Profiling your research20 April 2009

Marion Tattersall & Lyn Parker

Academic Services

University of Sheffield Library

Profiling your research

• What is profiling?– finding the latest & most relevant information for your

research– focussing on peer reviewed information– adjusting as your research develops

• Techniques– searching for formal published information– searching informal communication sources– email & RSS feeds

Profiling your research

• Identified needs• Avoid wasting time• Not missing anything

important• Find really relevant stuff• Find material by foreign

scholars• Search widely &

effectively• How do I set up RSS?• Re-use good searches

• We can help you to• Search systematically for

latest publications• Identify other types of

information of value• Automate updates • Save time with shortcuts• Find out more via our

support materials

Profiling published material

• Use database alerts– Multidisciplinary eg WoK Scopus– Subject specific eg BIOSIS Medline– Type specific eg Library Catalogues,

Dissertation Abstracts, patent databases– Advice from your Liaison Librarian

• Delivery options– RSS– Email

Web of Science alerts

• Require a personal account

• 2 types - search and citation

• Can use refine & search within results

• Results by RSS or email

• Format for Endnoteemail select field tagged

Web of Science screencastshttp://www.lbasg.group.shef.ac.uk/screencasts/wok/index.html

• Setting up a personal account http://www.lbasg.group.shef.ac.uk/screencasts/wok/personal_account.htm

• Saving a search alert http://www.lbasg.group.shef.ac.uk/screencasts/wok/setting_up_alerts.htm

• Creating a citation alerthttp://www.lbasg.group.shef.ac.uk/screencasts/wok/citation_alerts.htm

Also available within the Library Information Skills MOLE course

Scopus alerts

• Scopus account for email alerts only

• 3 types – search, document citation (precise) author citation

• Can use refine results + limit to

• Results by RSS or email

• Format for Endnote– email select field tagged

Scopus extras

• Web tab lists freely available scientific web sites and pages– theses, conference papers. technical reports,

working papers, institutional repositories, science researcher homepages

• Patents tab

• Selected sources tab– White Rose Research Online

And next…RSS feeds revealed

Keeping up-to-date with RSS

• RSS is a web feed to which you subscribe• Useful for content which changes regularly• Available within databases such as WOK and

SCOPUS• Available for Web pages, News alerts, blogs• Optional so can tailor your set of feeds to your

research interests• Reduces risk of spam and frozen inbox• Saves you losing or deleting important items

How do I know RSS is available?

PreviouslyMore frequently a standard icon is used

Setting up an RSS reader

• We recommend Google Reader

• Can star items, add notes, share interesting blog posts with your friends

• Bloglines possible alternative

• Lots of others but be careful, many may not be maintained

• Demo how to set an account• http://www.lbasg.group.shef.ac.uk/rss/google_reader.html

Journal Table of Contents

• TicToc service http://www.tictocs.ac.uk/

• Like WOK you need to register individually for this service, a MyTOCs account

• Select the journals you are interested in, or search library by subject and select all

• Then add to your MyTocs account

Activity

• Write down all the different types of information that you might use in your research

• Books, journals, theses, ……

• Where do these fit within the Scholarly Information Cycle?

Scholarly Information

CycleRSS feeds may be available for all

PEER REVIEWED

Journal articlesPublished thesesScholarly books

DatabasesInstitutional repositories

Catalogues

GREY LITERATURE

Reports/Working PapersPosters/Conference

papersUnpublished theses

Web pages

INFORMAL COMMUNICATION

Discussion boardsEmail lists

Blogs/WikisPersonal

communicationUpcoming

conferencesFunding opportunities

What is a Blog?

• Short for Weblog

• Content is organised in chronological order with most recent first

• Content should be updated regularly

• Readers can leave comments (but how many do?!)

Different types of blogs

• Personal journal, diary type entries containing reflection, thoughts, ideas

• Marketing and publicity tool• Current opinion and news• Conversations between people within a community• Useful primary source of information about relevant

people and research• However essential to evaluate – who, why, what, etc• More help:

http://www.shef.ac.uk/lets/techno/web2.html

Finding relevant blogs

Directories• Technorati http://www.technorati.com/ • Memeorandum http://memeorandum.com/• RSS Compendium http://allrss.com/index.html Search engines• http://blogsearch.google.com/• http://search.yahoo.com/ Use advanced search and limit format to RSS/XML

(.xml)Browse for blogs http://www.intute.ac.uk

Make sure you use Advanced Search within Google Blog

◄Use this to ensure blog entry is about your topic

Why set up your own blog!

• Useful for reflection as a personal electronic diary• Keep track of blog postings both chronologically and

through tagging, by subject or topic so you can organise your ideas and search for them later

• Practice area for academic writing to rehearse arguments and organisation of thought and ideas

• Need to do the reading and reflection to write the post.  Highlight areas for further research and/or areas needing references to the literature.

• Organise direct links to original articles; store descriptive annotations for your bibliography – Link into Endnote

Setting up your own blog - 2

• By assigning tags to posts, connections can be made between topics, particular articles or thought processes

• Capture changes in your thinking and the growth of ideas.  May help when writing up!

• Store photos, video clips, and images by attaching files but beware copyright implications 

Google Alerts

• Google Reader is not the only feature that Google provide to keep up to date

• Try Google Alerts– monitor a developing news story – keep current on a competitor or industry – track medical advances – get the latest on a celebrity or sports team – watch for new videos that match a specific topic

• http://www.google.com/alerts• Delivered by email or as an RSS feed into your

Google Reader

http://www.shef.ac.uk/library/useful

Links to quality sources for other types of information, including informal communication and grey literature

To summarise

• Search systematically for the latest publications

• Identify other types of information worth searching

• Generate automatic updates

• Save time with shortcuts

• Find out more via our support materials

Contact details

• Marion Tattersall

• Email: m.tattersall@sheffield.ac.uk

• Lyn Parker

• Email: l.a.parker@sheffield.ac.uk