E-research -a quick romp through some

useful tools

Russell BealeAdvanced Interaction Group

R.Beale@cs.bham.ac.uk

Overview

• Writing tools• Internet search and veracity• Reference management• Remote access to e-resources

What are blogs?

• “wild, random, unconstrained ramblings”• “self-obsessive diaries”• Chronologically ordered postings on a web

page– Mainly text, a few images, and links to other

pages

Blog usage

• Format supports stream-of-consciousness thinking

• Supports diary format• Rapid, fits with fragmented working

patterns

ExampleStandard entry - dated, text, small photo

Easy link to externalsites

syndication

Webtools

links

Historyofposts

Writing is thinking

• Writing is a tool for thinking– Not something to be done after the fact

• Document thoughts, ideas, decisions,problems

• Provides much of the text for dissertation• Tool for communicating with supervisor?

Reflective practice

After Kolb 1984

Internet search

• Google - Assess veracity– extension

• .ac.uk, .edu probably fine• .net. .org ok but be cautious• .com fine for product info but beware• Personal sites may be fine, and could be awful

– Download time• Better sites are faster

Clever search terms

• Be clever in abstracting your terms– Google based on page title, headings, first

paragraph words: what will be in the page youwant?

• Caps not significant• Word order is• + word must be there• - word must not be there• “contiguous words” to look for phrase

– * inside phrase allows none or more words in between

• Looks for academic papers• Searches University sites and digital

libraries• Default choice for many

Digital Libraries• ACM digital library

– http://portal.acm.org/

• CiteSeer– http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/

• Ingenta– http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content

• Scirus– http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/

• E-journals from IS– http://www.ejournals.bham.ac.uk/

More DLs & Bibliographies• Web of Knowledge

– http://portalt.wok.mimas.ac.uk/– Web of Science– Science citation index

• Shows how influential journals are

• The collection of Computer Science Bibliographies– http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/index.html

• Bibfinder– http://kilimanjaro.eas.asu.edu/

• E-resources from IS– www.eresources.bham.ac.uk

Reference management• Use a reference database

– It’ll save vast amounts of time in the long run– Put in the URL if it’s available online– Put in the abstract or some notes as wellBibTeX

• Some good BibTeX tools are:• bibjoin merges entries if you have different versions of an entry from many sources• bibclean Tidies, indents, fixes bibtex files. Very configurable.• citetags Extracts the list of keys cited from in a .tex or .aux file• citefind Extracts the bibtex entries from a list of keys (maybe from citetags)• bibextract Extract bibtex entries based on regular expressions• bibcheck Checks a bibtex file for syntax errors• biborder Changes the order of fields in all bibtex entries to be the same• bibdup Finds duplicate keys• biblabel Generates nice consistent keys for bibtex enttries, can be used with...• citesub Substitutes citation keys, normally produced by biblabel• biblex Lexically analyses a bibtex file and outputs a sort of XML like version• Bibunlex Does the opposite. Can work on the token stream from bibclean• bibsort Sorts a bibtex file by any key you choose• bibsplit Splits a bibtex file into several files based on the key you choose• bibparse Checks that a bibtex file conforms to the correct grammar.

EndNote

• Reference manager for Word• CiteWhileYouWrite options• Easy addition, management and use• Connects to online databases to search,

find and extract references– Flakey connections

• Much simpler to use than BibTex

Citeulike

• Automates capturing of references fromdigital libraries and academic sites

• Exports to BibTeX and EndNote• Great for sharing refs with colleagues• Fast, easy

– Javascript bookmarklet• Couple with GoogleScholar and a local

reference manager…

CiteULike

• Many of the e-resources requireAthens (University) login

• Can set up a tunnel and proxy– Looks to resource as if you are

originating at the Uni– Read supportweb pages for details

• On mac, use SSH Tunnel Manager + Locations

Proxies

Wireless networking oncampus

• Uses your centraluniversity’s login– In the school,

register MACaddress withsupport, get SSIDand WEP key

Wireless networkingelsewhere

• Location-independent networking• Use your Birmingham login to

authenticate to wireless networks inmany other UK Universities– Need your .bham account, not .cs.bham

one