systematic literature searching computer-based searching · 2011-10-25 · systematic literature...
TRANSCRIPT
1
06-06991 – Research Skills
Systematic literature searchingcomputer-based searching
Several machine-based services are reviewed. A distinction is drawn between keyword-based services (such as Inspec
and Medline) and citation searching services (such as Science Citation Index).
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 1
Services covered in this lecture
This lecture will cover:
• other keyword-based services (briefly)• Index to Theses• Dissertations and Theses• Searching for technical reports• Citation Indexes – e.g. Science Citation Index
The standard questions about evaluating indexing and abstracting services apply to machine-based services.
2
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 2
Other keyword-based services
Mathematical aspects:MathSciNet: Mathematical Reviews on the Web
http://www.ams.org/mathscinet/Zentralblatt MATH
http://www.zentralblatt-math.org/zmath/
Natural language processing:Linguistics Abstracts Online
http://www.linguisticsabstracts.com/
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 3
Index to Theses
UK and Irish listing of research theses.
The machine-searchable version has records back to 1716.
Searching is very easy - with full text available• usually for very recent theses;• subject to the access policies of the university.
3
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 4
Dissertations and Theses - 1
This service has been/is known by several names:• Dissertation Abstracts International• ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT) • ProQuest• Dissertations and Theses
ProQuest is a company selling information retrieval services and full-text copies.
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 5
Dissertations and Theses - 2
Microfilmed theses from the US and sold copies –1938-
Archives are so large that it’s the official US dissertation site outside the Library of Congress.
Full text is an option - but not free. Use Interlibrary Loan.
4
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 6
Dissertations and Theses - 3
Consists of:
– Dissertation Abstracts International parts A & B• from > 1,000 North American graduate
schools – Dissertation Abstracts International part C
• provided unsystematically from outside the US
Most records will contain an abstract.About 72,000 new records are added each year.
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 7
Technical reports - 1
Searching systematicallyfor technical reports is very difficult - probably impossible.
It used to be extremely time-consuming and difficult to get paper copies of technical reports.
However, it is now much easier to find reports and to read them online.
5
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 8
Technical reports - 2
There are many sites that claim to list technical reports series.
Look at for sites that collect electronic copies of the reports and index the wholecollection - not just their own reports.
Best site used to be: University of Waikatohttp://www.nzdl.org/cgi-bin/library
Perhaps best to try Google Scholar ….
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 9
Oddities
With the growth of the WWW, there have been a number of odd search engines.
One such is:The Collection of Computer Science Bibliographies
http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/
This is a searchable collection of lists of references. Goodbecause it includes what people think is good.Badbecause it is unsystematic.
6
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 10
Science Citation Index Subject coverage
The scope is so wide as to be multidisciplinary.
It indexes:– journals - almost 8,700 science journals including
at least 200 computing journals and probably more.
It doesn’t index:– conferences* – books– reports – theses
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 11
Science Citation IndexComprehensiveness/coverage
– covers many of the principal journals in computing:• has a wide computer science coverage,
choosing the most widely respected journals rather than (e.g.) an engineering bias;
– includes the Springer LNCS series (which includes many conferences).
7
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 12
Conference Proceedings Citation Index-Science
There are other Citation Indexes:
– Social Science Citation Index• includes applied/human-centered aspects of
computing
– Conference Proceedings Citation Index- Science • includes Lecture Notes in Computer
Science/Lecture Notes in Artificial Intelligence (back to 1990)
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 13
Inspec Subject overlap
SCIoverlaps with several other indexing services.– Compendexhas many of the same core journals -
but also has non-LNCS conferences;– Inspechas many of the same core journals and
lots of other journals - and also has non-LNCS conferences.
8
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 14
Science Citation IndexCurrency
– Online services tend to be very up-to-date.
– Science Citation Index’sdatabase is updated weekly - but it isn’t clear how old the items in the update are.
– Science Citation Indexhas a good reputation for trying to be very up-to-date.
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 15
Science Citation IndexRecord content
How much information do the entries contain?– Basic bibliographic information– Abstract– Institution - e.g. University of Birmingham– Language of original article
9
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 16
Science Citation Index Indexing
How are the entries indexed?– Keywords
• taken from title• taken from abstract• written by the indexer
– Citations
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 17
Searching SCI - 1
The search interface is simple enough for ComputerScientists to use for anything.
1. Formulate your search statement as shown in the first searching lecture.
2. Search using the keywords box.Note you have a range of options:
Boolean logic:AND OR NOT
e.g. (machine OR automatic) AND translation NOT compilers
10
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 18
Searching SCI - 2
Search options (continued)Wild cards– of the ends of words, so pars* will match with
parse, parser, parsers, parsing, etc– of characters in words, so optimi?ewill
match with optimiseand optimize
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 19
Searching SCI - 3
3. Delimiting your searchSearches can be delimited in a number of ways, commonly:– by date rangeof publication– by languageof publication
4. Getting a copy of the results of your searchMark the references you want to copy and then request for them to be emailed to you.
11
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 20
Searching SCI - 4
5. Additional things to look for– Whole text retrieval of selected documents in
PDF form.– Ability to store search statements so that they
can be used another day - useful for current awareness.
6. Points to think about– Does machine searching improve recall and/or
precision?– Is the more restricted range of publications
covered compensated for by the ease of machine searching?
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 21
Searching SCI for citations - 1
The features of SCIshown so far can be useful when used as one of several services in a comprehensive, systematic search.
It is much stronger when searching for citations.
12
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 22
Searching SCI for citations - 2
1. Select a significant (”base”) referenceFor citation searching, this document does not have to be restricted to being a journal paper.
2. Retrieve this “base” reference using the citation searchIt is best to use the author’s surname, first initial and a wildcard (*) - e.g. Hancox P*.
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 23
Searching SCI for citations - 3
3. Retrieve the items that cite the “base” referenceUse the “Finish Search” button to retrieve the citations.
Note that the references retrieved by the citation search include anything that has been cited -obviously journal articles, but also conference papers, books, theses, patents, letters, etc.
References are presented in alphabetical order unless you specify otherwise. Look especially for the options to sort references by dateor by the number of times they themselves are cited.
13
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 24
Searching SCI for citations - 4
4. Getting a copy of the results of your searchMark the references you want to copy and then request for them to be emailed to you.
5. Additional things to look for– whole text retrieval of selected documents in
PDF form;– ability to store search statements so that they
can be used another day - useful for current awareness.
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 25
Searching SCI for citations - 5
6. Points to think aboutDoes the use of citations improve recall and/or precision?
What criteria are used to include cited items? – Are items cited because they are relevant?– Because the author wrote them? – To criticize an alternative approach? – To impress readers with the author’s
erudition?
14
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 26
Searching SCI
The useful addresses are:
– Description:• http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/support/
– Service:• http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/
06-06991 – Research Skills
3 - Machine-based searching - 2 27
Finally
I have a personal page in which I keep links to the best tools:
http://www.cs.bham.ac.uk/~pjh/info_searching/