Dissertation Techniques

2011Sue Bird

Bodleian Subject Specialist (Geography)

Dissertation Techniques

Plagiarism v. Referencing

SOLO, OLIS & OXLIP+

Reference works

Databases

Searching techniques

Plagiarism All academic work will inevitably at some point

involve the use and discussion of critical material written by others with due acknowledgement and with references given. This is standard critical practice and can be clearly distinguished from appropriating without acknowledgement and presenting as your own material produced by others, which is what constitutes plagiarism. (Modern History and English  - Preliminary Exams  Handbook 2003/4)

http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/info/fhs/plagiarism.html http://www.admin.ox.ac.uk/epsc/plagiarism/index.shtml

Avoiding Plagiarism"...You must always indicate to the examiners when you

have drawn on the work of others; other people's original ideas and methods should be clearly distinguished from your own, and other people's words, illustrations, diagrams etc. should be clearly indicated regardless of whether they are copied exactly, paraphrased, or adapted...

...The University reserves the right to use software applications to screen any individual's submitted work for matches either to published sources or to other submitted work. Any such matches respectively might indicate either plagiarism or collusion...

...Although the use of electronic resources by students in their academic work is encouraged, you should remember that the regulations on plagiarism apply to on-line material and other digital material just as much as to printed material..."

Section 9.5 Proctors' and Assessor's Memorandum

Good academic practice

So by following the citation principles and practices in place in your subject area, you will develop a rigorous approach to academic referencing, and avoid inadvertent plagiarism.

Referencing and Citation2 main ways of organizing your references

a) Parenthetical or author/date – often called the Harvard system

b) Footnotes on a page or endnotes for a chapter

N.B. This is not to be confused with the computer package of the same name.

References / Bibliography

Be uniform in your referencing system:- Probably use the Harvard system as

suggested on the School’s web-site – but whatever you do use – just be consistent.

http://www.geog.ox.ac.uk/undergraduate/info/fhs/dissertation/referencing.html

Citation practice Also large number of manuals available to give

guidance and sound practice.

1:Doing a literature review / Chris Hart (London, 1998)[H 62 HAR ]

2:Manual for writers / Kate Turabian (7th ed. Chicago, 2007) [LB 2369 TUR ]

3:Communicating in geography & the environmental sciences / Ian Hay (3rd ed. Oxford, 2006) [G 70 HAY ]

4:Cite them right /Pears & Shields (2010 ed.) [LB 2369 PEA]

5: Complete guide to referencing & avoiding plagiarism / Neville (1st ed. 2007) – available on-line via NetLibrary

References / Bibliography

Organize your research and manage your database of references

Include citations while you write your paper

Build a bibliography in a variety of styles

Import references from many different data sources

Create bibliographies in different document formats (Word, RTF, HTML, etc.)

References / Bibliography

EndNote system:-

Web version available within the Oxford domain http://

www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/sers/resources/endnote

Also a software package that you purchase from O.U.C.S. but you then have it permanently

Courses laid on (http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk)

References / Bibliography

RefWorks

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/eresources/refworks

Refworks is a free (even after you leave Oxford) web-based bibliographic software package.

Being web-based means no software to download and update, and you can access your personal account from any computer connected to the web.

Courses laid on by the Computing Services (http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk)

Dissertation Techniques

SOLO: Search Oxford Libraries Online

Search and discovery tool for the Oxford Libraries' vast collections of resources.

Mainly OLIS (Oxford's union catalogue of printed and electronic books and journals)

Title link over 1,000 databases on OxLIP+

E-Journals

I didn't check for the hard copy - so used to getting online

access!

Newspapers

Electronic newspapers Some are freely available.

Alphabetic list on OxLIP+

Best source for the “Text Only” of huge range of newspapers and magazines is Nexis UK. Goes back approximately 10 yrs in most cases and is very current i.e. today’s daily news items

Newspapers

Legal information, cases etc.

Lexis Library (LNB) WestLaw – both UK & US editions

Both databases require SSO log-in

(if necessary ask the Law Library for help)

Dissertation Techniques

Use SOLO or OxLIP+ to access

Reference tools

Abstracting and Indexing services

Reference Sources

General reference tools

CREDO Reference : Reference works incl. Dictionaries, encyclopedias etc

International Encyclopedia of Human Geography (This is a database not a book!)

Dictionaries. OED; Oxford Reference On-line

http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/guides/maps/

Bibliography : Biondi, F., A. Gershunov , and D. R. Cayan “North Pacific Decadal Climate Variability since 1661.” Journal of Climate 14.1 ( 2001 ), pp.5–10. DOI: 10.1175/1520-0442(2001)014<0005:NPDCVS>2.0.CO;2.

E-books

Reference books Blackwell Reference Online SAGE Reference Online

Text books NetLibrary Oxford Scholarship Online Taylor & Francis Online eBooks Library

The Blackwell Companion to Globalization edited by: George Ritzer (under Sociology)

Dissertation Techniques

Abstracting and Indexing Services

(for finding the actual journal articles)

Vast range.

SCOPUS (includes GEOBASE) OVID SP Cambridge Scientific Abstracts Web of Knowledge

Bibliographic Databases

Excellent for locating journal articles , book chapters and book reviews (NB. References only,)

General or specific subject coverage

Different interfaces but similar functionality

Not tied to library holdings

Frequently will provide a link to full text

Databases vs. Search engines

Contents are indexed by subject specialists

Subject headings Limiting functions e.g.

publication types, language

Allow you to View Search history Combine searches Mark and sort results Print/save/email/export Save searches Set up alerts

Searches done by automated “web crawlers”

No thesaurus / subject headings – just free text searching

No limiting functions

Usually none of these!

Search Strategies Boolean logic

Truncation

Wild cards

Synonyms

Which language are you using?

Boolean connectors

AND – combines terms to restrict results

OR – useful for covering synonyms

NOT – excludes unwanted areas of research

OR, AND, NOT

Biodiversity

Climate changeAmazonia

SCOPUS

Includes data from GEOBASE

THE bibliographic database for the Earth, Geographical and Ecological Sciences

Databases vs. Search engines

Contents are indexed by subject specialists

Subject headings Limiting functions e.g.

publication types, languageAllow you to View Search history Combine searches Mark and sort results Print/save/email/export Save searches Set up alerts

Searches done by automated “web crawlers”

No thesaurus / subject headings – just free text searching

No limiting functions

Usually none of these!

Bibliographic Searching

Search Tip : 1 Important to remember that although each

database covers thousands of journal titles no single database is ever comprehensive.

If you are having difficulty finding material on a topic use the keywords you find in any relevant reference and search again.

Bibliographic Databases

Bibliographic Databases

OVIDSP CAB Abstracts – biogeography

EconLit – economic geography

Forest Science – biogeography

GeoRef – physical geography & geology

Zoological Abstracts Archive (1864-1977)

Bibliographic Databases

Cambridge Scientific Abstracts Various useful databases (not just science)

Ecology Abstracts  EIS: Digests of Environmental Impact Statements  Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management Oceanic Abstracts IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences Sociological Abstracts CSA Worldwide Political Science Abstracts

Bibliographic Databases

Web of Science/Knowledge

Includes Science, Social Science & Arts and Humanities Citation Indexes

Citation indexes can be used in the same way as any other abstracting and indexing service. Their extra facility is the option to search the bibliographies of any articles- a citation search. Academics use the citation index to find out who has cited their work.

Dissertation Techniques

Search :- Teleconnect* & “La Nina” 2010-11

Scopus = 25 articles

Ovid = 13 (after de-duplication of 15 articles, etc.)

C.S.A = 20 (23 before de-duplication)

W.o.K. = 29 articles

Total = 87

Dissertation Techniques Search :- Teleconnect* & “La Nina” 2010-2011

Scopus = 25 articles

Ovid = 13 (after de-duplication of 15 articles, etc.)(Refworks folder now up to 29)

C.S.A = 20 (23 before de-duplication)(Refworks folder now up to 36)

W.o.K. = 29 articles(of which 19 have now already been found)

RefWorks de-duplication = 46 unique items

Dissertation Techniques

Search Tip : 1 Important to remember that although

each database covers thousands of journal titles no single database is ever comprehensive.

If you are having difficulty finding material on a topic use the keywords you find in any relevant reference and search again.

Dissertation Techniques

Search Tip : 2 Use Boolean Logical Operators AND, OR, NOT

also proximity operators Adj (literally adjacent); Near(same sentence); With(same field)

Field descriptors: AU(author); TI(title); AB (abstract); SO(source or reference); DE (general descriptor) etc are likely to be specific to each database and won’t operate in ‘cross searches’

Combining searches: #1 and #2

Dissertation Techniques

Search Tip : 3

Take time to explore the various databases & platforms available.

Some will be more useful to you than others.

Scopus OvidSP Cambridge Scientific Abstracts Web of Knowledge

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/information_skills/wiser

Dissertation Techniques

Search Tip : 4 Consider subject synonyms & British and US spellings.

Apply truncation, usually * to find plurals/alternative word endings and ? to replace a single character.

Expand search by following hypertext links esp subject headings

Use tagging facilities within database to mark articles for printing, emailing, downloading or exporting.

Authors names: Check the online help for formats. Use the database index to find different forms of author’s name, otherwise truncate first initial.

Dissertation Techniques

Three ways to keep up to date:

E-mail alert – you can specify a search to be repeated and the results emailed to you at chosen intervals or Zetoc will tell you when the next issue of a journal is available.

Saving and rerunning searches – you save a search and run it again in the future.

Citation Alert – you will receive an email every time a particular article is cited in another WoK or Scopus indexed article.

Dissertation Techniques

Apart from Bibliographic Electronic Resources there are some factual databases available via OxLIP+ e.g.:-

World development indicators,

EIU Country Reports,

Demographic Yearbook etc.

If they are CD-ROM based they may require you to download software

Further assistance:

This presentation available on-linehttp://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/science/training/biosciences

More courses available:http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/itlp/

Other presentations

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/services/training/wiser/presentations

Sue.bird@bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Dissertation Techniques

Please ask a Librarian if you get stuck trying to use any of the resources or would like advice on the most suitable databases for your enquiries.

GOOD LUCK WITH YOUR DISSERTATIONS!