Using IBSS online to find international journal articles, books, chapters and reviews

1. Using IBSS online to find international journal articles, books, chapters and reviews Research Methods Festival, 20 July 2006 Rebecca Ursell IBSS Manager IBSS is hosted online by

2. About IBSS (1) Overview • Includes over two million bibliographic records relating to the four core social science subjects of anthropology, economics, politics and sociology • Funded by ESRC so that it is free to all UK HE & FE institutions, ESRC-recognised research centres, and government departments on the Ovid Web Gateway or Silver Platter platforms • Established in 1951, set up by the International Committee for Social Science Information and Documentation, and produced by the London School of Economics and Political Science since 1989

3. About IBSS (2)Key strengths • International coverage • 6 working languages • 60% journals covered published outside US or UK • Interdisciplinary coverage • 4 core disciplines • 10 key interdisciplinary subjects • 4 supporting subjects • Historic coverage – since 1951 • Unique coverage - Many of the journals covered by IBSS (c. 40% of IBSS’s current journal coverage) are not covered by other social science databases

4. IBSS coverage (1) Subject coverage Core subjects Interdisciplinary subjects Supporting subjects

5. IBSS coverage (2) International coverage

6. IBSS coverage (3) Types of material • Journal articles (60%) • 2,800 titles regularly covered • 500+ irregular titles • 60% of titles published outside UK and US • Cover-to-cover indexing of scholarly journals • Book reviews (30%) • Books (8%) • Chapters (2% - but c. 5% for current material)

7. IBSS coverage (4) Selection of journals • Serials Selection Group of LSE Library (= 60% of journal coverage) • Submissions from associated institutions, including: • UK: School of Oriental and African Studies; School of Slavonic and East European Studies; University College London; Institute of Commonwealth Studies • Overseas: Sciences Po (over 400 French journals, mainly politics); Japanese Sociological Society; Polish Academy of Sciences; Parliamentary Libraries of Hungary and Finland • Suggestions from Editorial Advisory Board of over 40 internationally respected academics in social science field • Requests from academics; submissions from publishers; IBSS editors’ recommendations

8. Searching IBSS (1)Ovid interface

9. Searching IBSS (2)Search fields and limits • Default search fields in Advanced Search are title, keyword and abstract • Other tabs are for Author, Title, or Journal searches • ‘More fields’ allows you to search any field in IBSS, e.g., Subject heading (keyword) only • ‘Limits’ options allow you to limit your results in several ways, e.g., by item type, publication date, language, or only records with abstracts or full text available

10. Searching IBSS (3)Search strategies • Case studies and examples of effective search strategies across a range of subjects are available from the IBSS web site – http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/support/supp_training_UKHE.htm

11. IBSS results (1) Links • Abstract; Complete reference: these are internal links • Full Text; Library Holdings; Document Delivery; Internet • Resources: these are external links set up by the institutional • administrator

12. IBSS results (2)Saving, emailing, printing • You can choose to print, save, or email to yourself your entire • results or selected results • You can export to bibliographic management software, • e.g., EndNote

13. IBSS support and training (1)www.ibss.ac.uk

14. IBSS support and training (2)Resources • IBSS descriptions – • http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/about/resourcesForPublicising.htm#Descriptions • Lists of journals covered: • A-Z: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/about/alphabeticalJournals.htm • By subject: http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/about/subjectCoverage.htm#List%20of%20subjects%20covered • Case studies and example searches • http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/searching/default.htm

15. IBSS support and training (3)Support materials • IBSS leaflet and poster http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/support/supp_training_UKHE.htm#IBSS%20leaflet%20and%20poster • IBSS subject guides • Updates: anthropology, economics, politics and sociology • New: Policy studies and social policy; European studies http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/support/supp_training_UKHE.htm#Search_by_subject • IBSS user guides for Ovid Web Gateway or Silver Platter interfaces http://www.lse.ac.uk/collections/IBSS/support/supp_training_UKHE.htm

16. Why IBSS?or - why are abstracting & indexing services still relevant in the age of internet search engines? • Selection • Editorial Advisory Board ensures that the most important journals in a subject area are included • Controlled language indexing • To control different terms used by different authors • To enable cross searching of material in different languages • Only key terms are included (improves precision & relevance) • Access to non-digital material • There is still a huge amount of academic material not available in electronic form which will not be picked up by internet search engines

17. IBSS contacts • Contact me: r.ursell@lse.ac.uk • Training and marketing issues: j.l.ferguson@lse.ac.uk • Content and coverage issues: ibss@lse.ac.uk International Bibliography of the Social Sciences The London School of Economics and Political Science 10 Portugal Street, London WC2A 2HD tel: + 44 (0)20 7955 7455 fax: +44 (0)20 7955 6923 email: ibss@lse.ac.uk www.ibss.ac.uk