Maximizing Social Sciences Electronic Resources: Expert Tools & Strategies for Research Success

1. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources Gillian Beattie (Research Support, Social Science Library) and Angela Carritt(Electronic Resources Librarian, Bodleian Law Library)

2. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • This session: • General overview of the e-resources available to social scientists • Demonstration of some key bibliographic resources • Pointers to other sessions and specialist help

3. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources Search strategies for academic success. Tuesday, 30 October Is IT all a bit much? Getting information to come to you. Tuesday 6 November Google and beyond. Tuesday, 13 November Statistical data sources for Social Sciences. Tuesday, 20  November News sources for research. Tuesday, 27 November

4. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • Specialist help and training within OULS: • Law databases - Law Library • Business & Management - Saïd Business School • Education databases - Educational Studies Library • Area Studies – Area Specialist or area library • Psychology- Radcliffe Science Library • Archaeology – Sackler Library • Anthropology, Economics, Politics, Sociology - Social Science Library • Official Publications – Official Papers, Radcliffe Camera

5. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • Accessing e-resources • On campus: • Just click the link to the resource, or use ATHENS password as required • Off campus: • ATHENS password, or connect to Oxford network (Departmental server, college server, or VPN) • OxLIP is the access point in each case: http://www.bodley.ox.ac.uk/oxlip/

6. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • OxLIP gives access to: • Approx 155 resources listed under Social Sciences (listed by Subject or Title) • Secondary sources • Online catalogues, bibliographic databases, indexes of publications • Primary sources • E-journals, full-text of theses, working papers, reports and official publications, news sources, data • E-journals, news services, official papers, and area studies under “All subjects”

7. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • For example, an economist may: • Search for articles on EconLit and working papers on RePEc • Check for news articles on Lexis Nexis • Browse the day’s financial headlines on FT.Com • Access e-journals via Oxford University e-Journalsand Business SourcePremier • Download a report from Source OECD • Access UK company information on FAME • Download macroeconomic data from ESDS

8. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • Bibliographic databases: • IBSS (International Bibliography of the Social Sciences) • CSA Illumina (Cambridge Scientific Abstracts) • ISI Web of Knowledge/ Social Science Citation Index • SCOPUS • EconLit • PAIS • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts • Sociological Abstracts (Sociofile)

9. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • What are Bibliographic databases / Indexing services? • Indexes of articles, books, conference papers, grey literature etc which can be searched by subject and / or author • Search results will always include enough information to find the full text (i.e. a citation / reference) • May also include an abstract • May also include a link to the full text

10. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • Tips for using bibliographic databases: • Think about which service to use… • Coverage – subject, geographical, time period, frequency of update… • Look at description on Oxlip or use ‘Help’ files • Think carefully about search terms • Key concepts, synonyms, alternate spellings • Combine search terms using operators • AND, OR, NOT • Some databases allow more complex searching – check help file

11. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • CSA Illumina: • Access to a wide range of full-text and bibliographic databases, including: • ASSIA (Applied Social Sciences Index and Abstracts • PAIS International (Public Affairs Information Service) • Worldwide Political Science Abstracts • Search across a general subject area, or within specific database(s)

12. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • Searching CSA • Quick search • use * for truncation • multiple words will be treated as a phrase • Advanced search • allows combined searching across a number of fields • limit to latest updates, journal articles only, or English language only • specify how your results are presented

13. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources • Working with your search results: • Use the tabs to view results by type, or click the ‘+’ to see results broken down by database • From any individual record: • check electronic and print availability in Oxford • view the complete reference, including abstract • run a new search using one or more of the article descriptors • Search tools: • Combine searches • Search history • Alerts • Outputting your results: • sort by date or relevance • select results to save, print or email • results can be imported into reference management software

14. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources Social Science Citation Index (SSCI) • Indexes articles, books reviews, letters, news items… • Significant articles from > 1,400 behavioural and social science journals • Selected articles from > 3,100 science journals • Approx. 130,000 records added per year. • 1970- • New records added weekly

15. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources SSCI: What do you get? • Full bibliographic details & abstract • Findit@Oxford link to full text online / holdings • Cited References - full list of all items cited in the article (i.e. article bibliography) • Times Cited - later items (on WOK) which cite the article • Related Records - All items (on WOK) which share at least one citation in common with the article

16. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources SSCI: Other functions… • Analysis tool • Analyses results by author, institution, country, journal, subject area etc. • Can also be used to analyze citations to the parent article • Citation Alert • E-mails you when a new item is adding to the database which cites a chosen article • Alerting Service • E-mails you when a new items is added to the database that fulfils your search criteria

17. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources Accessing SSCI: • Part of Web of Science (…part of Web of Knowledge) • Web of Science also includes… • Arts & Humanities Citation Index, 1975- • Social Science Citation Index, 1956- • Science Citation Index Expanded, 1945- • Indexes can be searched individually or together • Follow links to Social Science Citation Index from Oxlip and choose “Web of Science” • New interface – switch over Jan 08

18. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources SSCI: General Search • Use to find articles by subject, author or title • Combining and truncating search terms: • * to find alternate word endings e.g. rac* finds race, racial, racially, racist etc. • ? to replace one letter e.g. wom?n finds woman, women • AND / SAME – finds articles including both words (SAME - in the same sentence) e.g. rac* AND violence • OR – finds articles including one word or the other or both e.g. woman OR female • NOT – finds articles including one word but only if the other word is not present e.g. discrimination NOT sex* • “phrase searching” – finds articles including the phrase as entered e.g. “human rights”, “South Africa”, “Labour party”

19. WISER Social Sciences: Electronic Resources SSCI: Citation and Advanced Search • Citation search • Use to find citations to known articles (e.g. find out who has cited a particular article) • Advanced search • Allows searching across a slightly wider range of fields than “General Search” • Enter fields tags and boolean operators to combine terms