Earth Sciences 4490:

Tools for literature reviews

Dan Sich

Earth Sciences Librarian

Oct 6th, 2010

How do you find journal

articles?

Article databases

• Find peer-reviewed (scholarly) journal

articles, conference articles, and review

articles using journal article databases

• SciFinder (chemistry)

• Web of Science or Scopus (citing articles)

• GeoRef (geology) or GeoBase (geog.)

What are “peer-reviewed”

journal articles?

Peer-review process

1. author writes paper, sends to publisher

2. publisher sends to referees (experts)

3. referees send feedback to publisher

4. publisher sends feedback to author

5. author decides whether or not to revise

article and send back to publisher

6. publisher decides whether or not to

publish

Scholarly vs. Popular Publications

• availability

• audience

• aesthetics

• authors

• topics

• length

• language

• advertizing

• sources, credits

Tools

• Connect from home (proxy server)

• Article databases:

– SciFinder

– Web of Science or Scopus

– GeoRef or GeoBase

• Get it @ Western (SFX)

• (Classic) Library Catalogue

• Interlibrary Loan (RACER)

• RefWorks

Off-Campus Access

• article databases

• eBooks, eJournals

SciFinder

• Chemical Abstracts Service

• Account set-up

• Search by Research Topic

• mineralogy of martial soils

• Analyse (by Journal), Refine (add “life”)

• Get Cited, Get Citing

• Get Full Text, tricks in catalogue

• RefWorks…?

Notes on SciFinder

• Sign Out when finished

• We only have 8 „seats‟

• Today you‟re using training seats

Web of Science

• Science Citation Index

• meteor* AND compos* AND canad*

• Refine Results: Subject Areas

• Citations?

• Times cited? Create citation report

• Select records, save to Plain Text, Import

into RefWorks

GeoRef

• GeoSciences, 1785-present

• Try meteor* AND compos* AND canad*

• “Peer-Reviewed Journals” tab

• Descriptors

• Get it @ Western

• “Palaeolimnological evidence…” eJournal

• “The Earth‟s lower mantle…” ILL

• RefWorks download

Search tips

• identify concepts, keywords, synonyms

• use AND, OR, NOT, * (truncation)

• review & revise searches

• use Search History

• limit date range, document type(s), etc.

• skim abstracts

No fulltext?

• Search the catalogue by Journal Title, or

Keyword

• Check the web (it may be free)

• Order it through Interlibrary Loan (RACER)

Library Catalogue

• everything we own

• books, journals (not articles), etc.

• books: introductions, basic info, data, etc.

• search by keyword, title, author, etc.

• try: United States Geological Society, Geological

Society of America

• try: glacial drift

• location, call number, status, request, subject

headings

Interlibrary Loan (RACER)

• Journal issue not in library catalogue?

• Free photocopies of articles, loan of books

• Averages 4-10 business days

• Need to create a RACER account

• Three ways to create request:

– Link from Get it @ Western (quickest)

– Search RACER by “journal title”

– Use Blank Request Form (slowest)

RefWorks

• web app for citation management

• automatically formats notes, bibliographies

• Citation style? E.g., AGU, Earth and

Planetary Science Letters

• use the Write-N-Cite plugin for Word

(demo only)

Feedback?

contact info

Dan Sich, Earth Sciences Librarian

phone: 80962

email: dsich2@uwo.ca

Subject: Earth Sciences 4490