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E-research - a quick romp through some useful tools. Russell Beale Advanced Interaction Group R.Beale@cs.bham.ac.uk. Overview. Writing tools Internet search and veracity Reference management Remote access to e-resources. What are blogs?. “wild, random, unconstrained ramblings”
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E-research -a quick romp through some useful tools Russell Beale Advanced Interaction Group R.Beale@cs.bham.ac.uk
Overview • Writing tools • Internet search and veracity • Reference management • Remote access to e-resources
What are blogs? • “wild, random, unconstrained ramblings” • “self-obsessive diaries” • Chronologically ordered postings on a web page • Mainly text, a few images, and links to other pages
Blog usage • Format supports stream-of-consciousness thinking • Supports diary format • Rapid, fits with fragmented working patterns
Standard entry - dated, text, small photo syndication Web tools Easy link to external sites links History of posts Example
Writing is thinking • Writing is a tool for thinking • Not something to be done after the fact • Document thoughts, ideas, decisions, problems • Provides much of the text for dissertation • Tool for communicating with supervisor?
Reflective practice After Kolb 1984
Internet search • Google - Assess veracity • extension • .ac.uk, .edu probably fine • .net. .org ok but be cautious • .com fine for product info but beware • Personal sites may be fine, and could be awful • Download time • Better sites are faster
Clever search terms • Be clever in abstracting your terms • Google based on page title, headings, first paragraph words: what will be in the page you want? • Caps not significant • Word order is • + word must be there • - word must not be there • “contiguous words” to look for phrase • * inside phrase allows none or more words in between
Looks for academic papers • Searches University sites and digital libraries • Default choice for many
Digital Libraries • ACM digital library • http://portal.acm.org/ • CiteSeer • http://citeseer.ist.psu.edu/ • Ingenta • http://www.ingentaconnect.com/content • Scirus • http://www.scirus.com/srsapp/ • E-journals from IS • http://www.ejournals.bham.ac.uk/
More DLs & Bibliographies • Web of Knowledge • http://portalt.wok.mimas.ac.uk/ • Web of Science • Science citation index • Shows how influential journals are • The collection of Computer Science Bibliographies • http://liinwww.ira.uka.de/bibliography/index.html • Bibfinder • http://kilimanjaro.eas.asu.edu/ • E-resources from IS • www.eresources.bham.ac.uk
Reference management • Use a reference database • It’ll save vast amounts of time in the long run • Put in the URL if it’s available online • Put in the abstract or some notes as wellBibTeX • Some good BibTeX tools are: • bibjoin merges entries if you have different versions of an entry from many sources • bibclean Tidies, indents, fixes bibtex files. Very configurable. • citetags Extracts the list of keys cited from in a .tex or .aux file • citefind Extracts the bibtex entries from a list of keys (maybe from citetags) • bibextract Extract bibtex entries based on regular expressions • bibcheck Checks a bibtex file for syntax errors • biborder Changes the order of fields in all bibtex entries to be the same • bibdup Finds duplicate keys • biblabel Generates nice consistent keys for bibtex enttries, can be used with... • citesub Substitutes citation keys, normally produced by biblabel • biblex Lexically analyses a bibtex file and outputs a sort of XML like version • Bibunlex Does the opposite. Can work on the token stream from bibclean • bibsort Sorts a bibtex file by any key you choose • bibsplit Splits a bibtex file into several files based on the key you choose • bibparse Checks that a bibtex file conforms to the correct grammar.
EndNote • Reference manager for Word • CiteWhileYouWrite options • Easy addition, management and use • Connects to online databases to search, find and extract references • Flakey connections • Much simpler to use than BibTex
Citeulike • Automates capturing of references from digital libraries and academic sites • Exports to BibTeX and EndNote • Great for sharing refs with colleagues • Fast, easy • Javascript bookmarklet • Couple with GoogleScholar and a local reference manager…
Proxies • Many of the e-resources require Athens (University) login • Can set up a tunnel and proxy • Looks to resource as if you are originating at the Uni • Read supportweb pages for details • On mac, use SSH Tunnel Manager + Locations
Wireless networking on campus • Uses your central university’s login • In the school, register MAC address with support, get SSID and WEP key
Wireless networking elsewhere • Location-independent networking • Use your Birmingham login to authenticate to wireless networks in many other UK Universities • Need your .bham account, not .cs.bham one