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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
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 [email protected] 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/
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One-to-one sessions
Contact the Bodleian History [email protected]
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!
