1 BSCI Biological Diversity Mary Lee Jensen Liaison Librarian for Biological Sciences or

2 Session Goals Introduce you to KentLINK and OhioLINK for finding books and Research Databases to find articles Introduce searching strategies Describe the peer-review process Review the characteristics of primary literature in the sciences

3 Library Services Research Help PERCs ( Ask A Librarian ( 60-Minute Seminars (

4 KentLINK The online catalog for Kent State University Allows you to find books, reports, videos and other media Allows you to locate materials in 6 campus libraries (including Chemistry/Physics) and 7 regional libraries Allows you to renew books you have checked out

5 OhioLINK Group of 84 college and university libraries OhioLINK Central Catalog allows you to borrow books from any of the libraries Takes 4-5 days for book to arrive Keep the book for 3 weeks; renew once GREAT resource!

6 OhioLINK More than Books!! Research Databases allow you to find articles that have been published in scholarly journals and in magazines. Many are full-text – but not all.

7 Crafting Effective Research Statements Features Available in Most Research Databases

8 Common Searching Features Boolean Operators/Connectors Keyword/Controlled vocabulary Phrase searching Truncation

9 Truncation: To Get Word Variations Truncation makes it easier for you to get all variations of a word. Some systems use the asterisk * to truncate example: Academic Search Premier Some use the dollar sign $ example: Biological Abstracts

10 Truncation: To Get Word Variations fish* retrieves fish fishes fishery fisheries labo$r retrieves labor, labour, laborer biolog$ retrieves biology biological

11 Boolean Operators -- OR Use OR to broaden a search The words connected by OR should be synonyms or be alternative ways of saying something For example: salmon OR fish fisheries OR hatcheries

12 Boolean Operators -- AND Use AND to combine two different concepts or ideas This helps narrow your search salmon AND fisheries salmon AND disease

13 “Phrase Searching” This feature allows you to search for words as phrases. Some databases automatically search words as a phrase; other databases require you to use quotation marks around the phrase “invasive species” “biological diversity”

14 Cautions about Phrase Searching Phrase searching in databases is not the same as the Web If you type the following in Google: impact of invasive species on ecosystems you will get 100,000 hits because Google looks for each word separately

15 Cautions about Phrase Searching If you type: impact of invasive species on ecosystems in KentLINK or OhioLINK or in a database, you might get zero results, because you are asking the system to look for that EXACT phrase

16 Instead use Boolean Logic: “invasive species” AND ecosystems loosestrife AND (ponds or lakes) “zebra mussels” AND “lake erie”

17 Revising Your Search: Use Booleans to Your Advantage Too many hits on your topic? Add another search term with AND. Too few hits on your topic? Add another search term OR.

18 Sample search What impact does salmon farming have on the wild fish population?

19 Sample Search - Concepts Concept 1 Boolean Connector Concept 2 Boolean Connector Concept 3 salmon AND farm* OR fisher* OR hatcher* AND wild OR ecosystem OR disease*

20 Sample Search - Strategy salmon and (farm* or fisher*) and wild salmon and (farm$ or fisher$) and ecosystem (fishery or fisheries or hatcher*) and “side effects”

21 Primary Literature - Article Format Introduction or Literature survey Methodology or Materials and Methods Data or Results Discussion or Interpretation Conclusion Bibliography

22 Primary Literature - Characteristics AudienceStudents Scholars AuthorsScholars (university-based) Credentials listed and relate to subject of article Overall AppearanceCharts and graphs Many pages Few ads; very professional DocumentationFootnotes Bibliography

23 Primary Literature - Characteristics PurposeReport original research Discipline-related content Focus, narrow AuthorityEditorial Review Board Peer-review process FrequencyOften quarterly May also be weekly ExamplesAmerican Journal of Botany Science Nature

24 Article Indexes/Research Databases Research Databases (Alphabetical or Subject) Access Science Biological Abstracts Academic Search Premier Biological and Agricultural Abstracts Electronic Journal Center

25 Conclusion Many resources Many opportunities for assistance…just ask!