ece 4416 research skills workshop 2009
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TRANSCRIPT
ECE 4416Research Skills Workshop
Dan Sich, ECE Librarian
Allyn and Betty Taylor Library
September 17 & 24, 2009
Today you will learn about:
literature research process eBooks trade publications peer-reviewed journal articles journal article databases patents & standards
Suggested approach:
1. State the topic as a phrase
2. Identify the individual concepts
3. Search each concept separately
4. Combine concepts
5. Add limits
6. Review results, modify search
Starting out
All the info isn’t in one place Type of info determines the search tool Overview of research & publication cycle
Background info
Background info
Google Wikipedia web sites Books eBooks (e.g., ENGnetBASE) Google Books
Books are good for finding…
introductions reliable info lists of references numerical data
Library Catalogue
Everything the library owns, including… Books, journals (no articles), etc. Lots of ways to search
ENGnetBASE
CRC engineering handbooks Fulltext (PDFs) Topics covered include: electric power and
distributed generation, electric packaging, mechatronics, wireless communication and digital signal processing, etc.
E.g., AC Power Systems Handbook
Your turn
2 minutes ENGnetBASE & library catalogue
Magazines & trade publications
industry news product news & reviews practical information insights from practicing engineers
Find them using:
ProQuest Direct – ABI/Inform – Trade & Industry (fulltext)
CBCA Business (fulltext)
In journal articles you’ll find…
peer-reviewed, scholarly research narrow topics, focused research, specific
information
Peer-review
Tutorial Ulrich’s
Use databases to find…
Journal articles, conference articles… Scholarly, peer-reviewed journal articles Review articles
Journal article databases:
Inspec & Compendex IEEE Xplore Scopus, Web of Science Google Scholar PubMed others
Search tips
use AND, OR, NOT, * use Search History add Controlled Vocabulary and/or
Classification Codes add Limits (data, language, etc.)
Getting articles
1. Get it @ Western
2. Journal Title search in library catalogue
3. Is it free on the web?
4. Interlibrary Loan (RACER)
Interlibrary Loan (RACER)
Free photocopies of articles (or loan of books) not at UWO
Standards and theses are difficult to obtain
Your turn
Find relevant news, reviews, etc. in either: ProQuest Direct – ABI/Inform – Trade & Industry CBCA Business
Find relevant articles in Inspec & Compendex Get full text or find print in the library catalogue Try more than one journal article database
Off-Campus Access
for eJournals for databases
Keeping track of articles
create a RefWorks account web app for citation management download selected results from Inspec automatically formats notes, bibliographies use the Write-N-Cite plugin for Word
Standards are…
guidelines procedures rules details on ways of doing things expensive sometimes available through the library
Patents…
grant exclusive rights use technical, legal jargon contain drawings contain technical information rarely found
elsewhere are sometimes available free online can be tricky to find
Description
What is it? What does it do? What’s it made of? How does it work?
Tips on finding & using patents
Google Patents search, describe the thing Canadian, US, European; coverage varies View full text, drawings, claims
Recap
eBooks (ENGnetBASE) magazines or trade publications peer-reviewed journals Inspec & other databases Off-Campus Access search tips, Get it @ Western, library
catalogue, Interlibrary Loan, RefWorks Standards, Patents
Feedback
On a piece of paper, briefly describe the one thing that you’re still confused by
It doesn’t have to be something I covered in the session
