The Literature Review

Finding & Evaluating Information Resources for Industrial and

Systems Engineering

P.L. Alford, D.V.M., M.S., M.S.Jane Stephens, M.L.I.S.

Electronic Resources – One-stop shopping? – Not Yet Catalogs vs. Indexes/Databases vs. Web Directories vs. Web Search Engines

**DIFFERENT RESOURCES NEEDED FOR DIFFERENT TYPES OF CONTENT**

Catalogs Physical location and status of the holdings

of a specific library or libraries, e.g., LibCat Formal subject headings (usually 2-5) applied

to content of entire work (Library of Congress or National Library of Medicine)

Smaller entities within the work, like book chapters or conference papers, not indexed

Search by title, author, subject, format, publisher; more recently, keyword search may include abstracts or Tables of Contents

Indexes/Databases Not tied to holdings of a specific institution Indexing and abstracting of information in

a particular discipline, e.g., education, medicine, or engineering; or in a particular content or format, e.g., newspapers, data, films; or from a particular publisher, e.g., Elsevier or U.S. government

Hundreds of databases, some free, most are subscription, restricted to TAMU users

Indexes/Databases, ctnd. Indexing may cover full-text of articles; at

a minimum most DBs search and/or index title, abstract, assigned keywords, source title, publisher, and date of publication

Subject-specific DBs usually assign subject descriptors using formal vocabulary; browsable indices or searchable thesaurus available to map common search terms to the formal language of the discipline

Indexes/Databases, ctnd. Some DBs contain full-text articles (may

or may not contain graphics) within the database or have links to the full-text articles

Some DBs have SFX (Find Text@TAMU) link to retrieval options

Some DBs no links to full-text or local holdings; must check LibCat, E-Journal Search, or use Get It for Me.

Choosing a Database/Index

Consult subject or class guide http://guides.library.tamu.edu

Browse electronic resources by subject

Ask a librarian (subject librarian contact info on guides or Evans 845-3826; WCL 845-2111; live chat link library home page)

Additional finding aids

Bibliographies Specially-prepared subject bibliographies

(search catalog for these) Bibliographies in reference books,

textbooks, and journal articles Consult major professor, other

mentors Having identified an important article,

follow cites to it in Citation Index (ISI)

Choosing Indexing Resources:Four “C’s” to Consider Content – What types of publications

indexed? Numbers/Source list of titles? Credibility – How authoritative is the

content? Currency – How current is the content,

how frequently updated? Coverage – Years of content indexed?

Changes in indexing through the years?

Content: the Three “R’s” Research reports (current studies) Review articles and monographs

(books) Reference material

Data Statistics Methodology Tools

Different indexing/finding aids for different content

Hierarchy of Credibility

Peer-reviewed Additional rankings of journals within

profession, and by citation analysis (ISI impact factor, citation half-life, etc.)

Academic publishers

Government agencies

Reputable trade & consumer publications

Information Currency

Preprints, Periodicals most current Be aware of lag time in scholarly

publishing cycle; takes time for research in “hot topics” to appear in scholarly literature

Lag time of year or more for information in books

Often difficult to evaluate currency of Web sites

Choosing Indexing Resources: Other Considerations

Advanced search capabilities? Specialized, controlled vocabulary for

indexing – also accessible by end-user? Integration with citation manager

programs? Good online help, intuitive interface? Ability to set up custom search alerts?

Accessing Current Research

Pre-print Sources, e.g. arXiv.org e-prints in physics, mathematics, computer science, etc. http://arxiv.org/

Indexes to current periodicals, conference proceedings, theses, and dissertations (next slide) and indexes to industry and trade publications for industry news reports

Accessing Current Research Databases for searching the latest research

ArticleFirst (journal TOCs) PapersFirst (conferences) Essential Science Indicators (citation

metrics & rankings, hot papers) Lexis-Nexis (conference news

coverage) Proquest Dissertations and Theses

Theses and Dissertations ProQuest Dissertations and Theses

Doctoral-level theses, many full-text online Order through Get It for Me (subsidized

acquisition) Use LibCat to search for TAMU theses

(masters and doctoral); e.g., keyword search “engineering education” AND thesis

TxSpace digital repository for recent TAMU theses (http://txspace.tamu.edu/)

Scholarly I&S Engineering Resources (alphabetic order) ACM Digital (computer science) Applied Science & Technology Business Source Complete (Ebsco) Compendex (Engineering, all types) IEEE (Electrical eng and computer sci) INSPEC (applied & theoretical) ProQuest (EconLit, Engineering, High

Tech., Materials Science) Web of Science (All academic disciplines)

Indexes/Databases for Business Content ProQuest ABI/Inform

(trade/industry publications) Ebsco Business Source

Complete (trade & scholarly publications)

See General Business LibGuide http://guides.library.tamu.edu/Business

Indexes/Databases for Mathematics / Applied Math

MathSciNet SIAM (Soc. Industrial & Applied Math) MathNetBase (~ 400 mathematics

handbooks, not articles) Springer (books and articles from

major publisher in science, technical, engineering, math)

Indexes/Databases for Social Sciences Periodicals Content

Ebsco multiple sub-databases ProQuest multiple sub-databases Web of Science

Indexes/Databases for Technical Reports

See Technical Reports Guide http://guides.library.tamu.edu/reports

NTRL (National Technical Reports Lib) GPOAccess Science.gov DTIC (Defense Technical Information

Center, formerly known as STINET)

Indexes/Databases for Patents and Intellectual Property Info

Patents subject guide http://guides.library.tamu.edu/patent

USPTO www.uspto.gov (Patent searching)

www.pat2pdf.org  (Obtain a pdf copy of patent when you know patent #)

E-Resources for ReferenceEncyclopedias & other E-Books

Type “encyclopedia” in Search for … Database search term box to see listing of electronic encyclopedias

E-book packages (databases) include eBrary, netLibrary, EngNetBase, Knovel, MathNetBase, Safari, Science Direct, Springer, Wiley Interscience

http://guides.library.tamu.edu/e-books

Statistical Data Resources

Lexis-Nexis Statistical Universe FedStats www.fedstats.gov United Nations http://unstats.un.org Search library guides with kw “data” U. No. Tx. Gov. Info. Connectionwww.library.unt.edu/govinfo/browse-topics/statistics

Government Publications GPOAccess www.gpoaccess.gov Lexis-Nexis Federal Gateway www.firstgov.gov Google Unclesam

www.google.com/unclesam KW search in LibCat with “Set Limits”

Location to Government Documents Government, law, legal library guides

Legal Resources

http://guides.library.tamu.edu/FederalLaw

Ebsco Legal Collection Campus Research (WestLaw) Lexis-Nexis Cornell Legal Information

Institute http://www.law.cornell.edu/

Finding the important journals in my field Set limits in LibCat to type= “serial”

and search by keyword Evaluate journals for their rankings

in Journal Citation Reports (ISI) Do searches of interest in major

databases and see which journals have the most articles of interest to you

Search Ulrich’s Periodical Database

Overview of mechanics of finding and retrieving journal articles

Identify articles of interest by searching an indexing database

Options for retrieval: Full text or Find Text@TAMU link when

available OR Search Now for electronic subscription (e-

journal search) Search LibCat or Chiron for print

subscription (journal title search, not article title)

Order from Get It for Me service

Tips for Managing Your Literature Cites & Reprints Make your literature review

strategy and search histories a part of your research notebook

Use a bibliographic/citation manager such as EndNote, RefWorks, Zotero

Keep backups of the electronic files of your reprints

EndNote Information & Links

http://guides.library.tamu.edu/EndNote

Endnote Basics Video Tutorial http://endnote.com/training/tutorials/EndNoteX5/Menu_970x562/EndNoteX5.html

How to Use Endnote in Seven Minutes http://youtu.be/L5Kn8l2rgqk

Citation Styles & Formatting Citation Guides

http://library.tamu.edu/help Consult journals’ publisher web sites for

instructions (manuscript, author’s, contributor’s instructions, etc.)

U. of Toronto Eng. Comm. Manual -- Documentation section www.engineering.utoronto.ca/about/programs/communication/Online_Handbook.htm

RefWorks Info & Tutorials

http://guides.library.tamu.edu/RefWorks

ProQuest RefWorks channel YouTube http://www.youtube.com/proquestrefworks

Helpful Links

Thesis office http://thesis.tamu.edu/

Writing Center http://writingcenter.tamu.edu/

Library Research Support Pages http://guides.library.tamu.edu http://library.tamu.edu/help

For Additional Help Contact: Jane Stephens, M.L.I.S.

jstephen@tamu.edu Patricia L. Alford, D.V.M., M.S.

palford@tamu.edu Evans Reference Desk, first floor

Evans, 845-3826; West Campus Lib 845-2111

Chat virtual reference (live chat and email), link on library home page