Literature Searching Skills Demmy Verbeke

Structure

The problem with information

What makes information scientific?

Where do I find scientific information?

How do I find scientific information?

How can I use scientific information?

The problem with scholarly communication

The problemwithinformation

The problemwithinformation

Information Overload

Every 60 seconds:

• ca. 204 million emails• ca. 2,4 million Facebook

posts• more than 4 million

google searches• 72 hours extra

audiovisual material on Youtube

• 277.000 tweets• 216.000 instagram posts

The problemwithinformation

The problemwithinformation

Information pollution and/or falisification(consciously or unconsciously)

bv. The Onion

bv. The Daily Mash

bv. De Speld

information overload, information pollution, information falsification

you need information literacy:

(1) to find relevant information fast and efficiently

(2) to be able to determine the reliability of theinformation found

(3) to use the information found correctly and in anethically acceptable manner

Information literacy

Megan Stark, Information in Place: Integrating Sustainability into Information Literacy Instruction, 2011

Five standards for information literacy

1. The information literate student determines the nature and extent of the information needed

2. The information literate student accesses needed information effectively and efficiently

3. The information literate student evaluates information and its sources critically and incorporates selected information into his or her knowledge base and value system

4. The information literate student, individually or as a member of a group, uses information effectively to accomplish a specific purpose

5. The information literate student understands many of the economic, legal, and social issues surrounding the use of information and accesses and uses information ethically and legally

Information literacy

Putting these standards into practice in research:

Identify research questions

Define search terms on the basis of a research question

Know and recognize various sources of information

Make a correct analysis of the differences betweenand the worth of each information source

Correctly determine the reliability and authority of each information source

Correctly interpret and use bibliographical references

Understand the social, ethical and legal implications of the distribution of information

Information literacy

Develop a search strategy that will get you reliable, scientific information as fast as possible and as complete as possible

Know what you are looking for, how you need to look for it and where to look for it

Searching without a strategy? => you waste time andget incomplete and/or unreliable results

Information literacy

What makes information scientific?

not dependent on one single criterion or label, but combination of internal criteria

external criteria

the more criteria fulfilled, the more scientific/reliablethe information

Scientificnature of information

1. structure

2. content

3. age

4. author’s profile

Internal criteria

title author(s) abstract and/or key words

introduction corpus conclusion

references/footnotes/endnotesbibliography

Internalcriteria: structure

Internalcriteria: structure

• Complete objectivity is an illusion: all information (i.c. publication) is coloured by he/she who provides thatinformation (i.c. author)

• Be wary of manipulation of facts: consciously twistingor hiding facts with the purpose of leading the reader to the conclusion(s) determined beforehand by theauthor

Internalcriteria: content

“giveaways”

Argumentation: use of personal or irrelevant arguments, ignoring or twisting the arguments of theopponent

Data: lack of factual data which can be checked

Language: frequent use of emotional style

Internalcriteria: content

older publication? check if results have not been corrected or supplanted by more recent research

an older publication is not untrustworthy by definition

an older publication is less reliable if: the topic it addresses is studied intensively and

additional or corrective information is put forward on a regular basis

the topic itself is tied to a certain time/era

Tip: look for recent publications, and supplement them with the most important older publications(check references)

Internalcriteria: age

education (proof of training)

affiliation (proof of reliability + trust of peers)

of course only an indication if the author stayswithin his/her field of expertise

Internalcriteria: profile of the author

1. Judgment before publication

2. Judgment after publication

Externalcriteria

Peer review

external check of a manuscript by specialistsof the topic discussed; quite oftenanonymously in order to ensure objectivity

e.g. “double blind peer review”

Externalcriteria: judgmentbeforepublication

reviews

citations

qualitative: repeat / confirm results => adds to theauthority and the reliability of the work quoted

quantitative: large number of citations indicates theimpact of the work quoted

! NB: quotes can also be negative !

Externalcriteria: judgment afterpublication

Basic questions

Was there a quality and reliability check before publication? (journal/publisher is an indication)

Does the author refer to sources? Which are his/her sources?

Does the author refer to sources in a correct and complete manner?

Do the CRAP test

CurrencyHow recent is the information? How recently has the website been updated? Is it current enough for your topic?

ReliabiltyWhat kind of information is included in the resource? Is content of the resource primarily opinion? Is it balanced? Does the creator provide references or sources for data or quotations?

AuthorityWho is the creator or author? What is the publisher’s interest (if any) in this information? Are there advertisements on the website?

Point of view / PurposeIs this fact or opinion? Is it biased? Is the creator/author trying to sell you something?

Reliability of websites

Wikipedia

crowd-sourced: quality/reliability is dependent on thecompetence/honesty of the contributors and the quality of (possible) editorial intervention

problems with Wikipedia:Undue weight policy (Chronicle of Higher Education, 12/02/2012)

Philip Roth and Wikipedia (The New Yorker, 07/09/2012)

Sexism on Wikipedia (Huffington Post, 26/08/2013)

Academia.edu &Research Gate

http://www.academia.edu/

http://www.researchgate.net/home.html

“facebook” for scholars

no quality check of papers which are posted

quite often working papers

copyright issues: who owns uploaded content?

Where do I find scientific information?

The role of libraries

Providers of information: librariesGate keepers of information: librarians

Not only physical, but also digital librariesNot only physical, but also digital services

Public libraries:

primarily social role

selection of fiction and non-fiction for the generalpublic

diverse public

in principal accessible to all

Types of libraries

National libraries:

collect and preserve all publications which appear in a specific country, quite often also all publications aboutthat country published elsewhere

frequently work with legally binding depot

often also cultural role, e.g. by highlighting theheritage of a specific country

Types of libraries

Research libraries:

collection is built with the specific intention to support scientific research and teaching

reserved to researchers and students

Types of libraries

The role of libraries

Libraries acquire sources of information (purchase, exchange, donation)

Libraries preserve sources of information

Libraries provide access to sources of information (catalogues, lending services, etc.)

Bibliographic database

Bibliography (i.e. list of publications concerning a certain topic) in digital form

Three sorts of bibliographic databases:1. Bibliographic databases in the strict sense

of the word2. Citation databases3. Full-text databases

Bibliographicdatabases

Bibliographic databases (s.s.):

Only contain bibliographic information (i.e.information on author of the publication, title of thepublication, year/place of publication), possiblytogether with an abstract and a link to the location or adigital copy of this publication on another platform

Bibliographicdatabases

Citation databases:

do not merely contain the bibliographic reference, butalso information about citations (i.e. otherpublications which quote this particular source ofinformation)

e.g. Web of Science: Integration of three citation indexes of journals with a high impact factor (Science Citation Index

Expanded, Social Sciences Citation Index, Arts and Humanities Citation Index)

Bibliographicdatabases

Full-text databases:

do not only contain bibliographical references, but alsoa full text digital version of the publications in question

• the full text is often itself fully searchable• some full-text databases only offer an archival

collection, other only the most recent years

Bibliographicdatabases

You use a bibliographic database if

- You want to make a survey of studies availableconcerning a particular topic

You do NOT use a bibliographic database if

- You want to find out whether a specific institutionprovides access to a particular item

Bibliographicdatabases

• Know which type of bibliographic database youare using (full-text or not?)

• Know what the database offers and what not

• Know what you are lookingat: only the reference? only a snippet? full text?

• Use multiple bibliographicdatabases

• Get acquainted with thefunctionalisties of thedatabases which are most important for your research

Bibliographicdatabases

Catalogues

Catalogue

provides a description of a book, a journal and/or othermaterials, together with where you can find it

Two types of catalogue

1. General cataloguee.g. catalogue of an institution (for example of theholdings of a specific research library)

2. Specialised cataloguee.g. catalogue of a specific type of material (forexample books printed in England between 1473 and 1640, together with their current location)

Catalogues

Examples of general catalogues

- UniCat: unified catalogue of Belgian research libraries

- Copac: unified catalogue of about 90 research libraries in the United Kingdom and Ireland, includingthe British Library

- WorldCat: unified catalogue of more than 10.000 libraries worldwide

Catalogues

You use a general catalogue if

- You know what you are looking for and want to knowwhere exactly you can find it

- You want to find out what a particular institution has “on offer” concerning a particular topic

You do NOT use a general catalogue if

- You want to make an exhaustive survey of studies available concerning a particular topic

Catalogues

Transition from catalogue to a “Unified Resource Discovery & Delivery System”

Catalogues Limo

Journal

appears periodically (e.g. every 3 months)

contains articles, i.e. several (shorter) studies

you typicaly want to access a particular journalarticle, but sometimes need to remember tosearch for the overarching journal instead

the journal in which an article appears is typically seen as an element determining theimportance of that article

Types of publications

Collections of essays

book that unites various short studies by one or severalauthors, typically centered around a specific topic or at the occasion of a specific event

e.g. proceedings of a conferencee.g. Festschrift

Types of publications

Monograph

book-length study, typically by one signleauthor, of a well defined scientific topic

e.g. “the application of statistical process control in healthcare improvement in the Netherlands between 1985 and 2000”

Types of publications

How do I find scientific information?

Looking forinformation

The problem with general search engines

(like Google):

search results are not checked for quality or reliability

commercial, statistic and nationalistic parameters determine the ranking of results; not their relevance or reliability

not all scientific information is available online

general search engines index only part of the internet

Side step:Googlization

Who’s in charge? “we are Google's products, not its

users” (Harold Thimbleby)

Storing of personal data: “The problem is that we may like Google today, but it could go bad. Google knows too much about everyone for us to risk that.” (Harold Thimbleby)

Role of big companies in the distribution of information:

“when business interest conflicts with the public interest, the public interest suffers” (cf. Steve Wasserman, The Amazon Effect)

Side step:Googlization

Google: expansion of search engine to includemany other services: e-mail, maps, pictures, google drive, ...

Compare amazon: now also take-away (Metro 08/09/2016)

Googlization: domination of Google over all formsof the distribution of knowledge over the internet

Cf. Siva Vaidhyanathan, The Googlization of Everything – and Why We Should Worry (University of California Press, 2011)

site: limit search to a specific domain or website

filetype: limit search to a specific document format

discussions: limit search to discussion fora

Side step: extra tips andtricks forGoogle

research question → formulation of the problem

formulation of the problem → key words

key words → search terms

Looking forinformation

How much time did you get? Realistic assessment of time you want/can spend on your search

How exhaustive does the result of your search need to be? Sometimes you only need one piece of information or one article,

sometimes you need a whole bibliography; sometimes you only need themost recent literature, sometimes you need to have a more complete view of the literature

What is the specific task? Sometime syou only need to gather some literature, sometimes you need

to study and compare it thoroughly

Looking forinformation

From formulating the problem tokeywords

Key words = central notions in the formulationof the problem which form the basis of a query

Looking forinformation

Example:

Make a bibliography of scientific publications about theuse of place names in the novels of the Brontë sisters

Key words: place names, Brontë sisters

Looking forinformation

From key words to search terms

Morfological variant (singular/plural, substantive/adjective, …)

Synonym

Translation

Narrower term

Broader term

Related term

Looking forinformation

Example:

Key words: place names, Brontë sisters

search term:bv. Brontë sister (morfological variant)

bv. toponym (synonym)

bv. Les Sœurs Brontë (translation)

bv. Emily Brontë (narrower term)

bv. nineteenth-century English novelists (broader term)

bv. The Tenant of Wildfell Hall (related term)

Looking forinformation

A good query =

get a lot of relevant results and no

irrelevant results withas few search terms

as possible

Looking forinformation

Four important ways to combining search terms:

1. Boolean operators

2. Truncation / wildcards

3. Exact word combination

4. Advanced search with specification of search fields

See also the database search tips by MITLibraries

Combiningsearch terms

Boolean operator AND

only information which contains both search terms!most search machines combine multiple search terms automatically with theBoolean AND-operator!

use AND in a search to: narrow your results

tell the database that ALL search terms must be present in the resulting records

example: cloning AND humans

Combiningsearch terms: Booleanoperators

Boolean operator OR

results which contain at least one of the search terms

use OR in a search to: connect two or more similar concepts

broaden your results, telling the database that ANY of your search terms can be present in the resulting records

example: cloning OR genetics

Combiningsearch terms: Booleanoperators

Boolean operator NOT

results that contain the first but not the second search term

use NOT in a search to: exclude words from your search

narrow your search, telling the database to ignore concepts that may be implied by your search terms

example: cloning NOT sheep

Combiningsearch terms:Booleanoperators

Search order

Be aware of the logical order in which words are connected when using Boolean operators:

Databases usually recognize AND as the primary operator, and will connect concepts with AND together first.

Use brackets to determine the priority of combining search terms

Examples:ethics AND (cloning OR reproductive techniques)

(ethic* OR moral*) AND (bioengineering OR cloning)

Combiningsearch terms:Booleanoperators

Remember

‘And’ in colloquiallanguage = Boolean

OR-operator

Combiningsearch terms:Booleanoperators

Combiningsearch terms:truncation / wildcards

Use truncation or wildcards

If you are using a root word as your search term, i.e. a word with multiple possible endings

Example: sun, but also suns, sunshine, sunny, sunlight, sunscreen, etc.

If you want to use one search term to look for several search terms which only slightly differ in spelling

Example: woman, women

If you know that there are several ways to spell a word, or you are uncertain of the spelling

Example: color, colour

Truncation/wildcard symbols vary by database

Common symbols include: *, !, ?, or #

Check the help screens to find out which symbols are used.

Combiningsearch terms: truncation/ wildcards

Combiningsearch terms:truncation

Truncation

Truncation broadens your search to include various word endings and spellings (symbol used at the end of a word)

To use truncation, enter the root of a word and put the truncation symbol at the end

The database will return results that include any ending of that root word

Examples:child* = child, childs, children, childrens, childhoodgenetic* = genetic, genetics, genetically

The trick is not totruncate to fast

E.g. hum* will search for results containing humour, but it will

also retrieve unrelated terms like human, humbug, humerus,

hummus, etc.

Combiningsearch terms: truncation

Combiningsearch terms:wildcards

Wildcards

Wildcards substitute a symbol for one letter of a word (symbol used within a word)

This is particularly useful if you want to search for singulars as wel as plurals; and if a word is spelled in different ways, but still has the same meaning

Examples:wom!n = woman, womencolo?r = color, colour

Exact word combination (string search)

Search terms between double quotes (“...”)

=>

only results which contain these search terms in exactly the same order

Combiningsearch terms: string search

Records in databases (e.g. library catalogues) are comprised of fields containing specific pieces of (e.g.bibliographic) information

Common fields include:

author

title

journal title

abstract

publisher

date/year of publication

This structure allows you to perform an advanced search with specification of search fields

Combiningsearch terms:advancedsearch

Combiningsearch terms: advancedsearch

Search with more aim by filtering: e.g. if you are looking for books by Adam Smith instead of about him, it is more efficient to limit your search to the author field.

Combine search terms smartly: e.g. author = “Tippett”, title = “statistics”

Tip: Use the Boolean AND-operator and avoid the Boolean OR-operator

Tip: Truncate as late as possible

Tip: Use advanced search to combine search terms smartly

Tip: Use advanced search to search with more aim, using filters

Help! I have too manyresults

Tip: Use synonyms, translations and morfological variants of your search terms and combine these with the Boolean OR-operator

Tip: Use related terms and broader terms of your search termsand combine these with the Boolean OR-operator

Tip: Use truncation or wild cards

Help! I do notget enoughresults

A lot of databases / catalogues / platforms offer thepossibility to repeat searches automatically and alert youwhen there are any new results

Often two possibilities:1. alert by e-mail

2. alert by RSS

Types of alerts:1. search alerts

2. TOC alerts

3. citation alerts

Alerts

Search alerts

= alert when there are new results for a specificquery previously defined

Alerts

TOC alerts

= alert when a new volume of a specified joural (or specified cluster of journals) appears

often with the table of contents of the new volume, hence the name (TOC = Table of Contents)

Example: JournalTOCs

Alerts

Citation alerts

= alert to new citations, i.e. when a new publications quotes another, previously specifiedpublication

Alerts

How can I use scientific information?

Scientific fraud and plagiarism

Scientificintegrity

Violations against scientific integrity

(cf. KNAW advies Zorgvuldig en integer omgaan met wetenschappelijke onderzoeksgegevens, 2012)

a) plagiarising (part of) publications or studies by others

b) unrightfully take credit as author or co-author

c) ignore or not sufficiently acknowledge the contribution of others

d) falsify research results

e) invent research results

f) ignore reserach results which negate your thesis

g) deliberately misuse (statistical) methods

h) deliberately misinterpret research results

i) make avoidable mistakes whilst conducting research

The “Stapel affair” (2011)

negative spiralfrom

manipulating tofaking data

Otherexamples of scientific fraud

overview article in The Guardian, discussing a.o. thecase of Dirk Smeesters

German minister of education quits amidstplagiarism scandal

Plagiarism

“Plagiarism is a means of examination fraud consisting of every form of copying the work of

others (ideas, texts, structures, images, plans etc.) without using adequate source references. This

includes making identical copies as well as copying with slight differences. To apply these regulations, copying own work without a reference will also be

counted as examination fraud.”

(as defined at KU Leuven)

Plagiarism

Plagiarism thus appears in different forms:

Copying another person’s text (almost) literally without indicating that the text is a quote and/or without an aduequate reference;

Paraphrasing another person’s ideas without an adequate reference;

Translating a text without an adequate reference;

Copying an image, scheme, graph, figure, audio or video fragment without an adequate reference;

Auto-plagiarism: re-using your own work without properly indicating that you re-used it.

Plagiarism

Unintentional plagiarism can be avoided by:• Citing the source if you use the words of another literally, and correctly

indicating this• Completely and correctly referring to the author whose words or ideas you are

summarizing or paraphrasing

You can distinguish between citation and paraphrase by following this flow chart (T. Frich, How to recognize plagiarism):

Plagiarism

Plagiarism sometimes happens because of “laziness”, esp. in the internet age, sinceit has become very easy to find some information on the net and copy-paste it

E.g. you find an earlier study which treats the topic you want to discuss verywell, so you copy its structure => large dependence on the argumentation andstructure of the original work, no new thesis or approach (so why write yourpiece in the first place?)

E.g. you find an earlier study which treats the topic you want to discuss verywell, so you copy whole passages, but to avoid just copying the whole work, you alternate these quotes with paraphrases => you create an inferior andderivative work and why write your piece in the first place?

E.g. you find snippets of information which fit into your argument andcopy/paste these (perhaps making small changes to “glue” these snippets together) and thus create a combination of original text with copied material=> reader does not know who is responsible for what and this approach rarelyleads to a tekst which reads as a whole

Plagiarism

Method to avoid plagiarism:

- Get acquainted with your topic based on a wide reading of available sources

- Create your own mind map of what you want to say and the structure of yourargument, defining your research problem and the proof you need to make andmaintain your argument

- Based on this structure, read more sources in detail and take careful notes (sothat you always know what is in the sources and what are your ownwords/thoughts)

- Write a draft version without your sources at hand, indicating in your draft where you will need to insert references and quotes

- Only then flesh it out with quotes and paraphrases that support your ownargument (structured by yourself), using complete and correcte references

Plagiarism

A lot of unconsciousplagiarism is the result of bad writing habits, suchas not being careful andattentive whilstpreparing a text (e.g. sloppy note taking)

References

balance needed between referencing too much (no plagiarism, but alsonot a readworthy text) and referencing too little (plagiarism)

no reference needed: when you state a common known fact

when you provide information of your own (not published before)

reference wisely if you base a part of your tekst on one or a few sources

but of course: you ALWAYS need a reference when you are quoting or paraphrasing

References

to copy referenceswithout having checkedthem yourself is also a form of academic fraud

“academic urbanlegends”

References

Referring to sources consulted can be done in several ways:

references in the text

references in footnotes

references in endnotes

bibliography

references in the text

references in footnotes

references in endnotes

different use for notes: extra explanation

References

Several citation styles, but theyall have the same 3 commands

1. Reference correctly

2. Reference completely

3. Reference consequently

How can I use scientific information?

Copyright

Copyright

Copyright

right of the author/maker (or the potentialbeneficiaries, e.g. the heirs of the author/maker) todetermine how, where and when a work of literature, science or art is made or reproduced

Copyright

Public domain

status of works (texts, images, etc.) which are completely free of copyright

N.B.: often only 70 years after the demise of themaker

Open content

initiatives to make knowledge, information or art more freely available than what would be thecase according to traditional copyright

e.g. Creative Commons: maker decides whichtype of license he/she gives

Creative Commons

What are theCreative

Commons?

Creative Commons

Attribution (by)Others who use your work in any way must give you credit the way you request, but not in a way that suggests you endorse them or their use. If they want to use your work without giving you credit or for endorsement purposes, they must get your permission first.

NonCommercial (nc)Others may copy, distribute, display, perform, and (unless you have chosen NoDerivatives) modify and use your work for any purpose other than commercially unless they get your permission first.

Creative Commons

NoDerivatives (nd)Others may copy, distribute, display and perform only original copies of your work. If they want to modify your work, they must get your permission first.

ShareAlike (sa)Others may copy, distribute, display, perform, and modify your work, as long as they distribute any modified work on the same terms. If they want to distribute modified works under other terms, they must get your permission first.

Creative Commons

Copyright

Be careful when you signan author’s contract (in other words READ THE CONTRACT):

Sometimes you sign awaypart of your copyright tothe publisher, so that youare no longer free to share your work as you may like

http://www.gcflearnfree.org/blogbasics/6.2

Copyright

The problem with scholarly communication

The problem withscholarlycommunication

researchers often paid with tax money

researchers produce manuscripts (often without extra payment)

researchers do the intellectual part of the editing (oftenwithout extra payment): recruiting authors, filtering manuscripts, textual editing, peer review, read proofs, …

publishers (sometimes) provide support for this editorial work, and handle the operational aspects of publicationand distribution (although they also often enlistresearchers to play a role in the distribution and pr)

The problem withscholarlycommunication

however: large parts of the copyright are typically signedover to the publisher, esp. the right to make money on thefinished product

what was produced (by researchers) thanks to taxmoney, consequently needs to bought (by libraries or individual researchers) with tax money

extreme example, which is unfortunately not rare: a researcher needs to pay in order to accesss the end resultof his/her own efforts

difference between commercial scientific publishers (e.g. Elsevier) and non-commercial scientific publishers (e.g. certain university presses):

trying to make profit vs. trying to be sustainable whilst serving science

The problem withscholarlycommunication

“The amount of money paid by UK universities to subscribe to some large publishers’ journals

has risen by almost 50 per cent since 2010” (‘Spending on subscriptions to journals rises by up to 50%’, 2014)

The problem withscholarlycommunication

“The opposite of open isn’t closed but broken”

Cristobal Cobo

The problem withscholarlycommunication

“open access is good for article citations and, especially, online visibility”

(‘Open Access papers gain more traffic and citations’, 2014)

Scholarlycommunication

Open Access EBM

What is Open

Access?

Research results (publications, data, ...) (paid with public money) are made avilabe to everyone for free

For free

≠ without restrictions (e.g. plagiarism)

≠ immediately (e.g. embargo)

≠ identical to the commercial version (e.g. preprint)

Open Access

Open Access

Green OA:Author archives version in a digital archive(‘repository’, e.g. Lirias)

Gold OA:Author publishes in a OA publication (andsometimes pays for this – APC or BPC)

Open Access

Danger of Gold OA:

in the hands of commercial publishers, this is just another way to make profit

“double dipping”

excessive APC’s or BPC’s

Fair Gold OA (e.g. see LingOA)

• The editorial board owns the title of the journals.• The author owns the copyright of his articles, and a

CC-BY license applies.• All articles are published in Full Open Access (no

subscriptions, no “double dipping”).• Article processing charges (APCs) are low (around 400

euros), transparent, and in proportion to the work carried out by the publisher.

Open Access

Open Access

Open Access

Challenges for non-commercial OA publishers:

researchers publish for reputation

developing a reputation takes time

predatory OA