Electronic Resources for research in physics

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Electronic Resourcesfor research in physics
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Overview of session

• Navigating Oxlip, our information gateway
• Search tips
• Locating full-text articles
• .

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http//www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip
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OxLIP

• Library catalogues including OLIS
• Bibliographic databases (journal article
  summaries tables of contents)
• Full-text electronic journals
• Internet sites (subject gateways)
• Reference works Statistics

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Glossary

• Library Catalogue a list of books, journals,
  maps, records etc. held in the library arranged
  in a systematic manner
• Bibliographic Database an indexed source of
  citations of journal articles

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Bibliographic databases

• Multidisciplinary in coverage, eg. Web of
  Kowledge
• Subject specific, eg. MathSci, Inspec, Compendex
• SCOPUS
• New, on trial in Oxford until September 2006
• Covers sciences and social sciences
• Some references will provide links to full text
  via new TOUR feature

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Bib. databases - Subject specific

• For Physics
• - INSPEC
• Comprehensive database covering Physics,
  Computers and Control, Electrical and Electronic
  Engineering
• Uses BRITISH English (all other databases use
  American English)
• Access from Oxlip
• Available from Oxlip/WebSpirs databases
• No need for password within the Oxford domain
• .

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Search strategy

• Ask a clear search question
• Break the question into search concepts
• Select a range of search terms
• Combine terms into a search strategy
• Search appropriate subject databases/resources
• Find more search terms from retrieved records
  while searching

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Searching techniques

• Boolean connectors AND, OR, NOT
• AND to narrow the search
• OR to broaden the search (synonyms)
• NOT to exclude some terms
• Symbols for wildcards and truncation
• ? for a single character within the word
• wom?n will find woman or women
• for truncation or variant spellings
• enzym for enzyme, enzymes, enzymology etc.

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Search topic

• How could traffic congestion be improved by
  fitting more cars with cruise control, more
  specifically with adaptive cruise control (or
  ACC)?
• (ACC is a modified version of traditional cruise
  control which automatically accelerates or
  decelerates a car to maintain a fixed distance
  between it and the car in front of it)

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OR, AND, NOT
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Search string

• Traffic control AND (cruise control OR adaptive
  cruise control OR ACC)

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Getting your hands on the full- text

• Use TOUR link to see if full text is available
• Check TDNet (Oxlip/Electronic Journals)
• http//tdnet.bodley.ox.ac.uk/
• Is it in an Oxford library?
• Check OLIS (Oxlip/OLIS)
• http//www.lib.ox.ac.uk/olis/
• If not, try Inter-Library Loan from the RSL