How to Find Information A Guide for Researchers

by Rumsey, Sally

• ISBN13: 9780335226313
• ISBN10: 0335226310
• Edition: 2nd
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2008-04-01
• Publisher: Open University Press

Summary

How do I find relevant information for my thesis, dissertation or report? How do I evaluate the relevance and quality of the information I find? How do I find the most up to date information in my subject area? Anyone setting out to research a topic, whether at undergraduate or postgraduate level, needs to find information to inform their work and support their arguments. This book enables researchers to become expert in finding, accessing and evaluating information for dissertations, projects or reports.The book works systematically through the information-seeking process, from planning the search to evaluating and managing the end results. It suggests how to do this efficiently and effectively whilst using a range of sources including online bibliographic databases and the internet.This edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect the use of new technologies in research by offering the most contemporary information on: Online research Critical evaluation of resources Intellectual property rights Research communities The changing landscape of research information Subject-specific resources Written by an academic librarian, this book provides key reading, not only for academic researchers, but for anyone working for commercial, public or government bodies who has to contribute to research projects.

Author Biography

Sally Rumsey is leading the implementation of the Oxford University Research Archive, an institutional repository for research output at the University of Oxford. She was previously E-Services Librarian at the London School of Economics and Political Science and Academic Liaison Co-ordinator for the School of Arts at the University of Surrey Library, UK. .

Table of Contents

List of figures	p. ix
List of tables	p. x
List of abbreviations	p. xi
Foreword to the first edition	p. xiii
Preface	p. xv
Acknowledgements	p. xviii
The information gathering process	p. 1
The process	p. 1
The skills required	p. 2
Defining the subject	p. 2
Defining the purpose and scope of the research	p. 5
Setting up and getting started	p. 5
Plan of campaign	p. 6
Making the most of a library	p. 9
Getting to know your library and librarian	p. 9
Finding information about existing research	p. 16
The type of research referred to in this chapter	p. 16
Access to information about research	p. 16
Indexes and online databases of research activity	p. 17
Research Councils UK and other funding bodies	p. 19
Theses	p. 20
The type and detail of information required	p. 23
Introduction	p. 23
Types of information	p. 24
Primary and secondary sources	p. 25
Multidisciplinarity and subject overlap	p. 26
Defining the area and limits of the research	p. 26
How much information is appropriate?	p. 27
What is already known?	p. 27
Planning an information finding strategy	p. 27
Discovering relevant materials	p. 29
Resource discovery: where details of relevant materials can be found	p. 29
What are abstracts and indexes?	p. 30
Online bibliographic databases	p. 31
Issues relating to online databases	p. 32
e-Books	p. 41
Catalogues and bibliographies	p. 42
Open access materials	p. 46
Other sources and types of information	p. 46
Selecting sources relevant to the subject	p. 47
The online searching process	p. 49
The importance of planning a search	p. 49
The online searching process	p. 51
How to plan a search strategy	p. 52
When to run the search	p. 76
Evaluating the results	p. 76
Saving the results	p. 77
Completion of the search	p. 77
Citation searching	p. 79
What is citation searching and why is it important?	p. 79
Citation indexes	p. 81
When to stop	p. 82
Electronic citation searching	p. 82
Problems associated with citation searching	p. 85
Cross-referencing	p. 86
Obtaining the full text	p. 88
Introduction	p. 88
Location of items at the home institution	p. 91
Locating items not held in the home institution	p. 91
Searching the catalogues of other collections	p. 92
Locating electronic materials	p. 93
Finding a commercial source of the material	p. 95
Grey literature	p. 96
Other sources for locating materials	p. 96
Using the World Wide Web for research	p. 99
Introduction	p. 99
Means of locating information on the WWW	p. 100
Accessing the selected site	p. 101
Subject gateways	p. 102
Using search engines	p. 103
Evaluating information found on the WWW	p. 109
Some useful tips	p. 111
Accessing materials	p. 112
Introduction	p. 112
Accessing physical materials held at the home institution	p. 113
e-Resources available via the home institution	p. 113
Using other libraries	p. 115
Document delivery services	p. 115
Open access to scholarly publications	p. 117
Persistent identifiers	p. 120
Accessing other sources of information	p. 120
Evaluation of resources	p. 124
The importance of evaluation	p. 124
Criteria for evaluation	p. 125
Citing references	p. 129
Terminology	p. 129
The purpose of citing references	p. 130
Citation and reference style	p. 131
Keeping records	p. 137
Efficient searching and well ordered records	p. 137
Maintaining records of searches	p. 137
Saving records and details of works accessed	p. 138
Bibliographic software	p. 140
Intellectual property and plagiarism	p. 144
Introduction	p. 144
Intellectual property	p. 144
IP considerations when researching and creating documents	p. 148
The IP of the researcher's work	p. 149
Plagiarism	p. 151
The research community and keeping up to date	p. 154
Introduction	p. 154
The research community	p. 155
Conferences, conventions, colloquia, and symposia	p. 157
Alerting or current awareness services	p. 158
Mailing/discussion lists	p. 160
The changing landscape of research	p. 162
Introduction	p. 162
JISC activities	p. 163
Dissemination of research results	p. 163
Searching for research materials	p. 167
Open URLs	p. 168
e-Books and e-theses	p. 169
The importance of data	p. 170
The e-science programme and the Grid	p. 170
Means of managing and presenting information	p. 171
Digital preservation and curation	p. 172
Research Information Network (RIN)	p. 173
Journal impact factors, peer review, and citation services	p. 173
Summary checklist	p. 174
Using a library	p. 178
Formats of information sources	p. 194
Glossary	p. 206
References and bibliography	p. 208
Web addresses	p. 214
Index	p. 219
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