RWS 508 - Scientific Writing

RWS 508 - Scientific Writing

Anne Turhollow

Library & Information Access

Spring 2004

Two Stages of Information Searching

Find It!Identifying specific books, articles, reports on a given topic

Get It!Physically getting those items into your hands or on your computer screen

With technology, these separate tasks are blurring together

Types of Information

Fact

Basic / Background

Practical / How to

Research

Formal vs. Informal

From Jim Parrot, Librarian, University of Waterloo

Flow of Research Information

More Information

The Scientific Publication CycleCarol Green and Patty Carey, University of Washington Libraries

Flow of Scientific InformationJim Parrot, University of Waterloo Library

Domains of Information

Fee

FreeProprietary

Domains of Information

Free vs. Fee vs. Proprietary

Different finding tools search different domains and different layers within those domains

Infinite vs. Finite, or Open vs. Closed

Indexes and Databases

Search Engines

Periodical Databases

Fulltext Journal Collections

Data Collections

Hybrids

Domains of Information

Fee

Free

ProprietaryIndexed by:

Periodical Databases

Fulltext Search Software

Indexed by:

Search Engines

Specialty Search Software

Indexed by

Specialty Search Software

Search Engines

Examples - Google, Yahoo, Teoma

Machine (“robot” or “spider”) created databases of the World Wide Web and other materials

Index the free resources

Creators of the information - any one who can put up a web page

More Information

Best Search ToolsInfoPeople Project

Finding Information on the InternetUniversity of California, Berkeley Libraries

Invisible Web

There are significant portions of Internet accessible material that are not indexed by the standard search engines

Dynamic pages, different formats (especially graphics), specialty databases

More Information

Those Dark Hiding PlacesRobert J. Lackie, Librarian, Rider College

Invisible Web: What It Is…Joe Barker, University of California, Berkeley Libraries

Periodical Databases

Examples - Biosis Previews, CompendexWeb

Created by humans, usually subject experts

Index a defined discipline and a finite set of published resources (mainly journals, but may include books, conference proceedings, etc.)

Both the databases and the materials indexed cost money

Article Databases page on InfoDome

Fulltext Journal Collections

Examples - Elsevier ScienceDirect, JSTOR

Pay per view or subscription

Created by humans, sometimes OCR

Collections usually based on a publisher’s offerings

Searching is very deep, but restricted to a “narrow” viewpoint

Data Collections

Examples - GenBank, PDB

Raw data

Created by experts, sharing their results

Usually run by government entities

Generally free

Hybrids

Examples - Scirus, EntrezMixes of fulltext, web documents, and/or raw dataMix of free and fee materialsTwo different approaches

Single database with multiple resource typesSingle search interface that searches multiple databases

Methods of Searching

Follow the citations (“Breadcrumbs”)

Subject searching in a database or two or three…

Cited reference searching

Ask an expert

Follow that Trail!

Start with one or few known articles, etc.

Track down the material in their bibliographies

And continue the process from article to article

Database Searching

Searching by topic, author, species, etc. in one or more databasesGeneral Search Techniques

Be specific, especially if searching in a fulltext databaseBoolean logic

• Boolean Searching on the Internet, Laura Cohen, Univ at Albany Libraries

Phrase or adjacency searching

Database Searching

TruncationEcolog* retrieves ecology, ecologies, ecological

No standard symbol

Field searching

LimitsLanguage, gender, format, etc.

More Information

InfoPeople Search Tools ChartCarole Leita, InfoPeople Project

Help pages on almost all databases

Cited Reference Searching

Examples - Web of Science, Highwire Press

Trace research forward in time from a specific reference

Very powerful tool, but somewhat limited by human mistakes

Get It!

Many databases provide links to the online versions of the journals

OpenURL standard

If database doesn’t have linksThe PAC

SDSU Periodicals List

And if we don’t have it?

Inter-Library Loan / Document Delivery

Overnight - 3 weeks depending on Material format

Delivery method

Help!

InfoDomeResearch - How to get help

LibrariansAnne Turhollow

619-594-4921

c.turhollow@sdsu.edu