Information Resources

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Information Resources

• Electronics and Computer Science

Fiona Nichols October 2008
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Three important questions...

• What information do you need?
• Where should you look for it?
• How can you get hold of it?

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What information?

• high quality
• up to date
• relevant

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Web resources
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Where to look - the Internet?

• Yes - sometimes ..
• There are some good search engines useful for
  finding free information
• Google Scholar (general academic more focused
  on research material)
• Scirus (scientific information)

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• and many high quality websites and gateways
• for example Intute (Computing Engineering)
• but you still need to evaluate what you find

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E-print servers. ?

• the information is free and usually full text
• they contain the very latest research and ideas
• there is no delay in publication
• institutional repositories may contain data and
  other information too

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Available to you are

• ArXiv
• ECS e-print service
• Soton e-prints service
• OAISTER

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But

• many have not been peer reviewed
• they may contain inaccurate or poor quality
  material
• As long as you are aware of the potential
  drawbacks they are a valuable resource

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Publishers websites.?

• High quality information
• Link to full text if we have a subscription
• Alerting services often available
• BUT
• Limited range of source material
• Less sophisticated search facilities than major
  databases

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So where else?

• The library website which links to
• WebCat the library catalogue, for searching for
  books and journal titles
• Electronic journals via TDNet
• The resources already mentioned, via the Subject
  pages

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Key resource - Journal databases
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Why journal databases?

• Because they
• link to up to date information from peer reviewed
  publications
• are usually well indexed enabling you to search
  in detail
• contain abstracts summarising the articles
  retrieved
• often link directly to the full text if it is
  available electronically

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Which databases..?

• The most important ones for Electronics and
  Computer Science are
• INSPEC (Engineering Computer Science Index)
• Web of Science (Science Citation Index)
• Compendex (Engineering Index)
• IEEE ACM (Full-text)
• LNCS (Full-text)
• All are nationally or internationally produced so
  there is no guarantee the library will have all
  the relevant articles you find

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How to access them

• From the library home page at
• www.soton.ac.uk/library
• gt Subject Support gtElectronics and Computer
  Science gt Databases and Indexes
• gt Resources
• Using Institutional login or VPN when off campus

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Devise a search strategy

• Look at your own search statement (project
  topic) and devise a search strategy by selecting
  relevant keywords or concepts
• Break down topic into components
• Identify keywords, synonyms, alternative
  spellings related terms
• List relevant subheadings
• Then put the search strategy into practice in
  the different databases and compare the results

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How to search the databases

• Topic search
• keywords or phrases
• controlled indexing (thesaurus) terms
• Author/title search
• Citation searching (Web of Science)

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Searching the databases by topic

• Search statements retrieve exact matches
• Use Boolean operators (and,or,not) to combine
  search terms
• Use truncation,stemming and wild cards (symbols
  vary between databases)
• So you need to think carefully about what terms
  to use and how to enter them

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Boolean Logic
a OR b
a AND b
a NOT b
a
a
a
b
b
b
Can be used to join different search terms
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Truncation and wildcards

• To find words with a common stem (normally
  symbol)
• Aero will find
• Aeroplane
• Aeroplanes
• Aerospace

• To replace a letter in the middle of a word
  (normally ? symbol)
• Wom?n will find
• Woman
• Women
• Colo?r will find
• Colour
• Color

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Truncation Example

• What other terms would be found if you truncated
  in the following ways?
• Electr
• Elect

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Trunction example cont.

• Electr Elec
• ical tion/s
• onic/s tive/s
• icity
• ons
• odes
• olytes
• ic/s

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Example of using OR

• Subject term The Internet
• What other synonyms would you need to combine
  with OR to get all articles on the Internet?
• The Web
• World Wide Web
• WWW

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Phrase searching

• Some databases search for phrase if Boolean
  operators are not present
• Others require phrases to be enclosed in
  quotation marks
• Note that truncation and stemming do not always
  work with phrase searching

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Web of Science

• General science database
• Allows citation searching
• Can be searched alone or with other databases
• Save searches to repeat in a future session
• Set up search alert or citation alert for
  current awareness

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Exercise 1 - spend 5 minutes to do
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Search Statement Exercise

• The following search was performed in the Web of
  Science
• Graph topologies, gap metrics and robust
  stability for nonlinear systems
• Can you work out the number of results each
  search got and why?

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Exercise

• In small groups see if you can how many results
  each search got
• Which would be the best search for Web of Science
• Which would be the best search for Webcat

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INSPEC

• Specialist electronics, electrical, computer and
  information technology database
• Can search with Web of Science or alone
• Allows searching using a controlled vocabulary
  (thesaurus)
• Save searches to repeat in a future session
• Set up search alert for current awareness

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So...

• Decide on the exact form of the terms you will
  use
• Allow for any relevant variations in terminology
  and spelling
• Use truncation and wildcard symbols where
  appropriate

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Recording your results

• Mark relevant references in your search results
• Then
• e-mail results to yourself
• export to reference software
• save to a file

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Finding the full text

• If there is a full-text link or TDNet link try it
• If not search WebCat
• Journal articles by the journal title
• (use full title not abbreviations)
• Conference papers by the conference title
• (for IET/IEEE use IEEEXplore)
• Reports by author and title

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If its...

• In the library
• note the call number
• find the item on the shelves
• or follow through the electronic link to the
  journal if there is one
• Not in the library
• Request an inter-library loan
• (you have a quota of 5 each year)

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Advanced features
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Advanced searching

• Searching by author
• Searching using controlled vocabulary/thesaurus
• Citation searching (Web of Science)

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Additional features

• Limits
• Analyse results
• Refine results
• Search history
• Marking records
• Exporting records
• E-mail alerts

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Recording references

• Record the full details of the reference
• Email, print, download
• Different referencing styles IEEE, ACM, Harvard
• Record how you found it
• which database/s used
• which keywords i.e. search statement

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Avoid plagiarism

• Plagiarism is copying and therefore is seen as
  cheating so ..
• Cite your sources
• Enclose words and sentences copied directly from
  another author in quotes
• i.e. acknowledge where you have found the
  material and make it easy for other people to
  find that information also

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Exercise 2 - spend 5 minutes to
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Create your own search statement ..

• Fill in the library search planner on your
  chosen topic, using the hints and tips
  demonstrated to you in this session
• Run your search on selected databases and compare
  the results
• If you are coming to one of the tutorials, bring
  the planner and your results

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Tutorial Sessions

• Wednesday 29 October , Library, Room 4075
• 9.30 10.30 a.m., 11 12 , 12.30 1.30p.m.
• Thursday 30 October, Library, Room 4075
• 9.30 10.30a.m., 11 12, 12 1p.m.
• Please email fmn_at_soton.ac.uk with the date and
  time you are intending to attend. Places limited
  to 16!
• BRING YOUR COMPLETED SEARCH PLANNERS WITH YOU!

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And finally
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If you need help.

• Fiona Nichols
• Tel [phone] (22791)
• e-mail esmenqs_at_soton.ac.uk
• Subject Enquiry Desk
• Check Library website for service hours