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Scientific Literature Search Skills and strategies

Scientific Literature Search Skills and strategies. Literature: Hundreds of thousands of books and Journals . Research: What has been done before and build on previous work. Classification of Scientific Literature Three major types of sources of information 1. primary (1 o )

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Scientific Literature Search Skills and strategies

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  1. Scientific Literature SearchSkills and strategies

  2. Literature: Hundreds of thousands of books and Journals. Research: What has been done before and build on previous work. Classification of Scientific Literature Three major types of sources of information • 1. primary (1o) • 2. secondary (2o) • 3. Tertiary (3o) Some journals may present only a single type but some may carry literature in two or three categories.

  3. Primary Literature • Comprises all scientific literature that presents new, novel scientific data or ideas. • Reviews, perspectives and analyses that advance new concepts and viewpoints about data generated by others • Published in scholarly journals • “Peer-reviewed” journals most respected.

  4. An original article in a research journal can be in the form of a: 1) Full paper • Complete report usually accompanied by a short abstract 2) Note • A final report on a project of smaller scope, includes experimental details but not abstract 3) Communication • A preliminary report of finding of unusual significance • Very concise • In most cases followed by a full journal

  5. Examples of journals that publish 1ojournals for Anthropology • General • Journal of Human Evolution • Current Anthropology • American Journal of Physical Anthropology • Evolutionary Anthropology • Specific to the project: • Journal of Archaeological Science • Paleobiology • Anthropozoologica • Antiquity

  6. Examples of journals that publish 1o journals for Biology • General • PLOS Biology • Journal of the History of Biology • Cell • Ecology • Specific to the project • Journal of Experimental Botany • Journal of Biological Chemistry • Molecular Biology and Evolution • Plant Molecular BiologyPlant Physiology

  7. Examplesof journals that publish 1o journals for Chemistry • General • Journal of American Chemical Society (English) • Journal of the Chemical Society, Chemical Communication (English) • Journal of Organic Chemistry • Tetrahedron Letters (English, German, French) • Journal of Medicinal chemistry • Specific to the project • Journal of Food Chemistry • Journal of Agriculture and Food chemistry • Journal of Food chemistry and Nutrition • Trends in Food Science and Technology • American Journal of Clinical Nutrition • Molecular Nutrition and Food Research

  8. Secondary Literature -Comprises summaries of results and ideas from primary literature written for an audience of scientists with some understanding of the topics. -Good place to begin searching a topic Examples of secondary literature include: 1. Journals that only publish review articles a survey of a single limited topic • Chemical Review • Annual review of food science and technology • Comprehensive Reviews in Food Science and Food Safety 2. Review articles and Perspectives in other journals

  9. 3. Symposia • Scientist meet to present scientific information focused upon a particular topic • Often published together as a book 4. Abstract Journals example chemical abstract 5. Books • Some written by individual, others compilation of articles by one or more editors • Some could be considered as primary sources if they disclose new ideas on a very specific topic.

  10. Useful handbooks that compile data in chemistry: 1) Beilstein A multivolume that lists all known organic compounds, t heir physical properties, methods of preparation and other available information. Not up to date 2) the handbook of Chemistry and Physics 3)the dictionary of Organic Compounds 4) the Merck Index 5) the Aldrich Catalog of chemical compounds 6) for the chemistry Science 10 project • HarvestPlus Handbook for Carotenoid Analysis http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/harvestplus%20handbook.pdf • a Guide to Carotenoid Analysis in Foods http://vizedhtmlcontent.next.ecollege.com/CurrentCourse/harvest_plus_-2[1].pdf

  11. Well known and widely used scientific journals that cover a wide variety of topics in science • Nature • Science • PNAS • PLOS One

  12. Tertiary Literature • Generally written for a nonscientific audience or for scientist in other disciplines. • Generally sources of information in theses articles are not cited, or a bibliography of related readings is included. • Information found here are usually unreferenced • Examples of 3o literature sources : • Science magazines such as Scientific American, Current science, Science Today, National Geographic • Lay magazines as Discover Magazine, Newspapers, News Journals such as Newsweek or Times) • Textbooks • encyclopedias

  13. Gray” Literature • Information that is not easily classified • Example some government publications ***In some cases the scientific literature can be just classified primary and secondary in which all peer-reviewed journal article are primary and the rest of the literature is secondary. ***What is more important than knowing the exact classification is to know what sources are available and understand the reliability of the articles and use the information accordingly.

  14. Types of Sources that are Appropriate for Your research project • Your literature search should include mainly 1o, 2o however some 3o literature sources that are reliable and reputable are acceptable • For developing posters do not include 3o literature .

  15. Some Basic Steps to Searching the Scientific Literature 1. Do a quick elementary search by using your textbook or other textbooks, encyclopedia, or a quick online search 2. Develop a list of “Key words” to help you further search your topic 3. Search the computerized catalog under these key words 4. Use various computerized and bound indexes to search key words 5. Revise your key words as needed to broaden or narrow the search 6. Use the literature cited in these papers to identify other relevant articles and access 2o and 1o sources.

  16. Resources Available on Computer The internet is a good and fast resource for a bibliographic research to search for references to relevant scientific articles. It can be a powerful tool for gaining information however you must recognize three key limitation : • 1. comprehensive search are nearly impossible since there is so much information available • 2. There is no guarantee of the accuracy of the quality of the material obtained unless you are sure of the source • Some of the documents are still evolving • 3. The material may be moved or removed at any time. • To avoid this, make a back up copy of very pertinent information

  17. As a general rule, do not use information taken directly from web pages as sources for your paper unless they are full-length scientific articles delivered via the internet from a source such as the Electronic Journal Center. • More and more papers are being delivered in this form. • Such articles are usually available in print as well, and you should reference them as if you were looking at the printed product.

  18. Databases of scientific literature can be accessed through the internet and search through a variety of channels, including key words, authors and titles. • Many databases currently provide abstracts and more and more journal publish full articles online that can be accessed with a subscription or without a subscription. • Abstracts are reliable on their own with out the information from the full text.

  19. Brief list of selected online Databases of Scientific publication (“Research Methods” page 171) “Research Methods” page 171

  20. More online data bases • Biosis Preview (on-line version of BioAbstracts) • Periodical Abstracts • OHIOLINK • Indexes on CD-ROM • Academic Search Premier • Science Full Text Select • JSTOR

  21. More about Key words • Careful selection of key words is important to an effective search • If the search is too general, many articles will show and it would be over whelming or if it too specific, no hits will come . • It is important to use a more refined key wording to get reduce number of citation to a manageable level. • Boolean searches allow you to combine words and phrases using the words AND, OR, ... known as Boolean operators) to limit, widen, or define your search. • Web directories default to these Boolean search parameters anyway, but a good Web searcher should know how to use basic Boolean operators.

  22. Obtaining Scientific articles • if you are lucky the search engine you are using might provide a link to full text, • You might obtain the article: • Free • College might have access or • Or ask the Liberian if it can be obtained from UCLA • Or check www.lib.utexas.edu under “research tools” click “find a Journal” and type the name of the journal • 2What if the journal or the article is not available check Google for the journal • If it involves biology or medicine the article is freely available through PubMed • Articles written about subjects that are funded by the government (such as by NIH, NSF) are freely available • Check Google Scholar for the article title and author names • The last resort go to one of the university libraries and get the article

  23. Other Research Tools • Annual Index of Individual Journals • Scientific Citation Index (SCI) • Electronic Journal Center (EJC)

  24. Bound Indexes • Chemical Abstracts • Biological Abstracts • General Science Index • There are many other bound indexes

  25. To access the Santa Monica College Library databases from the SMC Library website: • 1) Go to http://library.smc.edu • 2) Under “Find” click on the link "Articles in Newspapers, Journals, Magazines - Article and Reference Databases." 3) Click on "All Databases" or “Article Databases.” • 4) Read through the list with brief descriptions of the content and scope of the databases.5) Choose a database. You might start with the database "Academic Search Premier/MasterFILE Premier.” This is actually a combination of two databases. It is the largest and most general in nature, and is widest in scope in terms of the range of topics covered. • Note: If you are off campus, you will be prompted to login to the database using your SMC Network Account Username and Password.6) Once you have searched for your topic, for example "carotenoids," you will see a list of periodical articles (from journals, magazines & newspapers).  The citations (descriptive listings) that say "Full-Text" are available to read by clicking on the "Full-Text" link.  The other citations only provide the bibliographic information and an abstract or brief summary of the article. 

  26. 7) You can refine your search by specifying which search field to search in, for example by changing the "Select a Field (optional)" to "SU Subject Terms," which are controlled vocabulary terms.  You can also add additional terms, for example: carotenoids AND research.  • 8) You can search through the full text of articles by searching in “full text” or “all text,” etc., instead of a bibliographic field. For example: carotenoids AND (research OR methodology) in full text. • 9) In addition to specifying the words or phrases that describe your topic, you can limit or narrow your search in various other ways. For example, you can limit your search to those articles that are actually available from the database (instead of those articles for which only a bibliographic description with abstracts is available) by selecting the “Full-Text” limit. Or you can limit your results to scholarly (peer reviewed) journals. These are just two examples. • 10) If you want to track down an article that is not available in full text in the result list, open a new window and from the library home page select "Journals, Newspapers, and Magazines by Name."  You can paste the title of the periodical into the search box and see if the SMC Library subscribes to that periodical in one of the other databases, or in print format.

  27. Some of the information in this PPP was obtained from • http://www.marietta.edu/~biol/introlab/infores.pdf

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