The Literature Review

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The Literature Review

• Finding Evaluating Information Resources for
  Industrial and Systems Engineering
• P.L. Alford, D.V.M., M.S., M.S.
• Jane Stephens, M.L.I.S.

2
Electronic Resources One-stop shopping? Not
Yet ?

• Catalogs vs.
• Indexes/Databases vs.
• Web Directories vs.
• Web Search Engines
• DIFFERENT RESOURCES NEEDED FOR DIFFERENT TYPES
  OF CONTENT

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Catalogs

• Physical location and status of the holdings of a
  specific library or libraries, e.g., LibCat
• Formal subject headings (usually 2-5) applied to
  content of entire work (Library of Congress or
  National Library of Medicine)
• Smaller entities within the work, like book
  chapters or conference papers, not indexed
• Search by title, author, subject, format,
  publisher more recently, keyword search may
  include abstracts or Tables of Contents

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Indexes/Databases

• Not tied to holdings of a specific institution
• Indexing and abstracting of information in a
  particular discipline, e.g., education, medicine,
  or engineering or in a particular content or
  format, e.g., newspapers, data, films or from a
  particular publisher, e.g., Elsevier or U.S.
  government
• Hundreds of databases, some free, most are
  subscription, restricted to TAMU users

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Indexes/Databases, ctnd.

• Indexing may cover full-text of articles at a
  minimum most DBs search and/or index title,
  abstract, assigned keywords, source title,
  publisher, and date of publication
• Subject-specific DBs usually assign subject
  descriptors using formal vocabulary browsable
  indices or searchable thesaurus available to map
  common search terms to the formal language of the
  discipline

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Indexes/Databases, ctnd.

• Some DBs contain full-text articles (may or may
  not contain graphics) within the database or have
  links to the full-text articles
• Some DBs have SFX (Find Text_at_TAMU) link to
  retrieval options
• Some DBs no links to full-text or local holdings
  must check LibCat, E-Journal Search, or use
  deliverEdocs.

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Choosing a Database/Index

• Consult subject or class guide http//library.tamu
  .edu/subject-guides http//library.tamu.edu/class-
  guides
• Browse electronic resources by subject
• Ask a librarian (Evans Reference 845-3826 WCL
  845-2111 live chat link library home page)

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Additional finding aids

• Bibliographies
• Specially-prepared subject bibliographies (search
  catalog for these)
• Bibliographies in reference books, textbooks, and
  journal articles
• Consult major professor, other mentors
• Having identified an important article, follow
  cites to it in Citation Index (ISI)

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Choosing Indexing ResourcesFour Cs to
Consider

• Content What types of publications indexed?
  Numbers/Source list of titles?
• Credibility How authoritative is the content?
• Currency How current is the content, how
  frequently updated?
• Coverage Years of content indexed? Changes in
  indexing through the years?

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Content the Three Rs

• Research reports (current studies)
• Review articles and monographs (books)
• Reference material
• Data
• Statistics
• Methodology
• Tools
• Different indexing/finding aids for different
  content

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Hierarchy of Credibility

• Peer-reviewed
• Additional rankings of journals within
  profession, and by citation analysis (ISI impact
  factor, citation half-life, etc.)
• Academic publishers
• Government agencies
• Reputable trade consumer publications

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Information Currency

• Preprints, Periodicals most current
• Be aware of lag time in scholarly publishing
  cycle takes time for research in hot topics to
  appear in scholarly literature
• Lag time of year or more for information in books
• Often difficult to evaluate currency of Web sites

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Choosing Indexing Resources Other Considerations

• Advanced search capabilities?
• Specialized, controlled vocabulary for indexing
  also accessible by end-user?
• Integration with citation manager programs?
• Good online help, intuitive interface?
• Ability to set up custom search alerts?

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Accessing Current Research

• Pre-print Sources, e.g. Directory of Mathematics
  Preprint Servers www.ams.org/global-preprints/
• Indexes to current periodicals, conference
  proceedings, theses, and dissertations (next
  slide) and indexes to industry and trade
  publications for industry news reports

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Accessing Current Research

• Multidisciplinary databases for searching the
  latest research
• Current Contents
• ArticleFirst
• PapersFirst
• Essential Science Indicators
• Lexis-Nexis (conference news coverage)
• Proquest Dissertations and Theses

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Theses and Dissertations

• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses
• Doctoral-level theses, many full-text online
• Order through deliverEdocs (subsidized
  acquisition)
• Use LibCat to search for TAMU theses (masters and
  doctoral) e.g., keyword search engineering
  education AND thesis
• TxSpace digital repository for recent TAMU theses
  (http//txspace.tamu.edu/)

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Scholarly IS Engineering Resources (alphabetic
order)

• ACM Digital (computer science)
• Business Source Complete (Ebsco)
• Compendex (Engineering, all types)
• CSA (EconLit, Engineering, High Tech., Materials
  Science)
• IEEE (Electrical eng and computer sci)
• INSPEC (applied theoretical)
• SIAM (Industrial applied math)
• Wilson Applied Sci Technology

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Indexes/Databases for Business Content

• ProQuest ABI/Inform (trade/industry publications)
• Ebsco Business Source Complete (trade scholarly
  publications)
• Expert help business resource locator
• http//lib-edit.tamu.edu/refstats/wcl/Expertindex.
  htm

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Indexes/Databases for Mathematics / Applied Math

• Directory of Mathematics Preprint and Eprint
  Servers http//www.ams.org/global-preprints/
• MathSciNet
• SIAM

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Indexes/Databases for Social Sciences Periodicals
Content

• Ebsco multiple sub-databases
• CSA multiple sub-databases
• Web of Science
• Wilson

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Indexes/Databases for Technical Reports

• NTIS
• GPOAccess
• Science.gov
• STINET

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Indexes/Databases for Patents and Intellectual
Property Info

• Patents subject guide http//library.tamu.edu/pate
  nts
• USPTO www.uspto.gov (Patent searching)
• www.pat2pdf.org  (Obtain a pdf copy of patent
  when you know patent )

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E-Resources for ReferenceEncyclopedias other
E-Books

• Type encyclopedia in Search for Database
  search term box to see listing of electronic
  encyclopedias
• E-book packages (databases) include eBrary,
  netLibrary, EngNetBase, Knovel, Safari, Science
  Direct, Springer, Wiley Interscience

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Statistical Data Resources

• Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe
• FedStats www.fedstats.gov
• United Nations http//unstats.un.org
• www.nationmaster.com
• U. No. Tx. Gov. Info. Connection
• www.library.unt.edu/govinfo/browse-topics/statisti
  cs

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Government Publications

• GPOAccess www.gpoaccess.gov
• Lexis-Nexis
• Federal Gateway www.firstgov.gov
• Google Unclesam www.google.com/unclesam
• Keyword search in LibCat with Set Limits
  Location to Government Documents

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Legal Resources

• Campus Research (WestLaw)
• Lexis-Nexis
• Wilson Index to Legal Periodicals
• Cornell Legal Information Institute
  http//www.law.cornell.edu/

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Finding the important journals in my field

• Set limits in LibCat to type serial and search
  by keyword
• Search Ulrichs Periodical Database
• Do searches of interest in major databases and
  see which journals have the most articles of
  interest to you
• Evaluate journals for their rankings in Journal
  Citation Reports (ISI)

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Overview of mechanics of finding and retrieving
journal articles

• Identify articles of interest by searching an
  indexing database
• Options for retrieval
• Full text or Find Text_at_TAMU link when available
  OR
• Search Now for electronic subscription (e-journal
  search)
• Search LibCat or Chiron for print subscription
  (journal title search, not article title)
• Order from deliverEdocs service

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Tips for Managing Your Literature Cites Reprints

• Make your literature review strategy and search
  histories a part of your research notebook
• Use a bibliographic/citation manager such as
  EndNote, Reference Manager, RefWorks
• Keep backups of the electronic files of your
  reprints

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EndNote Information Links

• http//library.tamu.edu/help/help-yourself/citing-
  sources/endnote
• Endnote Basics Video Tutorial http//endnote.com/t
  raining/tutorials/EndNote_Basics/EndNote20Basics.
  html

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Citation Styles Formatting

• Citation Guides http//library.tamu.edu/help
• Consult journals publisher web sites for
  instructions (manuscript, authors, contributors
  instructions, etc.)
• U. of Toronto Eng. Comm. Manual -- Documentation
  section www.engineering.utoronto.ca/about/programs
  /communication/Online_Handbook.htm

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Helpful Links

• Thesis office http//thesis.tamu.edu/
• Writing Center http//writingcenter.tamu.edu/
• Library Research Support Pages
• http//library.tamu.edu/subject-guides
• http//library.tamu.edu/class-guides
• http//library.tamu.edu/help

33
For Additional Help Contact

• Jane Stephens, M.L.I.S. jstephen_at_tamu.edu
• Patricia L. Alford, D.V.M., M.S. palford_at_tamu.edu
  
• Evans Reference Desk, first floor Evans,
  845-3826 West Campus Lib 845-2111
• Chat virtual reference (live chat and email),
  link on library home page