Find it! Defining your search Chemistry Investigative Project (CHE601+2) School of Biological and Chemical Sciences 2015

OCT 2 J ames Soderman Faculty Liaison Librarian: Science and Engineering Who am I?

2010: roughly 50 million scholarly articles in existence From: Jinha AE. Article 50 million: an estimate of the number of scholarly articles in existence. Learned Publishing, 2010; 23(3), pp Learned Publishing 2000: roughly 550 billion individual documents online From: Bergman JK. White paper: the deep web : surfacing hidden value. J Electron Publ. [internet] [cited in 8 July 2015]; 7(1). Available at: DOI: OCT 3 Did you know?

Learning Objectives In the end of this session you will have: Started to define your search topic and built a first search strategy Identified and located articles in both electronic and print journals Used two databases to carry out chemistry literature searches and accessed full-text content OCT 4

Subject Support Guides OCT 5 From the Library Website investigate the Subjects and Support Link and the Webpages for Chemistry

How do I find relevant information?

Steps in finding relevant information Useful preparation for finding relevant information: PrepareSearchEvaluate OCT 7

STEP 1: Preparation "Indian Spices" by Joe Mon Bkk - Own work. Licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 via Commons -

OCT 9 1. Defining your topic 2. Developing a search strategy 3. Selecting an appropriate database 4. Combining search terms – AND, NOT, OR Stages of preparing a search

How do I find out more about my topic?

Wikipedia For basic information that will help you to get started and understand the essential concepts try Wikipedia OCT 11

Wikipedia However – beware : The quality of information on Wikipedia varies greatly, and it is not a trusted, consistent or reliable source of academic information! OCT 12

So why not use? The library has in its collections both physical and online encyclopaedias. For example: Concise encyclopedia chemistry Encyclopedia of computational chemistry Encyclopedia of inorganic chemistry Encyclopedia of chemical physics and physical chemistry And many more… OCT 13

Exercise 1: Preparation Define the subject you are researching! How many words and short phrases can you find that describe the subject in both its broadest and narrowest terms? 1.Please write down these phrases and words (5mins) OCT 14

Developing a Search Strategy Identify important concepts and choose keywords These will include synonyms e.g. animal cognition, animal perceptive theory and related terms e.g. memory; receiver operating characteristic OCT 15

Truncating Search Terms Many search databases allow you to search for the beginning of a word plus any ending using the symbol * E.g. develop* will find develops, developing, development, developmental… OCT 16

Phrase Searching To search for an exact phrase, enclose the phrase in quotation marks For example the query "spontaneous alternation" will retrieve records that contain the exact phrase spontaneous alternation OCT

Combining concepts Consider how to combine concepts - using the operators AND, NOT, OR - using specific search fields OCT 18

Boolean Operators AND animal AND cognition Search for articles that contain both of the search terms. Using AND narrows your search OR animal OR cognitionSearch for articles that contain one or both of the search terms (useful for synonyms). Using OR broadens your search NOT animal NOT cognitionSearch for articles that contain the first term and do not contain the second term. Using NOT narrows your search OCT 19

Curie AND Chemistry Boolean Search String Game Pierre Curie: A Life Cut Short Marie Curie : Heroine of Chemistry Radioactive: The science of Curie Chemistry OR Science Curie NOT Submarine OCT 20

Exercise 2: Defining a search In couples sit down together and go over the words you managed to find in Exercise 1. 1.Share your words with your partner. Can you come up with any further synonyms or related words 2.Start to formulate a search string OCT 21

Step 1&2 : Deciding on a database and do an initial search By Vic.

Databases you could choose OCT 23

Exercise 3 Find and exploit the Library Subject Guides for Chemistry ( Use the search string you created in the Exercise 2 in at least two of the databases. Discuss in pairs which databases you used and how it worked out. Did you get good results? What does good results mean for you? OCT 24

Troubleshooting your results “The tools of Maine" by Denise Carbonell is licensed under CC BY 2.0The tools of Maineenise Carbonell CC BY 2.0

What to do if you only get a few results? Spelling – if you are using a US database you may need to use either US spelling or wildcards such as ? to replace the letter that is different in each spelling. E.g. to search a US database for organisations you could use the US spelling organizations or type organi?ations into the search box Include all possible synonyms. Use a thesaurus to find alternative terms that describe the subject you are researching Use broader search terms OCT 26

What to do if you only get a few results? Snowballing If you find one relevant reference you can use it to help you find others Check the references and bibliography at the end of the article for related works Many database provide direct links to related articles displayed in these fields OCT 27

What to do if you only get a few results? Truncate your terms – add an asterisk * after the root of the word you are using as a search term. The database will find references that contain all endings of the term you have used E.g. microscop* will find references containing the terms microscope, microscopic and microscopy OCT 28

What to do if you get too many results? Use more search terms linked with AND between each term E.g. if you wanted to find references about animal cognition especially concerned with environment, type animal AND cognition AND environment OCT 29

Reference Management OCT Collect and organize references Import references and related PDFs directly from databases Insert citations and bibliographies into Word documents

What if the library does not have any full-text sources for me? “Empty pockets" by Ritchie Diesterheft is licensed under CC BY 2.0Ritchie Diesterheft CC BY 2.0

British Library The British Library (BL) is the national library of the United Kingdom. It is located in London and is one of the world's largest research libraries, holding over 150 million items in all known languages and formats All printed publications in the UK since 1911 need to be deposited here. OCT 32

Other Libraries Senate House Library ( The Royal Society of Chemistry, Library and Information Centre ( COPAC ( OCT

Interlibrary Loans If you are still out of luck there might be an opportunity to make an interlibrary loan. If you have any question please contact Aqil Zahid, Team Leader, Public Services OCT 34

How can I know it is a good source? OCT 35 “Question the Answers" by walknboston is licensed under CC BY 2.0walknboston CC BY 2.0

Evaluating information It is important to evaluate all information you find, including scholarly articles and books. Who is the author? Where has the information been published? When was it published? Is the information still current? OCT 36

What evidence is presented in support of the author’s argument? How does it compare to other sources of information you have read? Is it relevant to what you are researching? Evaluating information OCT 37

Further Help Welcome Desk on the Ground Floor - entry/exit issues and circulation problems Help Zone on Ground Floor - general enquiries Roving Staff on all floors - general enquiries Online: Subject-related enquiries – Faculty Liaison Librarian – see subject webpages for contact details OCT 38

How to contact your S&E team? For news and recent developments: S&E Library Daily: “Question Mark Graffiti" by Bilal Kamoon is licensed under CC BY 2.0Bilal KamoonCC BY 2.0 Bilal KamoonBy: Bilal Kamoon Friend Family Unfollow Bilal KamoonBy: Bilal Kamoon Friend Family Unfollow