Information Skills for Research in Earth Sciences

1. Information Skills forResearch in Earth Sciences Sue Bird Bodleian Subject Librarian Earth Sciences Elizabeth Crowley Earth Sciences Departmental Librarian October 2012

2. This session How to do subject searches for journal articles, conference papers, book chapters etc How to cite sources correctly & therefore avoid plagiarism How to use Reference Management Software

3. Subject searching SOLO and Oxford e-journals cover Oxford holdings but only by title of journal Better to use specialist indexes covering the world’s literature to find articles Access via OxLIP+ Use inter-library loan for items not held in Oxford and not online

4. SOLO : Search Oxford Libraries Online • Search and discovery tool for the Oxford Libraries' vast collections of resources • Title link to over 1,000 databases on OxLIP+ • Links to growing collection of e-books

6. SOLO doesn’t tolerate spelling mistakes! So be tenacious in your searches.

9. Please make sure you sign out from SOLO and close down the browser when you have finished. • If you do not do this, your account will be available to anyone who uses the computer after you.

10. GUIDE to RESOURCES libguides/earth sciences

11. Major sources Today we cover: GeoRef Web of Knowledge SCOPUS Google Scholar

12. Glossary • Bibliographic Database= an indexed source of citations of journal articles (Use these to search for content, e.g. book chapters and journal articles) • Library Catalogue= a list of books, journals, maps, records, etc. held in the library and arranged in a systematic manner (Use this to search for a book or journal, once you know the title of the journal or the author or title of a book)

13. Bibliographic databases • Excellent for locating journal articles, book chapters and book reviews (NB. References only, NOT necessarily [though increasingly] linked through to full text) • General or Subject specific coverage • Different interfaces but similar functionality • Not tied to library holdings

14. Bib. databases - Interdisciplinary • Web of Knowledge (http://wok.mimas.ac.uk) • Web of Science covers journals in all subject areas • Citation searching • Scopus(http://www.scopus.com/home.url) • Provides an alternative to WOK for cross-disciplinary search and citation searching; incorporates Geobase

15. Search strategy • Ask a clear search question What role does ocean circulation play in Pleistocene climate change? • Break the question into search concepts Pleistocene climate, ocean circulation, climate change • Combine terms into a search strategy using Boolean connectors • Find more terms from retrieved records whilst you are searching

16. Boolean connectors: AND, OR, NOT AND to narrow the search OR to broaden the search (synonyms) NOT excludes search terms

18. Other tricks: • Use symbols for wildcards and truncation • ? or $ for a single character • pal?eo / pal$eo will find paleo or palaeo • * for truncation or variant spellings • volcan* for volcanism, volcanic, volcano, etc • use quotation marks for searching for phrases e.g. “plate tectonics”

19. Sample search “What role does ocean circulation play in Pleistocene climate change?” AND =narrows OR =widens Search string could be “climate change” AND “Pleistocene” AND “ocean circulation”

20. Thinking outside the box • Pleistocene OR Quaternary (but not Holocene) • “ocean circulation” as a phrase OR • ocean circulation as 2 separate terms • climate change OR climatic changes OR global warming • should we include pal(a)eoclimatology? • Different combinations will give different results – you need to try them all

21. GEOREF THE database for Earth Scientists

30. Keeping track of your references Make sure you keep a systematic listing of your references, so you can find them again when you need them A simple listing in Word should be fine, but if you have a large number of references, software like RefWorks (free) or EndNote(£80 from OUCS) can be very helpful. Most databases allow you to export references directly to RefWorks or EndNote.

31. Avoiding Plagiarism "...You must always indicate to the examiners when you have drawn on the work of others; other people's original ideas and methods should be clearly distinguished from your own, and other people's words, illustrations, diagrams etc. should be clearly indicated regardless of whether they are copied exactly, paraphrased, or adapted... ...The University reserves the right to use software applications to screen any individual's submitted work for matches either to published sources or to other submitted work. Any such matches respectively might indicate either plagiarism or collusion... ...Although the use of electronic resources by students in their academic work is encouraged, you should remember that the regulations on plagiarism apply to on-line material and other digital material just as much as to printed material..." Section 9.5 Proctors' and Assessor's Memorandum

32. Good academic practice So by following the citation principles and practices in place in your subject area, you will develop a rigorous approach to academic referencing, and avoid inadvertent plagiarism.

33. Citing your references An article in an online journal which also exists in print should be cited in the same way as print To cite something which only exists electronically, e.g. a web site, follow special rules which include the date viewed A specific quote must include the page reference in the citation. Also any number of style manuals:- The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism /Colin Neville.2nd ed 2010 RSL LB 2369 NEV – also available on-line ! Cite them right : the essential referencing guide / Richard Pears and Graham Shields. 2010 RSL LB 2369 PEA

34. Reference Management Software • Organize your research and manage your database of references • Include citations while you write your paper • Build a bibliography in a variety of formats • Import references from many different data sources • Create bibliographies in different document formats (Word, RTF, HTML, etc.)

35. http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/reference-management

45. Google Can’t get away from it Google is an index of web pages A journal article is not a web page So Google is not good at finding journal articles However: An image of a journal article may be placed on a web page So Google may find it If it’s free and not behind a firewall

49. Google will not allow: • creation of sets • Or controlled vocabularies • Or combining of searches • Or hit rate figures for individual search terms • Or proximity searching • Or saving and e-mailing results • Or creation of alerts • Or standardisation of journal names/abbreviations • Or info on what is included and what is not • Or info on how the system decides what is scholarly

50. Databases vs. Search engines • Contents are indexed by subject specialists • Subject headings • Limiting functions e.g. publication types, language Allow you to • View Search history • Combine searches • Mark and sort results • Print/save/email/export • Save searches • Set up alerts Searches done by automated “web crawlers” No thesaurus / subject headings – just free text searching No limiting functions Usually none of these!