1. Conducting a Literature Search Geography 3442: Geographies of Development Dan Sich, Geography Librarian September 2011

2. Overview:  Library course guide  How to search (basics)  Finding academic sources  How to read an article  Finding grey literature  Citing sources

3. Library course guide has:  Link to this slideshow  Summary of topics covered today  Additional resources

8. Other Disciplines? MDG #2 MDG #3 MDG #4 & #6

9. Foundations of searching  black AND (cat* OR feline* OR “felis catus”)

11. Foundations of searching  black AND (cat* OR feline OR “felis catus”) NOT (licorice OR comic*)  The toolset? 1. “phrase searching” 2. truncat* 3. OR 4. AND, NOT 5. (brackets OR parentheses)

12. Search tool #1  Use “quotation marks” to connect 2 or more words that you want to find together E.g., “millennium development goals” “poverty reduction” “health care” “gender equality” “maternal health”

13. Search tool #2  truncation*  Use the asterisk * at the end of root words to find variant endings E.g., Canad* finds: Canada, Canadian, Canadians E.g., “Millennium Development Goal*” finds: Millennium Development Goal(s)

14. Search tools #3 & 4  Use AND & OR to connect search terms

15. Search tool #3  OR finds mORe!  Use OR to connect similar concepts, keywords, or phrases  E.g., poverty OR “poverty reduction” OR “poverty eradication”

16. Search tool #4  AND makes things more specific; NOT removes inappropriate results  Use AND to connect concepts  E.g., “Millennium Development Goal*” AND poverty AND Africa

17. Search tool #5  Use Parentheses ( ) to group (words or phrases) for the (same or similar) concepts E.g., (holiday OR vacation) E.g., (“non fat” OR “fat free” OR skim)  Shows order in which relationships should be considered E.g., (gender OR women) AND equality E.g., (hunger OR malnutrition) AND “food security”

18. For your own topic: 1.Identify key concepts “Millennium Development Goals”Poverty “millennium development goal*” MDG MDGs “poverty reduction” “poverty eradication” “Latin America” Chile Argentina Peru El Salvador 2.Think of synonyms, alternate words/phrases (i.e. keywords)

19. For your own topic: 3.Put it all together using the 5 search tools (“Latin America” OR Chile OR Argentina OR Peru OR “El Salvador”) AND (poverty OR “poverty reduction” OR “poverty eradication”) AND ( “Millenium Development Goal*” OR MDG OR MDGs)

20. Using these search tools  Same toolset, many different applications: Library catalogue Geobase PAIS International Social Sciences Abs Eldis Google Scholar

21. The ad:

22. Academic resources What are they, and why use them? Pros Authoritative In-depth Analysis, interpretation, makes sense of stats Peer-reviewed More timely than books Cons Less timely than news Tricky to find* Tricky to read*

23. Finding academic sources  …using journal article databases: Geobase PAIS International (Public Affairs Info Services) Social Sciences Abstracts  Questions: What’s in it? Search bells & whistles? How is it better than Google Scholar?

24. Geobase

25. Searching Geobase

26. Geobase results: Geography, etc.

27. Refine your search

28. Geobase

29.  What’s in it? Geography & related subjects Journal articles, monograph chapters, conference articles  Search bells & whistles? Geographic terms Controlled vocabulary  How is it better than Google Scholar? More thorough coverage of geography Limit search results to geography

30. PAIS (Public Affair Information Service) International

33. Refine your search

35. PAIS International  What’s in it? Public Affairs Information Articles, features, books, websites, government & official documents, news, book chapters  Search bells & whistles? Apply subject limits on search  How is it better than Google Scholar? More thorough coverage of public affairs Limit search results to public affairs

36. Social Sciences Abstracts

38. Results

39. Abstract

40. Social Sciences Abstracts  What’s in it? Social Sciences Feature articles, interviews, review articles  Search bells & whistles? Narrow results by subject  How is it better than Google Scholar? More thorough coverage of subject matter

41. Find academic sources  …using the right journal article databases: Geobase PAIS International (Public Affairs Info Services) Social Sciences Abstracts  …using this toolset: 1. “phrase searching” 2. truncat* 3. OR 4. AND, NOT 5. (brackets OR parentheses)

42. How to read an article, or, How to select & eat a burger 1. Abstract (the menu description) 2. Intro (top bun, mustard, onions, etc.) 3. Conclusion (bottom bun, grease) 4. Middle (the meat)

43. Grey literature  What is it?  Government, IGO and NGO information sources  Data, reports & more  Why would you use it?  Up-to-date  Provides details not covered elsewhere  Where can you find it?  Eldis Gateway to Development Information  Many other places (see library course page and assignment description)

46. Eldis  What’s in it? Development, policy, practice and research Full text docs, resource guides, country profiles,  Search bells & whistles? Refine by categories  How is it better than Google Scholar? Documents are “editorially selected and abstracted” Everything is full text

47. Grey literature  Give you details often not covered elsewhere  See library course page and assignment description for more sources

48. Citing sources (and avoiding plagiarism)  Citing & Writing > Style Guides  RefWorks

49. Creating a bibliography with RefWorks

50. Create a Bibliography select output style References from which folder? American Psychological Association

51. What you get:

52. Things to Remember  Library course guide: slideshow, more journal article databases, more web sources  Same basic toolset, usable anywhere  Academic sources provide analysis  Choose search engines according to your topic  How to read an article  Grey literature provides details  Cite your sources

53. More help:

55. Questions?

56. Thanks for Listening!