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More! Better! Faster!
Advanced Techniques
for
Searching the Scientific Journal Literature
Rita Vine, Gerstein Science Information CentreGail Nichol, Engineering and Computer Science Library
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What We’ll Cover
• major vendors & interfaces
• importance of a “beyond-keyword” approach
• thesaurus searching
• field searching
• new developments in citation searching
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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
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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
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OVID
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WebSPIRS
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CSA
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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…
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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!
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How Can I Find the Thesaurus?
• OVID databases (Medline, EMBASE, CINAHL)– Software forces
searcher to select terms
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PubMed MeSH Thesaurus
• automatically matched
• click on Details to see what happened
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Other (CSA, WebSPIRS)
• must investigate!
• database may NOT have a thesaurus
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Example Webspirs DB – General Science Abstracts
THESAURUS Tab
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Example – CSA DB - PsycInfo
Thesaurus Search
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Example – CSA DB - PsycInfo
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Check the thesaurus term & the Explode
button
Exploded term EXERCISE will capture these
narrower terms
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TIP: ALWAYS EXPLODE
Explosions of thesaurus terms retrieve additional
relevant results
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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.
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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.
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Searches the full-text of the article unless you narrow the search to specific fields (e.g. title, abstract).
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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.
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ScienceDirect
• listed as a Provider under e-Journals.
• over 1800 titles online.
• collection of science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information.
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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+)
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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.
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BioMed Central – -Over 100 journals.-New Open Access initiative.
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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.
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ScholarsPortal – -Over 7 million articles from over 5500 full text journals from several publishers.
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New Developments in Citation Searching• Web of Science
• Scopus
• Google Scholar (free)
• SciFinder Scholar
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Web of Science
CITED REFERENCE
SEARCH
Back to 1945!
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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
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Scopus
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Citation Searching in Scopus
Do a basic search.
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95 results
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Articles that have cited the selected article
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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!
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Google Scholar
• FREE: Find it on the web: scholar.google.com
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Title search of article matches on first hit: 40 citations found
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40 citations revealed on click
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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
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SciFinder Scholar
• mainly chemical information• details see:
– http://www.cas.org/SCIFINDER/SCHOLAR/ataglance.html
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SciFinder Scholar – Citation Searching
Click on NEW TASK
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SciFinder Scholar – Citation Searching
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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
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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.
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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.
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Search Strategy Example
Concept 1 Concept 2 Concept 3
groundwater remediation arsenic
ground water bioremediation
aquifers phytoremediation
drinking water
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Combine related terms with or.Combine different concepts with and.
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This translates into (stroke or (cerebrovascular accident)) and (relearning or learning or rehabilitation) and ((mental imagery) or (mental practice))
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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.
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CSA databases have the search form and a Search History option.
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OVID - Combine search numbers with Boolean operators (and, or)
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Web of Science - Need to click on the Search History tab to see your searches.
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Check the searches you wish to combine and then choose the Boolean operator (AND, OR)
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Combined searches.
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SCOPUS -Scroll down to see search history.
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Combine using the # sign and Boolean operators.
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Silverplatter / WebSPIRS – Check the searches you want to combine and click the Boolean operator (and, or).
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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.
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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)
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CSA databases – New interface called Illumina (E.g. PsycINFO).
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SCOPUS - Click on Set Alert and then enter user name and password.
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Alert will be sent by email. Can link directly to the records.
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You can also set up an alert that is sent whenever an article is cited by another.
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Scroll down to find the Alert me link.
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Web of Science has a similar citation alert.
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Some publishers provide alerts from a journal article
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NOTE: Only journals published by Elsevier / Science Direct will be found.
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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
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CSA Databases:
Use Advanced Search, then
dropdown menus
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WebSPIRS
Use advanced search, then drop-
down menus
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• 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
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Thank you!
Rita Vine
Gerstein Science Information Centre
416.946.4041
Gail Nichol
Engineering and Computer Science Library
416.946.0389
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