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Dave Inman

Project ResearchProject Research

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Process of ResearchProcess of Research

Literature searchLiterature search

Refine searchRefine searchLiterature reviewLiterature review

More focusMore focus

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TimescaleTimescale

Start early in life of project

Intensive in months 1-2

On-going throughout first semester

Further research in semester 2

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SourcesSources

Past projects

Books Library Friends Tutors

Journals / magazines Library

Web Tutor / friend recommended sites Search engines

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Past projectsPast projects

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LISA (www.lisa.sbu.ac.uk)LISA (www.lisa.sbu.ac.uk)

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Search for JournalsSearch for Journals

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Journals in ComputingJournals in Computing

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Electronic JournalsElectronic Journals

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Database Cross-Searching

Many subjects are cross-disciplinary and so the ability to search across several databases is a useful time-saver.

http://www.sosig.ac.uk/

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Library catalogLibrary catalog

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Web Search EnginesWeb Search Engines

Two kinds:

Manually updated

(e.g. Yahoo!)

Auto updated (e.g. AltaVista)

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Links to Search EnginesLinks to Search Engineshttp://www.sbu.ac.uk/home/gateways.shtmlhttp://www.sbu.ac.uk/home/gateways.shtml

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Links to Search EnginesLinks to Search Engineshttp://www.sbu.ac.uk/home/gateways.shtmlhttp://www.sbu.ac.uk/home/gateways.shtml

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Search Engine Display Chart

How can you search How can you search more effectively?more effectively?

Plan your search in advance

Become familiar with advanced search concepts

Learn to use search engine features & search syntax

Review and refine your searches

Overview of Search Overview of Search ConceptsConcepts

Boolean Operators - AND, OR, NOT lions AND tigers cheetahs OR jaguars NOT cars

Field and phrase searching “Safari Corporation Inc.” title: "Safari Corporation Inc.”

Truncation using wildcard symbol lion*

Parentheses (lions OR tigers) AND (zoos OR parks)

Example SearchExample Search

Topic

The possible link between mobile phones and brain tumours

("mobile phone*" OR "cellular phone*") AND ("brain tumour*" OR "brain tumor*")

Search Engine IssuesSearch Engine Issues

Complex Boolean searches do not work on all search engines

Different search engines have different features and syntax

Case sensitivity - use lowercase unless searching for a proper name

Searching FeaturesSearching Features

Complex queries (Boolean, parentheses, truncation etc) supported to varying degrees

Almost universal: Use of + and - signs eg +jaguars -cars Phrase searching using double quotes " "

Stemming - sometimes automatic

Field searching and limits title, url, date, language, domain

May be in separate "advanced" search page

May be in form of menus or check-lists

Relevancy RankingRelevancy Ranking

Factors used to rank results:

Number of occurrences of word(s) on page

Where the word(s) occur ie more important if found in title or at top of page

Page contains all words

Words found near or next to each other

Link popularity - sites ranked higher if they have lots of other sites linking to them

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Intelligent Agents: WiseWire

An ‘agent’ you can train with your preferences

http://wires.wisewire.com/

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GoogleGoogle

Uses citations or "backlinks".

A page is ranked as important if lots of other pages point to it.

A page will be ranked more highly if lots of other pages with high ranking point to it.

Google! Looks at over a billion links.

Also try Google Print (http://print.google.com/) for finding info in books

Also Google Scholar (http://scholar.google.com/) for academic work

24http://www.zotero.org/ http://www.zotero.org/

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ReferencesReferences

Chapter 4 of :

Dawson, C.W. - Computing projects: A student's guide - Prentice Hall 2000

Parts © Netskills,University of Newcastle

http://www.netskills.ac.uk/

Web tutorial on ICT research (http://snurl.com/projsources)