Copyright © 2005, University of Toronto Libraries. All rights reserved More! Better! Faster!...

Copyright © 2005, University of Toronto Libraries. All rights reserved

More! Better! Faster!

Advanced Techniques

for

Searching the Scientific Journal Literature

Rita Vine, Gerstein Science Information CentreGail Nichol, Engineering and Computer Science Library


What We’ll Cover

• major vendors & interfaces

• importance of a “beyond-keyword” approach

• thesaurus searching

• field searching

• new developments in citation searching


What We’ll Cover

• going beyond one-box searching: building a search step by step

• “Packages” of searchable full-text journals

• setting up current awareness services

• where and how to get help


3 Major Providers/Interfaces

• OVID– Medline, EMBASE, Cinahl

• CSA/Cambridge Scientific– PsycInfo, many scientific/engineering

databases

• WebSpirs/SilverPlatter– General Science Abstracts– International Pharmaceutical Abstracts– SportDiscus


OVID


WebSPIRS


CSA


Keywords – Just one of many search options!• searches titles, abstracts, subjects NOT

full text

• problems– typos– false drops– you pick the wrong keywords

• you pick program evaluationprogram evaluation, they use benchmarking, TQM, outcome assessment…benchmarking, TQM, outcome assessment…


Thesaurus Searching

• uses a built-in list of subject terms– terms are assigned no matter what keywords

the author uses– enables consistency

• examples– Medline/Pubmed - MeSH– PsycInfo – Thesaurus of Psychological

Index Terms

• bonus! built into the database!


How Can I Find the Thesaurus?

• OVID databases (Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL)– Software forces

searcher to select terms


PubMed MeSH Thesaurus

• automatically matched

• click on Details to see what happened


Other (CSA, WebSPIRS)

• must investigate!

• database may NOT have a thesaurus


Example Webspirs DB – General Science Abstracts

THESAURUS Tab


Example – CSA DB - PsycInfo

Thesaurus Search


Example – CSA DB - PsycInfo


Check the thesaurus term & the Explode

button

Exploded term EXERCISE will capture these

narrower terms


TIP: ALWAYS EXPLODE

Explosions of thesaurus terms retrieve additional

relevant results


Searching “Packages” of Full Text Journals• some journal collections are searchable full text.• examples: JSTOR (Journal STORage),

ScienceDirect (from Elsevier), SpringerLink, BioMed Central (Open Access), ACM Digital Library.

• future: IEEE Xplore, ScholarsPortal.• plus – able to search within the text of an article.• minus – more results that only mention the

subject.


JSTOR

• access from e-Indexes.

• full-text is the default.

• can choose author, title, abstract.• NOTE: only 10% of articles in JSTOR have

an abstract.

• no stemming or truncation capability.

• a small collection of journals but go back to volume 1.


Searches the full-text of the article unless you narrow the search to specific fields (e.g. title, abstract).


JSTOR - Note what journals are included in this database. E.g. only 8 journals in botany but coverage of American Journal of Botany is 1914-1999 and New Phytologist is 1902-2001

Moving Wall – 4 to 5 years behind current issues.


ScienceDirect

• listed as a Provider under e-Journals.

• over 1800 titles online.

• collection of science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information.


ScienceDirect - -Option to search full text.-Default date is 1995 but can be set back to 1823.-Ability to search earlier journals online. Compare with Web of Science (1945+) or Medline (1950+)


SpringerLink – -Access from e-Indexes.-Over 500 journals.-Access from about 1997.-U of T does not currently have access to historical archive (1843-1996) but abstracts are available online.


BioMed Central – -Over 100 journals.-New Open Access initiative.


ScholarsPortal

• access from e-Indexes.

• the Elsevier journals have the same coverage as in Science Direct (e.g. Lancet from 1823+)

• one to watch!

• not currently searchable by full text but will be with upgrade of search interface.


ScholarsPortal – -Over 7 million articles from over 5500 full text journals from several publishers.


New Developments in Citation Searching• Web of Science

• Scopus

• Google Scholar (free)

• SciFinder Scholar


Web of Science

CITED REFERENCE

SEARCH

Back to 1945!


Web of Science - Tips

• TIP: Narrow with author initials only if necessary– E.g. try HeitzerHeitzer first– Then try Heitzer A*Heitzer A*

• Journal titles MUST be entered exactly as indicated in examples

• TIP: this index covers many topics, few journals in each topic area


Scopus


Citation Searching in Scopus

Do a basic search.


95 results


Articles that have cited the selected article


About Scopus Citations

• 12,900 titles, 25 million abstracts

• back to 1966, but…but…

• ONLY 5 YEARS of “reference-back” years– 10 years by 2005

– only journals indexed in Scopus’ main db are cited!


Google Scholar

• FREE: Find it on the web: scholar.google.com


Title search of article matches on first hit: 40 citations found


40 citations revealed on click


Google Scholar

• citations are only to items in Google Scholar

• cited article must be contained in the bibliography/reference list of the subsequent article, and that article must be indexed by Google Scholar


SciFinder Scholar

• mainly chemical information• details see:

– http://www.cas.org/SCIFINDER/SCHOLAR/ataglance.html


SciFinder Scholar – Citation Searching

Click on NEW TASK


SciFinder Scholar – Citation Searching


Citation Searching Tools

Adapted from Sigma Xi International Newsletter, volume 3, number 11/12 November/December 2004, with additions

Web of Science

Scopus Google SciFinder Scholar

access commerci

alservice

commercial service

free service commercialservice

# of titles: ~8,700 14,000 ? 9000

customized searches?

yes yes not yet no

contains content back to:

1945 1999

(abstracts to 1966)

? 1999

notable features:

contains older

material

wide coverage, including 100% of Medline content

includes books and records from Open

WorldCat Project

Covers patents in addition to

journals


Building A Search Strategy

before you begin searching in a database, you will have:

1. defined the focus of your question.

2. identified the key concepts.


Search Strategy

3. now you need to find alternative terms for your key concepts:

• synonyms or related terms (broader, narrower)

• plural/singular forms• spelling variations• acronyms• variations of a root word - use the

truncation symbol.


Search Strategy Example

Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3

groundwater remediation arsenic

ground water bioremediation

aquifers phytoremediation

drinking water


Combine related terms with or.Combine different concepts with and.


This translates into (stroke or (cerebrovascular accident)) and (relearning or learning or rehabilitation) and ((mental imagery) or (mental practice))


Search History

most databases keep a search history where you can combine searches.

more obvious in OVID and less obvious in others like Web of Science or SCOPUS.


CSA databases have the search form and a Search History option.


OVID - Combine search numbers with Boolean operators (and, or)


Web of Science - Need to click on the Search History tab to see your searches.


Check the searches you wish to combine and then choose the Boolean operator (AND, OR)


Combined searches.


SCOPUS -Scroll down to see search history.


Combine using the # sign and Boolean operators.


Silverplatter / WebSPIRS – Check the searches you want to combine and click the Boolean operator (and, or).


Current Awareness / E-mail Alerts

• e-mail alerts are messages sent after every database update.

• sent if the update contains any new records that match your saved query.

• usually weekly or monthly.


E-mail Alerts

instructions for setting up alerts at: http://www.library.utoronto.ca/myalerts

instructions included for ISI Web of Knowledge, SCOPUS, Scholars Portal, OVID, PubMed Cubby

others are being added as they are written (e.g. CSA databases and Engineering Village 2 for Compendex & INSPEC)

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/myalerts

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/myalerts


CSA databases – New interface called Illumina (E.g. PsycINFO).


SCOPUS - Click on Set Alert and then enter user name and password.


Alert will be sent by email. Can link directly to the records.


You can also set up an alert that is sent whenever an article is cited by another.


Scroll down to find the Alert me link.


Web of Science has a similar citation alert.


Some publishers provide alerts from a journal article


NOTE: Only journals published by Elsevier / Science Direct will be found.


Field Searching

• great alternative to keywords• most databases allow field searching

– author– institution

• usually where 1st author worked at time of publication

– publication year– country of publication

• good for finding Canadian stuff

– different fields for every database


CSA Databases:

Use Advanced Search, then

dropdown menus


WebSPIRS

Use advanced search, then drop-

down menus


• consultations and research help– [email protected] (Health & Med)– Other libraries contact info at http://

link.library.utoronto.ca/library/guide/

• live online help• database help files • instruction classes

– scheduled• http://www.library.utoronto.ca/gerstein/instruction.html

– goal-oriented • for classes with research assignments

Getting Help

mailto:[email protected]

http://link.library.utoronto.ca/library/guide/



http://utoronto.cb.docutek.com/vrlplus/

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/gerstein/instruction.html

http://www.library.utoronto.ca/gerstein/instruction.html

http://utoronto.cb.docutek.com/vrlplus/


Thank you!

Rita Vine

Gerstein Science Information Centre

[email protected]

416.946.4041

Gail Nichol

Engineering and Computer Science Library

[email protected]

416.946.0389



Copyright © 2005, University of Toronto Libraries. All rights reserved More! Better! Faster!...

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