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How to do a literature search

How to do a literature search. Emma Coonan emc35@cam.ac.uk. What is a literature search?. Searching for (chiefly) published work about a topic of your choice Aiming to get a sound grasp of your topic and its context Joining the academic dialogue. 1. Where to look. Your sources.

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How to do a literature search

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  1. How to do a literature search Emma Coonan emc35@cam.ac.uk

  2. What is a literature search? • Searching for (chiefly) published work about a topic of your choice • Aiming to get a sound grasp of your topic and its context • Joining the academic dialogue

  3. 1. Where to look

  4. Your sources • Books - Newton (including eBooks) • Journals* - Newton; ejournals@cambridge * but you have to know (and search by) the journal title, not the journal article title

  5. Search by journal title on Newton

  6. … and on ejournals@cambridge

  7. Your sources • journal articles • book chapters • conference papers • Festschriften contributions • reports • reviews … ?

  8. What is a citation database? • Began as online indexes of journal articles • Expanded to contain other document types • Evolved in some cases into storage archives • May contain, or link through to, full text • Not comprehensive

  9. Explore your subject area

  10. 2. How to look

  11. Thinking about your topic • Napoleon OR Nelson (either name) • Napoleon AND Nelson (both names) • Napoleon NOT brandy (excluded word) • “Napoleon Bonaparte” (as a phrase)

  12. Thinking about your topic Trafalgar = (naval OR sea OR maritime OR marine) AND (battle OR conflict OR combat OR action …)

  13. Wildcards and truncation: ? and * ? replaces a character • ‘Wom?n’ finds ‘woman’ or ‘women’ • ‘Globali?ation’ finds British or American spelling * replaces any number of characters (including zero) • ‘Pig*’ finds ‘pig’, ‘pigs’, ‘pigmy’, ‘pigment’ ... • ‘Transfer*’ finds ‘transfer’, ‘transfers’, ‘transferable’, ‘transferability’ …

  14. Search exercise 1. Go to www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources and find the SCOPUS database 2. Search for material published from 2005 onwards on sustainable transport, with particular reference to cycling

  15. Check for links to full-text • Cupples, J., Ridley, E. Towards a heterogeneous environmental responsibility: Sustainability and cycling fundamentalism (2008) Area, 40 (2), pp. 254-264. • Cahill, M. Why the u-turn on sustainable transport? (2007) Capitalism, Nature, Socialism, 18 (4), pp. 90-103.

  16. Search exercise 1. Return to www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources and find Web of Knowledge 2. Search for material on cyberbullying among adolescents

  17. 3. Where to start?

  18. Start here … www.lib.cam.ac.uk/electronicresources/

  19. … or here ...

  20. Help and feedback • Slides and handouts at www.lib.cam.ac.uk/Courses/ • Evaluation forms • E-mail: user-education@lib.cam.ac.uk

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