JUMPSTART YOUR DISSERTATION

TIME SAVING METHODS FOR SEARCHING AND CITING

Presenters

• Danianne Mizzy, Engineering Librarian

• Song Yu, Chemistry Librarian

Outline

• Literature Review

• Searching– Digital Dissertations– Web of Science– PubMed

• Citing using EndNote

• Q&A

Literature Review

Overview of significant literature published on your topic. – To establish novelty of your topic/approach– To identify information and ideas that may be

relevant to your project – To identify methods that could be relevant to

your project – To avoid reinventing the wheel

Literature Search

Finding materials relevant to the subject being explored

• For a dissertation– Should be comprehensive and exhaustive– Requires knowledge of all relevant sources

Literature Output

Using bibliographic management software to import, organize and output your library of citations– EndNote– RefWorks– Zotero [Firefox]– Papers [Macs]

Informal Communication

Early Communication of Research

• To Colleagues, Department, Other Researchers– Oral , email, blogs, wikis– Preprints/technical reports

Formal Communication

Via Publication• Theses/Dissertations

• Conference Proceedings

• Journal Articles

• Books

• Handbooks/Textbooks/Encyclopedias

• Patents

Where to find

Theses and Dissertations

– CLIO (for Columbia dissertations)– Digital Dissertations (includes Columbia)– NDLTD (Networked Digital Library of Theses

and Dissertations )– Other open access sources

Where to find

Conference Papers and Journal Articles Multidisciplinary databases– Web of Science (ISI Citation Indexes)– Scopus – JSTOR– GoogleScholar (http://scholar.google.com/)

Where to find

Conference Papers and Journal Articles Discipline Specific [Science]

– Chemistry –SciFinder Scholar– Computing - ACM Digital Library– Engineering- Compendex– Medicine - PubMed– Physics – INSPEC… and many more

Where to find

Books (Handbooks, Encyclopedias, etc)

• CLIO, Columbia’s Library Catalog

• Libraries beyond Columbia– WorldCat (use BorrowDirect or Interlibrary

Loan for requests)

• Google Book Search, Amazon

• Ebook Collections

Digital Dissertations

• Citations for more than 2.5 million doctoral dissertations and master’s theses

• 1861 to the present (master’s theses from 1962) • Over 1,000 North American graduate schools

and European universities represented • Dates of coverage

– 1861-1979 citations only – 1980-1996 citations and abstracts – 1997-present 24-page preview and full-text available;

registration required to download full-text

Digital Dissertations

• Searchable by author, title, institution, etc

• Author keywords or broad subjects

• Alerts

Digital Dissertations

• Export

• Export directly to ProCite, EndNote or Reference Manager

• [In EndNote Dialog Box] Select a Reference Library

Web of Science

• Science Citation Index Expanded

1899-present; 8,060 major journals

• Social Sciences Citation Index

1956-present; 2,697 journals + selected

• Arts & Humanities Citation Index

1975-present; 1,470 journals + selected

Web of Science

• Searchable by topic, author, title, etc.

• Can set up Alerts – Must register– From Search History

Web of Science

• Save to EndNote– From Results list– From Marked List

• Can select fields to include like references

PubMed

• Bibliographic information for life sciences literature from 1947

• +5000 journals, books, web pages

• NCBI and NLM

• Free to everyone

PubMed

• Limit your search by– Article type– Species– Ages, etc.

• MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)– Controlled vocabulary– Caution! Not all citations have MeSH terms

• Alerts

PubMed

• Export/Import to EndNote– From PubMed

• From Send to, select File. • Select MEDLINE from the Format menu. • Save it to your computer (.txt file)

– From EndNote• File Import• Find your file• Import Option: Find the filter: PubMed (NLM)

Citing References

• Before you start– GSAS Dissertation Office

• Dates and deadlines• Formatting guidelines• Style

– EndNote• Find and remove duplicate citations• How many libraries should I have in EndNote?

– ONE!– Use Groups

EndNote – Find Full Text

• Edit Preferences

• OpenURL Path:http://rd8hp6du2b.search.serialssolutions.com/ • Highlight Citations• Right Click Find Full Text

Cite While You Write (CWYW)

• Using EndNote in Microsoft Word

• Start – With/without template– EndNote tool bar

Why spend a day in the library when you can learn the same thing by working in the laboratory for a month?

--FH Westheimer

Summary

• Literature review– Know the types of publications in your area– Search in general and subject specific

databases– Use various resources

• Work with information sources– Coverage, unique features– Search methods– Keep up with the new literature

Summary (continued)

• Work with bibliographic softwareSearching– Import citations from different sources– Organize your citations

Writing– Using template– Insert citations

Questions?

• Dissertations Guide

• http://www.columbia.edu/cu/lweb/eguides/science/dissertations.html

• Linked from Engineering Library Homepage

Contact Us

• Danianne Mizzy– dmizzy@columbia.edu– 422 Mudd– 212-854-9087

• Song Yu– sy2133@columbia.edu– 422 Mudd– 212-854-5778