Keeping up to Date (and in control) Research in Earth Sciences Sue Bird Bodleian Subject Librarian Earth Sciences February 2011

This session How to do subject searches for journal articles, conference papers, etc How to use Reference Management Software How to maintain currency Introduction to Geology Roam

Subject searching SOLO, OLIS and Oxford e-journals cover Oxford holdings only by title Better to use specialist indexes covering the world’s literature to find articles Access via OxLIP+ Use inter-library loan for items not held in Oxford and not online

Bibliographic databases Excellent for locating journal articles, book chapters and book reviews (NB. References only, NOT necessarily [though increasingly] full text) General or Subject specific coverage Different interfaces but similar functionality Not tied to library holdings

Major sources GeoRef Web of Knowledge SCOPUS Also available via OxLIP+ :- Treatise on Geochemistry (all 9 volumes) Key 17th, 18th to 19th century geological literature

Search Strategies Boolean logic Truncation Wild cards Synonyms Which language are you using?

Search strategy Ask a clear search question What role does ocean circulation play in Pleistocene climate change? Break the question into search concepts Pleistocene climate, ocean circulation, climate change Find more terms from retrieved records whilst you are searching

Boolean connectors: AND, OR, NOT AND to narrow the search OR to broaden the search (synonyms) NOT excludes search terms

Other tricks: Use symbols for wildcards and truncation ? or $ for a single character  pal?eo / pal$eo will find paleo or palaeo * or $ for truncation or variant spellings  volcan* for volcanism, volcanic, volcano, etc use quotation marks for searching for phrases e.g. “plate tectonics”

Sample search “What role does ocean circulation play in Pleistocene climate change?” AND =narrows OR =widens Search string could be “climate change” AND “Pleistocene” AND “ocean circulation”

Thinking outside the box Pleistocene OR Quaternary (but not Holocene) “ocean circulation” as a phrase OR ocean circulation as 2 separate terms climate change OR climatic changes OR global warming should we include pal(a)eoclimatology? Different combinations will give different results – you need to try them all

THE database for Earth Scientists GeoRef (Available via OVIDSP)

Keeping track of your references Make sure you keep a systematic listing of your references, so you can find them again when you need them For large number of references, software like RefWorks (free) or EndNote (£90 from OUCS) can be very helpful. Most databases allow you to export references directly to RefWorks or EndNote.

Reference Management Software Organize your research and manage your database of references Include citations while you write your paper Build a bibliography in a variety of styles. Import references from many different data sources. Create bibliographies in different document formats (Word, RTF, HTML, etc.)

RefWorks Refworks is a free (whilst you are at Oxford) web- based bibliographic software package. You now have ‘alumni’ access after you leave! Being web-based means no software to download and update, and you can access your personal account from any computer connected to the web. Courses laid on by the Computing Services (

Google Can’t get away from it Google is an index of web pages A journal article is not a web page So Google is not good at finding journal articles However: An image of a journal article may be placed on a web page So Google may find it If it’s free and not behind a firewall

Google Scholar Has links to many, but not all, journal publishers & in any case Oxford may not subscribe to the title So not all journals can be found through GS Records can only be selected singly for export But quick route to full text when relevant article found

Databases vs. Search engines Contents are indexed by subject specialists Subject headings Limiting functions e.g. publication types, language Allow you to View Search history Combine searches Mark and sort results Print/save/ /export Save searches Set up alerts Searches done by automated “web crawlers” No thesaurus / subject headings – just free text searching No limiting functions Usually none of these!

Interdisciplinary Databases Web of Knowledge (  Web of Science covers journals in all subject areas  Citation searching Scopus (  Provides an alternative to WOK for cross- disciplinary search and citation searching; incorporates Geobase

SCOPUS Contains 42.5 million records. (Web of Science = million) Nearly 18,000 current titles (of which some 8,400 titles = Europe) Web of Science = c.12,250 titles – bias to North American literature

IT PAYS TO LOOK IN MORE THAN 1 PLACE ! Search Strategy: “ocean circulation” + Pleistocene + (climate OR warming) Date range: GEOREF: 93 Web of Science: 35 Scopus: 15 Refworks (after deduplication): 128 !!!

Getting your hands on full- text Is there a link to full text from the database? Is the journal available electronically in Oxford? Check Oxford e-Journals ( ) Is there a print copy in an Oxford library? - Check SOLO ( If not, try Inter-Library Loan via Earth Sciences Library or RSL - Default means of delivery is SED = Secure Electronic Delivery i.e. attachment

Citing your references An article in an online journal which also exists in print should be cited in the same way as print To cite something which only exists electronically, e.g. a web site, follow special rules which include the date viewed A specific quote must include the page reference in the citation. Also any number of style manuals:- The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism /Colin Neville Available on-line via SOLO Cite them right : the essential referencing guide / Richard Pears and Graham Shields RSL LB 2369 PEA

Three ways to keep up to date: Saving and rerunning searches – you save a search and run it again in the future. or alert / RSS Feed – you can specify a search to be repeated at specified intervals. Citation Alert – you will receive an alert every time a particular article is cited in another WoS or Scopus indexed article. Zetoc (British Library) will tell you when the next issue of a journal is available.

GEOLOGY ROAM Easy to use interface to browse, view and print geological maps. 12 zoom levels with customised transparency of geology layers. BGS Lexicon of named Rock Units to aid identification Simple data download facility for use with Geographic Information System (GIS) or image processing software. The following data are available:- 1:625,000 solid and drift geology. 1:250,000 solid geology and linear features. 1:50,000 solid and drift geology, mass movement, artificial ground and seven separate linear feature layers.

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