Individual Projects Effective literature searching Aeronautics & Astronautics, Mechanical Engineering and Ship Science Michael Whitton June 2013

What to get out of this session After this session you should know: 1.The best resources to use for your project 2.Some techniques for searching them effectively 3.How to trace references 4.What is required for the assignment

Changes in the e-Library during the summer ….  Changes in the Library Website – A lot of the same content but many links may break  New Discovery Service (name TBA) – An effective ‘quick and easy’ search of our resources  I will post key links and updates to Blackboard IP Modules 3

Resources (1)

The best sources aren’t free  The key research is published in academic journals, conferences, etc.  The university pays for a number of subscription-only databases which allow you to search for this material  For the key ones relevant to you see your subject page

Resources: Library Catalogues  UoS library - Webcat – Books, conferences, UoS PhD theses – Journal/conference titles – but NOT details of individual articles – Some research books, not just student texts – Will find books on software packages (Matlab, Python, etc.)

Resources: Library Catalogues (cont.)  Other Catalogues – COPAC (major UK research libraries) – Catalogues of other universities, etc.  Helpful if you need a book and we don’t have anything – Can find what books exist on a topic – Can request via Inter-Library-Loans

Resources: Databases & Indexes  Compendex, Inspec, Web of Science – Search very broadly for journal articles, conference papers, etc. – Quality information, up-to-date, specific – Reference citation not full text (often linking features) – Includes journals we don’t buy

Resources: Full Text Sources  Similar quality to Databases & Indexes – Always get the full article – but are limited to one publisher – IEEE Xplore (all IEEE and IET) – ACM Digital Library – Scirus (Elsevier/Science Direct and various free sources) – New Library Discovery service (by start of next term)

Resources: the Web  Google, etc. – Useful for finding free content – No quality controls, need to evaluate – Scientific versions (Google Scholar) more focused on research material – Search Compendex, etc., as well to avoid missing out on important articles

Resources: the Web (cont.)  Web Gateways – Specialist search engines – Real people choose websites and write summaries  E.g. – AERADE, iCrank, Naval Technology – See subject pages

Resources: Technical Information  Patents  Standards – British Standards Online (BS / some ISO, IEC, etc.) – IEEEXplore  Engineering Sciences Data Unit (ESDU) – Engineering methods / data

Institution of Mechanical Engineers  Have a library and e-resources for members (free for students) – Good Historical Collection – Access to Compendex pre 1970 ( them your search, etc.) – Good collection of non-UK Standards (ASTM, etc.) in print  Useful after graduation (if you have limited journals etc. available via employer etc.)

14 Database searching (2)

Mark, Export, Record  Many databases have a ‘marked record’ facility or similar  Useful articles get added to a marked/selected records area – Then you can print out or to yourself a list of these articles – Or you can export to Reference Managing software like Endnote

Routes to full text  Database full text links  Sometimes links to journals we don’t buy  TDNet links (from database or library web pages) – doesn’t have all print journals  If the above do not exist or don’t work always …

Routes to full text (cont.)  Search WebCat – Journal articles by the journal title (use full title not abbreviations) – Conference papers by the conference title – Reports: try author and title (may need to search by organisation name)  There may be an automatic link

Exceptions  Items not on Webcat & TDNet – Patents & standards – Free online: NASA Technical Reports; Organisations eprint servers  Items not in UoS Libraries – Inter Library Loan (ILL)

TDNet link

Following full text link through TDNet

If there is no (online) full text follow the Catalog link if present (only appears for print titles on TDNet)

1 st Break Search a Engineering Village and other resources for your project topic

Search Strategy (3)

Searching – the basics  Start simple – with a few keywords  Look at the results – do you need: – More relevance (more specific search) – More results (broaden search) – More manageable numbers – restrict in some other way (e.g. by date)  Aim for about results

Search Strategy  Identify the concepts of your query – Fuel cell, electric, cars  List alternative phrases and keywords – Fuel cells > batteries – Electric > hybrid – Cars > automobile

Boolean Logic  Finds articles with both terms anywhere in the title, abstract, etc.  E.g. Traffic And congestion a b a And b

Boolean Logic  Finds articles with either term anywhere.  Use to allow for alternatives  E.g. airplane Or aeroplane a b a Or b

Boolean Logic  Finds articles with the first term that do not contain the second term.  Use with caution to eliminate non-relevant material  E.g. radiation Not solar a b a Not b

Example searches – using and/or  Types of fuel cells used in electric cars – 17 results  “Fuel cells” and electric and cars – 81 results  (“Fuel cells” or batteries) and (hybrid or electric) and (cars or automobile) – 675 results [done in Web of Science ]

Truncation  Replaces any number of characters. – Sometimes works in the middle of a word. – Normally * symbol, $ in webcat  Aero* will find: – Aeroplane – Aeroplanes – Aerospace

Wildcards  Replace a single character. – Often can also represent zero characters. – Normally ? Symbol, $ in Web of Knowledge  Engine? will find both Engine and Engines but not engineering  Colo?r will find both Colour and Color

Example searches – Truncation/wildcards  (“Fuel cells” or batteries) and (hybrid or electric) and (cars or automobile) – 675 results  (“Fuel cell*” or batter*) and ( hybrid or electric) and (car$ or automobile*) – 849 results [done in Web of Science ]

Example searches – WebCat  ocean wave model – 38 results  ocean$ wave? model$ – 217 results  (Remember - truncation is $ not *)

34 Phrase Searching  If you need an exact phrase use quotation marks (“ ”) – e.g. “Solar Cells” – This makes the search more specific (finds less articles) – Truncation and stemming don’t always work in quotes  In WebCat – use single quotes ( ‘ ’ )

35 Access to Resources (4)

Access - on campus  Generally no passwords are needed – A few need your Institutional ( ) username & password – A handful have special usernames/passwords  If you have problems – For journals check our access on TDNet – For other resources use links on the library website

Access – off campus  For many resources Institutional Login is an option  VPN will give you the same access as on campus  Some TDNet functions do not work off campus without VPN

Look for ‘Institutional Login’, ‘UK Federation’ or ‘Shibboleth’ links

You often need to select the UK (or UK Federation) Then find ‘University of Southampton’ (If you can’t find us look for Southampton University)

VPN  Virtual Private Network  Link to University network  When connected your computer appears to be ‘on campus’  Managed by iSolutions. Instructions on iSolutions web pages at:

41 Setup instructions

2 nd Break Use search techniques to improve your database results

The Assignment (5)

The Assignment  Quiz in Blackboard – Available 3 rd June – 23 rd June – Answers & feedback on 24 th June – Individual Project – SESA3011 / SESM3013 / SESS3015  The Quiz is compulsory!

The Assignment  Your literature search will be marked – As part of the preliminary report. – Discuss with your supervisor.

Referencing  For your project you will probably use Harvard (Author/Date) or IEEE (numbered) styles.  Lots of guidance at:  Check with your supervisor which style, and any specific guidance.  Be consistent! 46

47 Advanced features (6)

48 WOK: Citation search  Citation links are useful – to track further related research – also for articles found in Compendex etc.  Citation searching is also possible – Find out what an Author has written and who has cited each paper

49 Click here to see all citing articles Web of Science has a useful citation linking feature

50 These articles both cite the ‘parent’ article

Controlled Terms  Terms added to a record by Indexers  Taken from a fixed list (thesaurus)  Using these can help – Making search results more relevant and specific – Suggest alternative terms to search

By clicking on a term you can run a search on it You can do a keyword search and then just pick out relevant controlled terms

You can also use the term in your search

You can refine by controlled terms using the sidebar

Or you can use the ‘Thesaurus Search’. Enter your term …

…and it will come back with suggested controlled terms

You can select the relevant term(s) and run a search You can also get details of broader and narrower terms

Using Search History we can combine thesaurus searches So we search on the controlled term “Fuel Cells” instead of using a keyword search

Notice also options to save and set up alerts on your searches so any new articles are automatically sent to you We can combine our 2 controlled term searches.

Searching the 2 controlled terms produces 196 results instead of 511 from the keyword search. These should be all very relevant to both topics

61 Saved Searches (Web of Knowledge, etc.)  Search history  Saving searches  Alerts  NB You will need to register for these services

62 Search history, to save / set up alerts click

63 WOK and other databases allow you to set up a profile

64 You can save your history or set up an alert …

Help (7)

If you need help…….  Subject Enquiry Desk, Level 3 – Open Mon-Fri 9 am-5 pm  Contact Me – –

Credits  (1) Sky, David (2006). Thomas Fisher Rare Book Library.  (2) Mandiberg, Michael (2009). DATABASE at Postmasters, March  (3) Vincente, Danard (2007). Search-Engine-Marketing  (4) Gold key. images-pictures/gold-key.jpg.html  (5) Krawcowicz, Barbara (2009). Exam.  (6) Britton, Ian (2004). Advanced Passenger Train.  (7) Leonard, Nick. (2006) Library.