Lluís Codina (UPF)MUCS

Dept. Of Communication

Online Searching: role and characteristics of Academic

Databases

Academic Databases - I

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

Content specializations Humanities and Social Sciences Science and technology Multidisciplinary

Context At the heart of the cyclical process of academic research and

publishing Document typology. References or full text of:

Journal articles of peer review journals Reports, books, patents and theses, etc.

Users: Researchers (Universities) and engineers and developers

(Corporations) University students and professors In general: authors of academic journal articles, reports or

booksAccess:

Not free. In fact they are extremely expensive Access only by subscription or by pay per view (pay per document) Only subscribed to by universities or corporations (not by private

persons )

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Academic Databases - II

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

Main protagonists: Scientific publishers of journals or books:

Elsevier Springer …

Independent producers: Universities Private companies …

Distributors of tens or hundreds of different databases: Ebsco Dialog …

Authors: Researchers and developers University students and professors Authors of journal articles or books So… authors are both users and contributors

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The Process of knowledge production

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

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The Peer Review Journals

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

The most respected kind of scientific journals and the typical content of the academic databases

Process: Author submits their papers to a peer review journal. The journal asks the opinion of at least,two experts in

the field. If approved, and only if approved, by the experts, the

article will be published, probably with corrections and additions suggested by the experts.

The whole process is anonymous: the author is unaware of the identity of the referees (evaluators) and vice versa.

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The Search Process

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

1. Identification of the information need of the user and the keywords that express the main concepts of the information need.

2. Occasionally, identification of the proper names (persons, corporations, countries, etc.).

3. Identification and selection of the most suitable database.

4. Selection and execution of the query (basic or advanced search).

5. Review of the references in the database results page.

6. Occasionally, refinement of the query and obtaining new keywords to repeat the process.

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Main interdisciplinary international databases

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

Web of Science (ISI Web of Knowledge): the most influential database in the world. Provides access to tens of thousands of the most important international journals (Thomson).

Scopus: the database of the most important scientific publisher of the world. Access to one thousand two hundred journals (Elsevier).

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International databases by specialization

Computers, related with Art, Society and Humanities ACM

Humanities Arts and Humanities Citation Index

Social Sciences JSTOR

Communication Sage Taylor and Francis

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

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And in Spain…

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

Multidisciplinary: CSIC: The most influential in Spain and one of the

most important in Spanish speaking countries. Provides access to all peer review Spanish journals.

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To access databases in UPF

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

To access academic databases via UPF: www.upf.edu > Library > Databases > Alphabetic list:

Example: www.upf.edy > Library > Databases > Alphabetic list

> A > ACM Digital Library

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Off Campus

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

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Off Campus (II)

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

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Database List

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

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ACM Digital Library

Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS

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