Generic Research Skills

Transcription

1 Generic Research Skills Follow us on Stuart Bentley & Mike Ewen

2 Today s Session Search Strategies Using databases Accessing other libraries and collections Keeping up to date Open Access

3 Your Research Question What effect has social media had on teenagers social skills

4 Google?

5 Developing a search strategy Identify main concepts within the question No good searching for the essay title Apply synonyms and related terms e.g. mental handicap learning disabilities mental retardation Use built-in subject headings / thesaurus Employ quotation marks to search for phrases e.g. "youth justice system"

6 Keywords What effect has social media had on teenager s social skills

7 Synonyms Keyword OR OR OR OR Social Media Social Networking Twitter Facebook Web 2.0 Teenager Adolescent Young adult Juvenile Youth Social Skills Social Interaction Social Awareness Interpersonal Skills Social Development

8 Truncation Take account of plurals e.g. youth/youths, child/children, woman/women Use truncation and wildcards e.g. child*, communit*, wom?n NOTE: different databases uses different conventions: ProQuest (IBSS) Ebsco (PsycINFO) Scopus Web of Science (Social Sciences Citation Index) Ovid (Medline) LexisLibrary none or more * * * * $! one only???? # * none or one # $? defined number $n $n

9 Combining search terms Boolean operators: OR AND NOT

10 Combining search terms OR

11 Combining search terms 1 st term OR 2 nd term broadens your search OR items containing either term are returned

12 Combining search terms AND

13 Combining search terms 1 st term AND 2 nd term narrows your search AND only items containing both terms are returned

14 Combining search terms NOT

15 Combining search terms 1 st term NOT 2 nd term specializes a search NOT items containing the second term are excluded

16 Databases

17 Database Searches Number of results: 2 Number of results: 42

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19 Referencing Software...the big 2 Organise your references Export references straight from databases Choose your referencing style Create and export bibliographies

20 The benefits Databases allow you to: Run advanced searches Filter your results Find peer reviewed articles Save searches Export references Create RSS Feeds or alerts

21 Access to collections Where can you get hold of the resources you are interested in? Join SCONUL Access to get access to other institutions collections Join online at Become a reader at the British Library St Pancras Reading Room or visit the Document Supply Centre at Boston Spa

22 Access to collections Use your local Document Supply service Contact the author(s) of papers, especially conference papers Institutional repositories for author s drafts, pre-prints etc.

23 Access to collections: Where are they? Use national catalogues to track down holdings of books and journals COPAC British Library catalogues

24 Access to collections: COPAC Access via: Document Supply Sconul Access

25 Access to Collections: British Library Catalogue Access via: Document Supply Visit BL Boston Spa Visit St Pancras Reading Room

26 Access to collections: Theses Find Theses and Dissertations EThOS institutional repositories either individually or collectively e.g. CORE Index to Theses etc.

27 Access to Collections: EThOS Access via: Registration on site

28 Access to collections: Repositories

29 Access to collections: CORE Open Access

30 Access to collections: Theses

31 Keep up to date ZETOC monitors electronic journal table of contents lists e.g. JISCMail lists Research networks, such as RIN, ResearchGate etc.

32 Keep up to date: ZETOC Access via: Institutional access & registration

33 Keep up to date: list

34 Keep up to date: Research networks

35 The Future: Open Access Definiton: Open Access is unrestricted, online access to peer-reviewed and published research papers Must be published in journals which are compliant with Research Council policy on Open Access.

36 The Future: Open Access Must include details of the funding that supported the research, and how the underlying research materials (data, samples or models) can be accessed This means a potentially enormous increase in research and raw data available Some institutions are publishing journals using Open Journal Software

37 Open Access Some open access resources will need assessing for quality Also, access is not the same thing as permission to use so licensing may become very important

38 Assessing research Now you have the research, you will need to evaluate it. Some factors to bear in mind include: Quality, accuracy, relevance, bias, reputation and credibility Is the work peer-reviewed? Who has written it? Who has published it? Is the original research available?

39 In summary Develop a search strategy Use synonyms, truncation and boolean logic Use appropriate search tools Use as many collections as possible Keep up to date Assess research

40 Any Questions? Telephone: Follow us on