Research Skills for Dissertations: 2016

Transcription

1 Research Skills for Dissertations: 2016 Sue Bird Bodleian Subject Librarian Geography

2 The digital architecture facilitating research & study Cloud computing Oxford Libraries Information Platform Cloud computing Data Portals (expanding) On-line data bases Subscription Dbases e-journals e-books Literature & Data Search Engines Course Information Management Research Skills Tool Kits Data Visualisation Tools Data Mining & workflow tools Reference Management Tools Science & Ideas Media Science Oxford PodOxfo Blogs itunes U rd You & Your Devices (and WiFi connection Eduroam, OWL) Data & File Sharing OxFile Policies & Guidelines SoGE Intranet Networking, Communication & Living OUCS Personal Page Note: commercial products cited merely represent commonly used services rather than endorsements

3 This session How to cite sources correctly & therefore avoid plagiarism How to use Reference Management Software SOLO & OXLIP+ Reference works Google Scholar v. Bibliographic Databases Searching Techniques & Keeping up to date

4 Dissertation Techniques What is a (good) dissertation? When should I start and how long will it take? Research design 1 - what approach should I take? Research design 2 - exactly how should I do this project? What kind(s) of data do I need & how do I get them? What amount of data do I need, & what can I do with my data? How should I write up my dissertation? How to do your dissertation in geography Parsons & Knight 3 rd ed GF 26 PAR

5 Dissertation Techniques

6 Avoiding Plagiarism "...You must always indicate to the examiners when you have drawn on the work of others; other people's original ideas and methods should be clearly distinguished from your own, and other people's words, illustrations, diagrams etc. should be clearly indicated regardless of whether they are copied exactly, paraphrased, or adapted......the University reserves the right to use software applications to screen any individual's submitted work for matches either to published sources or to other submitted work. Any such matches respectively might indicate either plagiarism or collusion......although the use of electronic resources by students in their academic work is encouraged, you should remember that the regulations on plagiarism apply to on-line material and other digital material just as much as to printed material..." Section 9.5 Proctors' and Assessor's Memorandum

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8 Good academic practice Follow citation principles Develop a rigorous approach to academic referencing Avoid inadvertent plagiarism. Be uniform in your referencing system:- Probably use the Harvard system as suggested on the School s web-site but whatever you do use just be consistent

9 Citing your references Just a few of the more common points An article in an online journal which also exists in print should be cited in the same way as print. To cite something which only exists electronically, e.g. a web site, follow special rules which include the date viewed. A specific quote must include the page reference in the citation. (This also applies to tables & diagrams you have taken directly from another source.)

10 Using quotations A specific quote must include the page reference in the in text citation. They must also be enclosed by quotation marks. If you don t then TURNITIN software will ping it back as plagiarism, even if you have given the full reference. THAT means straight to the Proctors a whole load of hassle and a 50 fine!!!

11 TURNITIN

12 Your Bibliographies Not just your dissertation Don t forget your Extended Essays If you are asked for a specific style USE it e.g. Biogeography Option has asked for bibliography to be formatted according to the style of the Journal of Biogeography (2013 Finals no-one followed this so marks deducted) How to find a particular style?

13 Citation practice A large number of manuals are available to give guidance and sound practice. 1:Doing a literature review / Chris Hart (London, 1998) [H 62 HAR ] 2:Manual for writers / Kate Turabian (7 th ed. Chicago, 2007) [LB 2369 TUR ] 3:Communicating in geography & the environmental sciences / Ian Hay (3 rd ed. Oxford, 2006) [G 70 HAY ] 4:Cite them right /Pears & Shields (2013 ed.) [LB 2369 PEA] 5: Complete guide to referencing & avoiding plagiarism / Neville (2 nd ed. 2010) available on-line via E.B.L.

14 What s the point of reference managers? 1 Staying organised Collect information about everything you ve read in one place. 2 Saving time Speed up adding citations and creating bibliographies in documents.

15 How reference managers work 1. Collect bibliographic information 5. Automatically create a bibliography for your work 2. Create a personal online reference database 4. Insert citations as you write 3. Annotate, edit and share your reference database

16 Software available Many different packages are available The principles are the same but the details are different Variations in price and features

17 LibGuide for Reference Management

18 About RefWorks University subscription Online accessible from anywhere Plugin allows adding references to your Word documents

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22 RefWorks Overview Dropdown menus Search your references Quick function buttons Folders list Brief view of references in your collection

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26 R.T.Tally is actually the translator of this item

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31 Right-click on this RefGrab-It bookmarklet link

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34 E-Journals I didn't check for the hard copy - so used to getting online access! I had just googled the article rather than using SOLO, so that was the issue & why I d been asked to login, or use Athens or pay a fee

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36 Newspapers Electronic newspapers Some are freely available. Alphabetic list on OxLIP+ Best source for the Text Only of huge range of newspapers and magazines is Nexis UK. Goes back approximately 10 yrs in most cases and is very current i.e. today s daily news items

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43 Newspapers Electronic newspapers Factiva - from Dow Jones & Reuters Company Business news & challenges, market trends & info. 14,000 + sources inc. local & global newspapers, newswires, trade journals, newsletters, etc. Archive back to languages from 159 countries Dun & Bradstreet company profiles, Reuters Fundamentals, etc.

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46 Legal Resources Jurisdictions, topics, cases etc. Lexis Library WestLaw both UK & US editions But there are a lot more (if necessary ask the Law Library for help)

47 SOLO Map Search Bodleian Maps

48 Illustrations Interesting new resource now available Glass Lantern Slides from Oxford collections Naples c Vesuvius Railway early C20th Vesuvius 1923 Historic Environment Image Resource (HEIR)

49 Dissertation Techniques Use SOLO or OxLIP+ to access Reference tools Abstracting and Indexing services

50 EBL (officially) the E-Book Library Oxford Scholarship Online Very Short Introductions Ebrary Academic Complete NetLibrary now hosted by EBSCOhost Ebook Collection E-books Reference books Blackwell Reference Online SAGE Reference Online SAGE Research Methods Online Text books

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52 SAGE Research Methods Online

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54 Subject searching SOLO and Oxford e-journals cover Oxford holdings only by title Better to use specialist indexes covering the world s literature to find articles Access via OxLIP+ Use inter-library loan for items not held in Oxford and not online

55 Bibliographic Databases General or specific subject coverage Different interfaces but similar functionality Not tied to library holdings Frequently will provide a link to full text

56 So what about Google? Is it just a search engine? Is it a publisher? or merely a platform, an intermediary? A content kleptomaniac and parasite (- in Rupert Murdoch's famous characterisation ) Or a stunning, hydra-headed incarnation of the zeitgeist? Is it a stunningly resourceful and ingenious servant? or is it on the way to becoming our master? Popham, P. (29/09/2012) The Independent, p. 20

57 Databases vs. Search engines Contents are indexed by subject specialists Subject headings Limiting functions e.g. publication types, language Allow you to View Search history Combine searches Mark and sort results Print/save/ /export Save searches Set up alerts Searches done by automated web crawlers No thesaurus / subject headings just free text searching No limiting functions Usually none of these!

58 Bibliographic Databases Vast range. SCOPUS (includes GEOBASE) OVID SP ProQuest Web of Science

59 Search Strategies Boolean logic Truncation Wild cards Synonyms Which language are you using?

60 Boolean connectors AND combines terms to restrict results OR useful for covering synonyms NOT excludes unwanted areas of research

61 Improving Searching Boolean Operators Use Boolean operators AND narrows down OR broadens out Biodiversity AND Amazonia Amazonia Biodiversity NOT excludes Use brackets to group operations Travertine OR Tufa Travertine Tufa Global warming OR climate change (glaci* PRE/5 retreat*) AND ( Global warming OR climate change ) Energy Supply NOT Renewable Renewable Energy Supply

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63 SCOPUS THE bibliographic database for Geography, Earth and Environmental Sciences

64 SCOPUS Abstract & citation database containing peer-reviewed research literature. 22,000 titles from more than 5,000 international publishers. Now starting to include more book material 60 million records: 36 million records back to million records pre-1996 which go back to 1823 Details from over 110,000 books

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77 Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 1 Important to remember that although each database covers thousands of journal titles no single database is ever comprehensive. If you are having difficulty finding material on a topic use the keywords you find in any relevant reference and search again.

78 Synonyms & Language Topic = Retreat of the Arctic sea ice Search: A) Arctic sea ice retreat B) Arctic sea ice retreat C) ( global warming OR climate change ) AND ( arctic OR polar OR greenland) AND ice Context : glacial retreat OR glacier melt / decay

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80 Bibliographic Databases ProQuest IBSS: International Bibliography of the Social Sciences Sustainability Science Abstracts Worldwide Political Science Abstracts PAIS International government & other grey literature EconLit Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management

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91 Bibliographic Databases OVIDSP CAB Abstracts natural resources Forest Science - biogeography GeoRef physical geography & geology Zoological Abstracts ( only)

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97 Bibliographic Databases Web of Science/Knowledge : Core Collection Includes Science, Social Science & Arts and Humanities Citation Indexes Citation indexes can be used in the same way as any other abstracting and indexing service. Their extra facility is the option to search the bibliographies of any articles- a citation search. Academics use the citation index to find out who has cited their work.

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108 Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 2 Take time to explore the various databases & platforms available. Some will be more useful to you than others. Scopus OvidSP ProQuest Web of Knowledge

109 Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 3 Boolean Logical Operators AND, OR, NOT Proximity operators Adj (literally adjacent); Near(same sentence); With(same field) Field descriptors: AU(author); TI(title); AB (abstract); SO(source or reference); DE (general descriptor) etc are likely to be specific to each database and won t operate in cross searches Combining searches: #1 and #2

110 Other tricks: Use symbols for wildcards and truncation? or $ for a single character globali?ation / globali$ation (is it an s or a z ) * for truncation or variant spellings govern* for governance, governmentality, etc use quotation marks for searching for phrases e.g. resource management

111 Bibliographic Searching Search Tip : 4 Consider subject synonyms & British and US spellings. Apply truncation, usually * to find plurals/alternative word endings and? to replace a single character. Expand search by following hypertext links esp subject headings Use tagging facilities within database to mark articles for printing, ing, downloading or exporting. Authors names: Check the online help for formats. Use the database index to find different forms of author s name, otherwise truncate first initial.

112 Bibliographic Databases Search :- Impact of La Nina and oceanic circulation on climate change ( only) Scopus = 45 articles ProQuest = 33 articles (22 not found by Scopus) Ovid = 27 after de-duplication (adds another 11 to the total) Web of Science = 46 articles (a further 19 unique items) RefWorks de-duplication = 97!!

113 Bibliographic Searching Three ways to keep up to date: Saving and rerunning searches you save a search and run it again in the future. alerts / RSS feeds: Specify a search to be repeated and the results ed to you at chosen intervals or on a continuous basis Select your favourite journal(s) & the database will tell you when the next issue of a journal is available. Citation Alert you will receive an every time a particular article is cited in another WoS or Scopus indexed article.

114 Dissertation Techniques Apart from Bibliographic Electronic Resources there are some factual databases available via OxLIP+ e.g.:- World development indicators, EIU Country Reports, Demographic Yearbook Landscan Global Population see Bodleian Data Library for more resources

115 GUIDE to RESOURCES

116 Further assistance: This presentation available via WebLearn & on-line Guidance for references: referencing.html

117 Dissertation Techniques Your feedback is greatly appreciated Please complete a short

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119 Appendix Results from Google Scholar Record for : Sensitivity of different convection schemes in a) Scopus & b) OVID Record for : Strong sensitivity of Pine Island ice-shelf melting in a) Scopus & b) Web of Science

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