Physics & Astronomy Information Resources

1. Physics & AstronomyInformation Resources May 2011 Barbara Dorward

2. Three important questions... • What information do you need? • Where should you look for it? • How can you get hold of it?

3. What information…? • high quality • up to date • relevant

4. Evaluation criteria Authority Objectivity & purpose Currency Accuracy Relevance When created or updated Links Right subject and level Who is the author Target audience

5. Sources • Specialist search engines • Gateways • Journal providers • Learned societies websites • Databases • Full text sources

6. Break 1Web resources

7. Evaluation criteria Authority Objectivity & purpose Currency Accuracy Relevance When created or updated Links Right subject and level Who is the author Target audience

9. E-print servers • the information is free and usually full text • they contain the very latest research and ideas • there is no delay in publication • institutional repositories may contain data and other information too

10. But… • many have not been peer reviewed • they may contain inaccurate or poor quality material As long as you are aware of the potential drawbacks they are a valuable resource

12. Publishers websites • High quality information • Link to full text if we have a subscription • Alerting services often available BUT • Limited range of source material • Less sophisticated search facilities than major databases

14. Gateways and websites There are many high quality websites. Gateways such as Intute (Physics) select and evaluate websites for you.

16. Internet search engines There are some good search engines • Google Scholar (general academic) • Scirus (scientific information) • Scitopia But remember that you still need to evaluate what you find

17. IEEEXplore • Key full text resource • Individual tems not linked from TDNet

19. Key resource - Journal databases

20. Why journal databases? Because they • link to up to date information from peer reviewed publications • are usually well indexed enabling you to search in detail • contain abstracts summarising the articles retrieved • often link directly to the full text if it is available electronically

21. Which databases..? The most important ones for Physics and Astronomy are • INSPEC (Physics Abstracts) • Web of Science (Science Citation Index) • Compendex (Engineering Index) All are nationally or internationally produced so there is no guarantee the library will have all the relevant articles you find

22. How to access them From the library home page at: www.soton.ac.uk/library • Physics and Astronomy subject pages • Resources page Using Institutional login or VPN when off campus

24. How to search the databases • Topic search • keywords or phrases • controlled indexing (thesaurus) terms • Author/title search • Citation searching (Web of Science)

25. Searching the databases by topic • Search statements retrieve exact matches • Use Boolean operators (and,or,not) to combine search terms • Use truncation,stemming and wild cards (symbols vary between databases) So you need to think carefully about what terms to use and how to enter them

26. Boolean Logic a OR b a AND b a NOT b a a a b b b Can be used to join different search terms

27. To find words with a common stem (normally * symbol) Aero* will find: Aeroplane Aeroplanes Aerospace To replace a letter in the middle of a word (normally ? symbol) Wom?n will find: Woman Women Colo?r will find: Colour Color Truncation and wildcards

28. Phrase searching • Some databases search for phrases if Boolean operators are not present • Others require phrases to be enclosed in quotation marks “ ” • Note that truncation and stemming do not always work with phrase searching

29. Modelling dark energy in the universe • Dark energy • Dark matter • Theoretical models • Theoretical model* • (dark energy or dark matter) AND theoretical model*

30. Web of Science • General science database • Allows citation searching • Can be searched alone or with other databases • Save searches to repeat in a future session • Set up ‘search alert’ or ‘citation alert’ for current awareness

32. INSPEC • Specialist physics and engineering database • Can search with Web of Science or alone • Allows searching using a controlled vocabulary (thesaurus) • Save searches to repeat in a future session • Set up ‘search alert’ for current awareness

34. So... • Decide on the exact form of the terms you will use • Allow for any relevant variations in terminology and spelling • Use truncation and wildcard symbols where appropriate

35. Recording your results Mark relevant references in your search results Then: • e-mail results to yourself • export to reference software • save to a file

36. Finding the full text • If there is a full-text link or TDNet link try it • If not search WebCat • Journal articles by the journal title • (use full title not abbreviations) • Conference papers by the conference title (for IET/IEEE use IEEEXplore) • Reports by author and title

37. Not in the library? • Request an Inter Library Loan (ILL) • up to 5 per year

38. Break 2Searching databases

39. Modelling dark energy in the universe • Dark energy • Dark matter • Theoretical models • Theoretical model* • (dark energy or dark matter) AND theoretical model*

40. Advanced features

41. Advanced searching • Searching by author • Searching using controlled vocabulary/thesaurus • Citation searching (Web of Science)

43. Additional features • Limits • Analyse results • Refine results • Search history • Marking records • Exporting records • E-mail alerts

44. Recording references • Record the full details of the reference • Record how you found it

45. Break 3Advanced searches

46. Choose quality resources • Think carefully about your search terms • Evaluate what you find • Keep a record of what you have done • If in doubt, ask a Librarian

47. If you need help……. • Barbara Dorward Tel: 023 8059 2791 (22791) e-mail: bjmd@soton.ac.uklibenqs@soton.ac.uk • Subject Enquiry Desk Check Library website for service hours