Turning a research question into an effective search strategy

Louise ClarkeBodleian Social Science Librarian

Bodleian Social Science Library

Part 1: The literature

review process

Relevant scholarly research

Cross-searching

Thesaurus

Natural language

Keywords Boolean

Pearl-growingCitation

chaining

Part 2: Searching

Abstracting and indexing services

Full-text databases

Internet

search

engines

Part 3: Search tools

Part 4: Alerts

RSS reader

New articles matching keywords

Tables of contents from

journals

New citations referencing

‘parent article’

Part 5: Citations and bibliometrics

Researcher 3 Cites

researcher 2 Cites

researcher 1

Impact

By the end of the session, you should:

• Understand the literature review process;• Be able to plan an effective and structured search for your thesis;• Know where to look for different types of information;• Have evaluated different methods of searching;• Have developed search skills that can be applied across different resources;• Have had a chance to practise;• Know where to come for future help.

Learning outcomes

Part 1: The literature

review process

Literature review discussion groups

1. Why is the literature review important?2. Why be methodical? 3. How do you choose your search terms?4. Where do you plan to search for the

literature?5. What sources are you trying to find?

Sources

Primary Source Suffragette posters and pamphlets

Secondary Source Book about female emancipation in Britain

Tertiary Source Dictionary of feminism

• In general a primary source is a work not based on or derived from another source (e.g. contemporary records, data, conference papers, photographs, working papers, etc.)• Secondary sources include the use / analysis / interpretation of primary (and other) sources• Consider the relationship between the researcher and the source in the context of the research topic• Definitions of primary and secondary sources vary by disciplineLOMBARD, E. 2010. Primary and Secondary Sources.

The Journal of Academic Librarianship, 36, 3, pp. 250-253.

Sources

• Grey literature refers to material not easily found through conventional publishing channels • Produced by government agencies, NGO’s, IGOs, academic departments and research groups • Includes working papers, policy documents, occasional papers, briefings, conference papers, newsletters, etc. • Produced in print and electronic formats • Ephemeral nature has implications for dissemination, identification and access – it is out there but may be hard to find

Primary sources include grey literature

How to structure the literature review process

1. Preliminary searching and browsing– Scan abstracts and skim-read papers– Identify current directions of research – How will you contribute new knowledge?

2. Structured searching with appropriate syntax– Identify the key articles and heavily-cited papers– Establish key authors, organizations and sources– Commit to in-depth consideration and re-reading of papers

3. Develop search– Track citations to follow research connections– “Cast net more widely” in terms of resources searched– Set up alerts for new content

• Stay focused on the research question and keep a search log

Relevant scholarly research

Cross-searching

Thesaurus

Natural language

Keywords Boolean

Pearl-growingCitation

chaining

Part 2: Searching

Start with a clear research question

Example research question

• Identify the search concepts in your research question:Do improved skills in information literacy increase the academic achievement of university students?

• For each search concept, brainstorm keywords:e.g. for information literacy also search for information skills, search skills, bibliographic instruction, user education, etc.

Search syntax: wildcard characters

• Truncation may be used in a number of ways:– * for right side truncation (e.g. plurals and alternative

word endings) • feminis* retrieves feminist, feminists, feminism

– ? for a single character (e.g. alternative spellings)• organi?ation for organisation or organization

– $ for one character or zero characters• behavio$r* retrieves behavior, behaviour, behavioral, etc

• Check the database online help (the symbols given above are common but not universal)

Search syntax: Boolean logic

OR

NOT

university or oxford

university not oxford

AND university and oxfordNARROWS

SEARCH

BROADENSSEARCH

NARROWSSEARCH

Parentheses

• Use parentheses to group the order in which terms are searched

academic achievement

academic OR education* AND achievement OR success OR assessment OR result* OR standard*

(academic OR education*) AND (achievement OR success OR assessment OR result* OR standard*)

Further search syntax

• Use the proximity operator NEAR to specify how close two words appear to each other– E.g. NEAR/4

• Search for a phrase by using quote marks – “united kingdom”

• Limit your search to particular fields (title, author, abstract, keywords, etc.)

• Apply search filters such as date to limit a search

Do improved skills in information literacy increase the academic

achievement of university students?

Example search string

• Search 1: information literacy information literacy OR information skills OR search* skills OR bibliographic instruction OR (“user education” AND librar*)

• Search 2: academic achievement(academic OR education*) AND (achievement OR success OR assessment OR result* OR standard*)

• Search 3: university students(university NEAR/4 student*) OR undergraduate* OR postgraduate* OR graduate*

• Final search string: #1 AND #2 AND #3

Example search results

• 457 Published Works results found in Multiple Databases – 200 ERIC (Education)– 257 LISA (Library and information science)

•

Database thesauri

• Keywords (descriptors) are assigned by the database editors from a set of controlled vocabulary (thesaurus) – May also be keywords assigned by the author

• A keyword search will look in the keywords field – May also look in the title, abstract and other

descriptor fields• Use database thesauri and subject headings

to identify new and useful keywords

Thesaurus example – ERIC

• Academic Achievement– Use for: Academic Performance : Academic Progress

: Academic Success : Educational Achievement : Educational Level : Scholastic Achievement : Student Achievement

• Narrower terms: Educational Attainment : Student Promotion

• Broader terms: Achievement • Related terms: Academic Failure : Instructional

Effectiveness • http://search.proquest.com/professional/eric/index

Search examples - ERIC

Search term Free text search Subject heading

“Academic Achievement” 62,935 59,970

“Academic Performance” 6,032 15

Search term Free text search

“Academic Success” 3,276

Academic Success 16,506

Academic NEAR/6 Success 5,449

Practical exercise 1: search string

Abstracting and indexing services

Full-text databases

Internet

search

engines

Part 3: Search tools

• SOLO http://solo.bodleian.ox.ac.uk • OxLIP+ http://oxlip-plus.bodleian.ox.ac.uk • OU E-Journals http://ejournals.bodleian.ox.ac.uk • Libguides http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/ • Single Sign On http://www.oucs.ox.ac.uk/webauth/oxfordusername.xml

Access to online resources provided by the Bodleian Libraries

Cross - searching

• OxLIP+ Keyword searching of up to 5 Oxford databases – Limited to certain databases– Retrieval is unwieldy

• SOLO Journal Articles Search – Rough and ready– Produces poor results in many cases– Could be used as a “mop-up” search

Selecting databases for a literature review

Tolan, P., Henry, D., Schoeny, M., Bass, A. & Tolan, P. 2008, "Mentoring interventions to affect juvenile delinquency and associated problems", Campbell Systematic Reviews, vol. 16.

Identifying search tools• Ask yourself two questions:

– What subject disciplines might be pertinent to my research topic?

• Economics, health, public policy, education, anthropology, sociology, geography, etc.

– Which information formats might contain relevant research?

• Journal articles, discussion and working papers, books, official papers, datasets, websites, newspaper articles, etc.

• Next, take a look at the appropriate LibGuides– http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk

Major Platforms

• Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts (ASSIA)• Dissertations and theses (full-text) • International Bibliography of the Social Sciences• National Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) • Public Affairs Information Service (PAIS)• Sociological Abstracts• Worldwide Political Science Abstracts (WPSA)

International Bibliography of the Social Scienceshttp://search.proquest.com

• Disciplines: anthropology, cultural studies, demography, economics, education, political science, religious studies, sociology, etc. • Broad coverage of international material• Records indexed geographically as well as thematically

– Dissertations and Theses

• The world’s most comprehensive collection of social science theses• From 1997 onwards over a million full-text theses are available to download • Dissertations from July 1980 onwards include a 350 word abstract• Earlier dissertations offer citation information (dating back to 1637)

– IBSS – Search Syntax

ageing NEAR/4 population OR declin* NEAR/4 (fertility OR birth)

AND (family OR social) AND polic*

AND Japan

• EconLit • Global Health

• Medline

• PsycINFO

• Abstracts in Social Gerontology

• Business Source Complete • Family & Society Studies Worldwide

• Historical Abstracts

• Philosopher’s Index

• AnthropologyPlus

• ChicanoDatabase • Francis

• Russian Academy of Sciences Bibliographies

• WorldCat

Primary Sources

• Multi-regional• Nexis UK (BBC Monitoring International Reports under Countries Tab)• Factiva• World News Connection• Foreign Broadcast Information Service• Emerging Markets Information Service

• Regional• Nikkei Telecom21(Japanese news and finance)• Russian Central newspapers • Pravda (1912-2009)• China Core Newspapers Database • WiseSearch (China)• Ethnic Newswatch (mainly US, ethnic publications)

• Archives• Proquest (New York Times, Guardian, Observer, Washington Post) • Separate Digital Archives available for the Times, FT and Economist• Times of India archive currently available on trial

News

News - comparison of content - example

Nexis FactivaMexico El Norte (Spanish; 2004-)

Reforma (Spanish; 2004-)Mural (Spanish; 2004-)Palabra (Spanish; 2004-)

El Norte (Spanish; 2004-)Reforma (Spanish; 2004-)El Universal (Spanish; 2002-)

Moldova Moldavskie Vedomosti (Russian; 2006-)Nezavisimaya Moldova (Russian; 2006-)

Namibia The Namibian (English;1997-)

Nepal Kathmandu Post (English; 2008-) Nepali Times (English; 2006-)

Kathmandu Post (English; 2008-) Nepali Times (English; 2006-)

Netherlands De Telegraaf (Dutch; 1999-)De Volksrant (Dutch; 1995-)NRC Handelsblad (Dutch; 1990-)Trouw (Dutch; 1992-)

De Telegraaf (Dutch; 2008-)

Multi-regionalESDS InternationalWorld Bank / UN / IMFOECD iLibraryEmerging Markets Information Service

RegionalIndiastatChina Data OnlineLatin American Public Opinion Project (LAPOP)Latinobarómetro (via ESDS)Historical Statistics of the United StatesInter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research archive (US)Russian State/CIS Statistical Publications

Data and Statistics

• Subject-specific websites, portals and current awareness services e.g. ELDIS and Social Policy Digest

• Academic institutions• Governmental and Inter-Governmental Organisations• NGO and campaigning sites• Other access points e.g. SCOPUS, ZETOC, Open SIGLE

Sources for grey literature

• International Inter-governmental Organization webpage finder inc. UN and its subsidiaries: http://www.libsci.sc.edu/bob/IGOs.htm#UNSUBS

• PolicyFILE: research organizations, think tanks, university programmes and NGOs listed: http://www.policyfile.com/organizations/organizations.do

• Forced Migration Online (FMO): Lists NGOs and IGOs, (search by country or subject): http://www.forcedmigration.org/research-resources/organizations

• CIAO: lists many university research institutes http://www.ciaonet.org/main/wps.html

Lists of IGO’s, NGO’s and Institutes

Theses and dissertations ProQuest Dissertations & Theses / Index to Theses / Ethos / ORA / SOLO

Conference proceedings & working papersZETOC (conference proceedings, British Library)Working papers generally available on institutional websites or subject based repositories such as REPEC (economics papers)

ReportsOxford Analytica (Regional analysis)Country Reports (via Business Source Complete)World Development Reports, World Bank

Etc. Declassified US Govt Docs / Forced Migration Online / Aluka

Theses, conferences, reports, etc.

Secondary and Tertiary Sources

Major aggregators, e.g. JSTORFull-text of over 1000 journals Moving wall

All major publishers, e.g. SAGE, Wiley, OUP, CUP, Taylor and Francis, Brill Area journal collections

China Academic Journals (CNKI) / China Online Journals (Wanfang) / Taiwan Electronic Periodical Services / JAIRO: Japanese Institutional Repositories Online / Central and Eastern European Online Library

Full-text e-journals

E-books• Packages, e.g. Oxford Scholarship Online• Series, e.g. Handbooks in Economics (Elsevier)• Individual titles listed in SOLO• Google Books

• International Encyclopaedia of the Social & Behavioural Sciences

• International Encyclopedia of Human Geography

Online reference works

• SOLO

• British Library Catalogue

• COPAC (UK)

• WorldCat (Global)

Catalogues

Official Papers

Legal Resources

Systematic Reviews

Special CollectionsArea Studies

Subject-specific

Research methods

http://libguides.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/

http://www.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/libraries/subjects/librarians

MapsArchives

Please log-in your PCEnter your: University Card Barcode

Enter your: Library password

NB: logs out after 20 minutes of inactivity

If you have not yet set up your Library password:

Enter: ssltxxx (where xxx is the number of the PC) and the password S4turn

• Run your search string from exercise 1 in a relevant database (s) of your choice

• Explore the database search functionality / refine your search

• Email yourself relevant results for your research topic

Practical exercise 2: Online searching

Part 4: Alerts

RSS / Email

New articles matching keywords

Tables of contents from

journals

New citations referencing

‘parent article’

Set up RSS feeds for new content

•

•

•

Register for an RSS feed reader

•

•

Practical exercise 3: Setting up alerts for new research

Part 5: Citations and bibliometrics

Researcher 3 Cites

researcher 2 Cites

researcher 1

Impact

Use citations to:

• Locate current research based on earlier research• Find out how many times, and where, a publication

is being cited • Identify who is referencing a particular paper • Explore how a particular research topic is being

used to support other research • Analyze the impact of a publication on other

research in the field • Track the history of a research idea• Keep track of your own research

Using citations to identify key papers and related research

• Web of Science

• •

GAVEL, Y. and L. ISELID, 2008. Web of Science and Scopus: a journal title overlap study. Online Information Review ,32, no. 1, pp. 8-21.

Coverage

Web of KnowledgeCitation Searching

http://www.webofknowledge.com/WOS

• Identify current research based on earlier research

• Analyze the impact of a publication on other research in the field or across subject boundaries

Citation mapping (ISI WoS)

• Explore up to two generations of backward and forward citations

Using bibliometrics to assess impact

• citation counts

• h-index • journal impact factor

Article Citation Count Example: ISI’s Web of Science, Dec 2011

Researcher H-index Example: ISI’s Web of Science, Dec 2011

Journal Impact FactorExample: ISI’s Web of Knowledge, Political Science, 2010

Bodleian Social Science Library

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