Research Skills for Undergraduates 2014...Bibliographical databases are useful tools for finding...

Research Skills for Your Thesis

Isabel Holowaty, Verity Westgate & Bethan Jenkins

5 key skills for historical research

Types of resources / places to search for resources

Searching for resources and evaluating search results

Saving and managing references

Introduction to today’s session

Saving and managing references

Using resources ethically

Knowing where to ask for help

Break (5 mins)

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Analyse&

decide

Write &present

Academic research cycle

Find &gather

Read &record

Evaluate

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Deciphering footnotes

• Ibid – “same place”

• Look for the first mention of a book/source

• Look at List of Abbreviations and check

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• Look at List of Abbreviations and checkBibliography

• Complete reference by searching in catalogues& bibliographical databases

• Ask a librarian

• Awareness of a range of important information resources

• Knowledge of useful tools

Learning outcomes

• Ability to select and locate useful information resources

• Knowledge of effective searching skills

• Awareness of ethical issues

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Books

Journals

Statistics

Images

Encyclopedias

Biographies

Reports

Statutes and law reports

Pamphlets

Advertising

Data

Archives

What types of resources can I use?

Images

Manuscripts

Maps

Newspapers

Dissertations & theses

Statutes and law reports

Video

Sound

Conference Proceedings

Diaries

Archives

Abstracts & indexes

Bibliographies

...and many more

Physical form e.g. print, microfilm, CD-ROM

Online6

SOLO and OxLIP+

Good starting point; Find related material; Save results

OxLIP+Databases

eJournals

Search by subject or title

Off campus access 7

Good starting point; Find related material; Save results

Print & eBooks, including printed primary sources (e.g. publishedwills & interviews) and Oxford theses

For other places – search online catalogues

WorldCat – international

COPAC – UK and Irish research libraries

British Library

Resources beyond the Bodleian Libraries

What next?

Recommend a book forOxford to purchase

British Library

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Special collectionsOften have separate finding aids

e.g. Oxford’s Online Catalogues of Western Manuscripts

Online finding aids

ArchivesHub The National Archives

OAIster Oxford College Archives

Inter-library loan

Plan a visitAdmissions policy

Opening times

Contact staff to checkthey have want you want

research.mss@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

What can catalogues do that Google can’t?

9,090,000 resultsto search through

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No access to

database for

Oxford students

Direct access to Oxford subscriptions

OxLIP+ = 1 hit direct to Oxford subscription

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OxLIP+ to browse e-resources

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Browse databases

by subject

Log in for off

campus access

OxLIP+ to search by title

More informationabout the database

Add to MyDatabases

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Click to connect

OxLIP+ other search options

Search for keywords indatabase descriptionse.g. letters, women,science

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science

Limit by subject e.g.History, African Studies

or type of resourcee.g. Images, Full Text

Bibliographical databases are useful tools for finding journalarticles, book reviews, collections of essays and conferenceproceedings.

Details of author, title, publication information e.g. journal title

Types of resources: Bibliographies

Details of author, title, publication information e.g. journal titleand a summary (abstract) of what the item discusses.

Not full text – have look up reference e.g. in SOLO

List things not available in Oxford

List print and electronic material

Sometimes called A & I databases = abstracting and indexing14

Print bibliographiesalso available

Bibliography of British and Irish History

Bibliography of British and Irish History

HistoricalAbstracts

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HistoricalAbstracts

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General gatewayse.g. Credo Reference

Types of resources: Reference Works

Subject specifice.g. Oxford Art Online

Biographical informatione.g. Dictionary of National Biography

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Dictionary of National Biography

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In print and online

Monographs (books written by one person)

Edited volumes (books with contributions from multiple people)

Types of resources: Full text

Translations and commentaries

Journals

Diaries

Biographies and autobiographies

Reports

Pamphlets

Newspapers and magazines21

Full text onlineOften possible tosearch for keywordsand cross-searchwith other material

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The Times of India(1838-2003)

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British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries1500-1950

British and Irish Women’s Letters and Diaries

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Use Primary Sources Online guide or browse in OxLIP+

Search print sources in SOLO or in special collections and archives

Keep up to date with new resources via our blog

Finding Primary Sources

Keep up to date with new resources via our bloghttp://blogs.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/ or on Twitter or Facebook

Check our Delicious bookmarks• History sources delicious.com/HFLOxford• American Sources delicious.com/vhllib• History of Science and Medicine sources

delicious.com/HSMTOxford

Further guides to resources are available from LibGuideslibguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

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Activity 1: Finding potential resources

Part 1 (5 mins)In a brief phrase summarise your research topic? (invent one if not yet known)

Note down keywords that summarise the key concepts of your topic.

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Discuss your topic with the person next to you and see if you can jointly findsome additional keywords.

Part 2 (5 mins)Search or browse OxLIP+ (http://oxlip-plus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk) for potentiallyuseful databases.

Try putting your keyword search terms into SOLO(http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk).

Useful if author and/or title unknown

Subject searching

Search by keyword... GO

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Useful if author and/or title unknown

Use of a thesaurus behind the scenes1. Bring together synonyms, variant spellings, etc.2. Consistent & reliable use of language3. Retrieves all entries on subject regardless

of language used by author

Useful way to refine/extend searches

Subject searches in SOLO often better if search ‘anywhere in the record’as they will pick up terms in other fields such as contents

Refine results by topic

Use subject headings to link

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Use subject headings to linkthrough to other items on thesame topic

Types of subject search in SOLO

Information on people & organisationse.g. diaries, wills, portraits

Information on placese.g. foreign relations, social conditions, census, guidebooks

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e.g. foreign relations, social conditions, census, guidebooks

Information on topics

Finding primary source materiale.g. biography, archives, personal narratives, speeches

Finding useful reference sourcese.g. registers, chronology, gazetteers

More examples inyour handout

Subject Browsing in SOLO

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More effective searching

To focus your searching you may need to use…

• Boolean operators

• Proximity searches

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• Proximity searches

• Wildcard/truncation searching

• Indexes

• Limits & sorting

… Then evaluate your results!

Boolean operators

AND(+) - this narrows searche.g. Imperialism AND 19th century Britain(176 hits on SOLO)

OR - this broadens search

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OR - this broadens searche.g. Imperialism OR 19th century Britain(14,198 hits on SOLO)

NOT - this refines searche.g. Imperialism NOT 19th century Britain(2,811 hits on SOLO)

Proximity searchessearches for two or more terms appearing within a specifiednumber of words of each other

usually uses letters (e.g. N or W) and a number to specify thenumber of words covered by the search.

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Near Operator (N) - gives results where the searched words arewithin a certain number of words of one another, regardless oforder.

e.g. “Thatcher N5 Gorbachev”

Within Operator (W) - gives results where the searched wordsare within a certain number of words of one another, in theorder in which they are entered.

e.g. “Kennedy W8 Khrushchev” e.g. Times Digital Archive

Truncation and wildcards

Use if you want to expand the set ofresults

Truncate a terme.g. presiden* = find president,

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e.g. presiden* = find president,presidents, presidency, presidential etc.

Include a wildcarde.g. wom?n = find both women andwoman

?

Limiting and sorting

Limit search byDateLanguage

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Sort results byTitleAuthorDateetc.

LanguageFormatetc.

Evaluating results

In order to assess how effective the search was,you need to evaluate the information returnedby the system.

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Q. Did I get all the information I expected and need?

Q. Is there any information I missed?

Q. Is there any information I did not expect and need to exclude?

Activity 2: Searching and evaluating

15 mins

Return to your search terms and ideas from the firstactivity:

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activity:

Try searching SOLO again using these search methodse.g. Boolean searching, subject searching

or

Trying searching one of the online databases youidentified in OxLIP+

Saving and managing results

References come in lots of formats from differentsources.

Every time you need to change format or create a

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Every time you need to change format or create adifferent bibliography, you need to re-type.

Sorting and selecting references takes time.

Need to follow Faculty guidelines on presentationhttps://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/access/content/group/01a2c7e3-3066-493a-9809-3d6ff12141d2/thesesconventions.pdf

Tools to help manage references

You can usually…

• E-mail to self / others

• Save to e-shelf / hard drive/ memory stick

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You can also save results into reference managementsoftware

• Refworks

• Endnote

• and many more

Saving results on SOLO

Click on star to add to e-Shelf

Email, print or send results to referenceSort into folders

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Email, print or send results to referencemanagement tools

Sort into folders

Saving searches on SOLO

Use the Save queryoption to be able torun search again andhave alerts for newresults

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results

Or sign up for rss feed

Can be edited

Managing references

Need to use (retrieve) references when writing up thesis

Need to format according to History Faculty style

References allow

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References allow1) People to trace the source of the information2) To show where others’ ideas are used (avoid plagiarism)

Example referencefrom HistoryFaculty guidance

Reference management software

Gather references andattachments in one place

Organise and share lists ofreferences

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references

Search references

Format into bibliographies

Insert footnotes intoMS Word etc

Training in Reference management software

In groups:RefWorks for Your ThesisThurs 8 May (wk 2) 2-4pmWed 18 June (wk 8) 9-11am (repeat)RefWorks for Humanities

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RefWorks for HumanitiesWednesday 28 May (wk 5) 9.15-12.15WISER: Tech Tools - Reference ManagementTue 6 May 9.15 - 12.15 (wk 2)WISER: Mendeley for Reference ManagementTue 27 May 9.15-12.15 (wk 5)More information and booking links can be found athttp://ox.libguides.com/workshops and viahttp://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/

Training in Reference management software

One-to-one

Email library.history@bodleian.ox.ac.uk for assistance by email orto arrange a meeting

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Online help

HFL handouts www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/training/presentations

WISER handouts ox.libguides.com/workshops

RefWorks video tutorials www.youtube.com/user/ProQuestRefWorks

Guidance for writing your thesis

Information available to help you

• use resources ethically

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• format and present work

Academic integrity means honest and responsible scholarship.

Guidance on academic integrityhttp://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills

Academic integrity guidance

Guidance on avoiding plagiarismhttp://www.ox.ac.uk/students/academic/guidance/skills/plagiarism

Two online courses on avoiding plagiarism via WebLearnweblearn.ox.ac.uk/portal/hierarchy/skills/generic (SSO required)

Faculty guidance for thesis writers on avoiding plagiarismweblearn.ox.ac.uk/access/content/group/histfac/undergrad/fhs/content/thesis/Plagiarism.pdf 50

Guidance on formatting and presenting

History Faculty WebLearn: Undergraduate Officehttps://weblearn.ox.ac.uk/access/content/group/histfac/undergrad/fhs/content/thesis/Guidance%20on%20Presentation%20and%20Format.pdf(under “Writing your thesis”)

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If in doubt, contact your supervisor or the Undergraduate Office

Activity 3: Further time to explore

10 mins

Carry on searching / trying out tools

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Carry on searching / trying out tools

Opportunity for one-to-one advice

Available throughout the year:

Group training sessions

Help!

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Group training sessions

One-to-one support

Online guidance

Group training sessions

WISER Workshopsox.libguides.com/workshops

IT Services Coursescourses.it.ox.ac.uk/

54http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/training/UGtraining

One-to-one sessions

Contact the Bodleian History Librarianisabel.holowaty@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

OR

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OR

See list of specialists atwww.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/subjects-and-libraries/subjects

Online guidance

Online History Faculty Library guides to resourceswww.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/history/training/guides

LibGuides by subject and for information skillsox.libguides.com/

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LibGuides by subject and for information skillsox.libguides.com/

Thank youand good luck with your thesis!and good luck with your thesis!