? What is "Web of Science"? 0 citation index databases developed by ISI of Thomson Reuters Company. 0 "Science Citation Index« 0 "Science Citation Index - Expanded", 0 " Arts & Humanities Citation Index" 0 "Social Sciences Citation Index« 0 ISI Web of Science: common platform for acessing and searching these databases + reporting.

What is "SCI", "SCI - Expanded", AHCI" and "SSCI"? What is "Web of Science"? 0 WebOfScience also serves as a quality indicator for their member journals. 0 i.e., Web of Science is an evidence of scientific reliability and trustability of that journal. We will discuss the reliability of the journals elsewhere.

How to do literature search on ISI Web of Science 0 The rest of the chapter will be delivered in class by an illustrated lecture through real on-line applications. Therefore, ATTENDANCE TO THIS LECTURE IS EXTREMELY IMPORTANT 0 See the lecture notes on the course web page for the rest of this chapter for an illustrated summary.