1. SFU Library Orientation
Criminology 491: Library research & Literature reviews
Chloe Riley
Liaison Librarian for Criminology, Philosophy & Psychology

2. Criminology librarians
Chloe Riley
Acting Librarian for Criminology, Philosophy & Psychology
Research Commons Librarian
Yolanda Koscielski
Librarian for Criminology, Philosophy & Psychology (on leave until Oct 8)

3. “And I thought we were friends” by hehedan,
Our agenda
What is a lit review?
Finding resources for CRIM
Where to search
Information sources
Search strategies
Further help (with citations, writing, research)
“And I thought we were friends” by hehedan,
CC BY-NC 2.0

4. What is a literature review?
“A systematic and thorough search of all types of published literature in order to identify as many items as possible that are relevant to a particular topic” (Ridley, 2008).
Systematic = documented, planned, mindful
Thorough = considered scope of research (broader, narrower and related concepts), inclusive of possibly contradictory data
All types of info = range of databases, books, government documents, statistics, theses, etc.

5. activity Make a list of what you can do during the research process
to produce the worst possible literature review.
Divide into small groups of 3 or 4.
Structure of the exercise:
1 min: solo reflection (silent – write down your ideas)
2 min: share in pairs
4 min: share in foursomes (notice similarities & differences)
Share with the group

6. Finding resources Where to search Types of information sources
Library Search / Catalogue Search
Google Scholar
Subject-Specific databases
Others?
Books, ebooks, book chapters
Journal articles
Background sources (encyclopedias)
Magazines, newspapers
Government reports & information
Reports from industries, NGOs, associations
Law, legal cases, court transcripts
Videos, audio, images
Datasets
Maps & spatial data
Others?
Start at the Criminology Research Guide!

7. Finding books and articles
Catalogue Search
Broad/preliminary searches
Covers all the library’s books, ebooks, A/V …
Searches many (but not all) databases
Library Search
All of the above, plus searches research guides, FAQs, digitized collections, Summit …

8. Using library/Catalogue search
Strengths:
Very comprehensive scope of books, articles, government reports, etc.
Search for books and articles at the same time.
Use of filters to narrow down results, including by date, type of resource, subject, etc.
Excellent for book searching, including searching by subject headings
Good for: do we have it?
Weaknesses:
Searches many but not all of the databases
Not mapped to a specific discipline, with associated beneficial search limiters and features (controlled vocabularies, populations, etc.)

9. Using google scholar

10. Using google scholar Strengths
A high volume of articles are retrieved & the most popular articles are revealed
Google's algorithm helps compensate for poorly designed searches
Times cited tool can help identify relevant articles
Excellent for known-item searching and helpful when searching for very unique terminology (e.g., places and people)
Extensive searching of non-article, but academic, information items: universities' institutional repositories, US case law, grey literature, academic websites, etc.

11. Using google scholar Weaknesses
Database is not mapped to a specific discipline (challenging to run searches with common words)
Much less search sophistication & manipulation supported (Psuedo-Boolean operators)
Mysterious algorithms & unknown source coverage at odds with the systematic and transparent mandate of a literature review.
Searches are optimized (eg by location), thwarting replicability criteria of many literature reviews
Missing deep data (e.g., statistics)
New articles might not be pushed up if the popularity of an article is emphasized
Definition of “scholarly” is broad, so it Indexes articles from disreputable publishers
Articles are not usually free – just the indexing

12. Finding articles

13. Using Subject specific databases
Strengths
Mapped to a disciplinary perspective
High quality metadata
Search limiters unique to discipline, allow fine-tuning of search results
Search history and search sets
Subject headings that are key to a lit review
Weaknesses
More time-consuming to use
More particular / technical to search (varies)

14. Major Criminology resources
Criminal Justice Abstracts: Major Crim database: covers crime trends, prevention & deterrence, juvenile justice, legal issues, psychology, and more. Wide variety of resources including journal articles.
National Criminal Justice Reference Service: Focus on law enforcement, crime prevention & security, criminal justice, juvenile justice. Includes journal articles, books, gov’t reports, research reports, and more.
PsycINFO: Comprehensive psychology-related database, including relevant topics such as youth, justice, forensics, and more.
FORENSICnetBASE: Ebook collection on forensic science, law enforcement and criminal justice.

15. Other disciplinary databases
Sociological Abstracts: Major sociology database, emphasis on sociocultural topics, including criminology, policy, and education
GEOBASE: Major database for human and physical geography, including health, indigenous issues, urban studies, environment, policy, and more.
MEDLINE / PubMed: Biomedical and health literature, covering research, clinical practice, administration, and policy.
CBCA Complete: Canadian current events and research across disciplines. Includes scholarly articles, magazines, newspapers & trade publications.
Web of Science: Multidisciplinary database, including coverage of criminology, psychology, law, labour, gender, political science, policy, sociology & more.
WestLaw Canada Next: Canadian legislation, case law & commentary.

16. Other Information sources: background
Encyclopedias
Encyclopedia of Criminology and Criminal Justice
Sage Knowledge (21 Crim titles)
Oxford Bibliographies Online
Sage Research Methods Online

17. Information sources: more!
PsycTests: psychological tests & measures
Canadian Electronic Library : public policy documents
Data & statistics
Check out our Crime and justice statistics guide
Legal resources
CanLII: Canadian case law & statutes
HeinOnline: law-related research sources

18. Search strategies Working with your topic & identifying keywords
Cycling a search
Finding better words as you go
Mining bibliographies of articles
“Pearl growing” or “snow balling”
Keywords vs subject headings
Find articles ABOUT your topic rather than ones that just mention it
Boolean searches
AND / OR searching

19. Search strategies Art therapy AND criminals Criminals AND recidivism
Art therapy AND recidivism AND young offenders
Art therapy AND youth

20. Working with subject headings
A systematic, hierarchical, and finite language used for describing subjects/concepts.
Articles and books will usually have 3-8 subject headings assigned to their bibliographic record.
Subject heading languages will usually be unique to each database
MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) for PubMed
PsycINFO thesaurus for PsycINFO

21. Boolean searching: and/or
A AND B
A OR B

22. Boolean searching: and/or

23. Boolean Search tips Use AND between keywords to narrow your search
For example: recidivism AND youth
Use OR between keywords to broaden your search
For example: aboriginal OR indigenous
Use quotation marks around an exact phrase
For example: “young offender”
Use an asterisk (*) to find related terms
For example: Canad* will get results for: Canada, Canadian, Canadians …

24. Submit your honours thesis
You are welcome to submit your Honours Thesis to Summit, SFU Library’s Institutional Repository
Criminology grad theses & dissertations

25. Student learning commons
Workshops, consultations, & resources
Academic writing
Study strategies, time management, procrastination, critical thinking, EAL support …
WriteAway – online feedback on your writing

26. Citation help

27. Where to go for help Research help desk (drop-in & by appointment)
Phone:
us at:
AskAway (online chat)
Chloe Riley
Yolanda Koscielski