Graduate search clinics

1
Graduate search clinics

• Turning a research question in to an effective
  search strategy
• Louise Clarke, Social Science Librarian-in-charge

2
Structure part one

• Search preparation
• Compiling search terms
• Keywords, synonyms spellings, broader
  narrower terms, mind maps and search aids
• Constructing search strings
• Boolean operators, parentheses, truncation,
  wildcards and search filters
• Identifying relevant resources
• OxLIP databases by subject and format

3
Structure part two

• Conducting a search
• Web search engines versus indexing and
  abstracting databases
• Field searching
• Strategies for approaching, refining and
  manipulating results sets
• Setting up search alerts for new content
• Tracking research and building connections
  through citations / using bibliometrics to
  identify key papers and authors

4
Structure parts three and four

• From references to full-text
• Sourcing papers online
• Sourcing papers in print
• Hands-on database practice

5
Search preparation keywords
An exploration of the growth of the
telecommunications sector in Hungary
Telecommunications
Growth
Hungary
6
Search preparation mind maps
7
Search preparation reference tools

• Online
• Print
• Subject/area/general encyclopaedias,
  dictionaries, handbooks etc. can be found in the
  library reference section

Humanities and Social Science Electronic
Thesaurus (HASSET)
8
Search preparation keywords in databases

• Use database thesauri and subject headings to
  identify new and useful keywords
• Keywords are assigned by the database editors
  from a set of controlled vocabulary (thesaurus)
• May also be keywords assigned by the author
• A keyword search will look in the keywords field
  
• May also look in the title, abstract and other
  descriptor fields

9
Search preparation truncation

• Truncation may be used in a number of ways
• for right side truncation (e.g. plurals and
  alternative word endings)
• feminis retrieves feminist, feminists, feminism
• ? for a single character (e.g. alternative
  spellings)
• organi?ation for organisation or organization
• for one character or zero characters
• behavior retrieves behavior, behaviour,
  behavioral, etc
• Check the database online help (the symbols given
  above are common but not universal)

10
Search preparation boolean logic
NARROWSSEARCH
AND
salt and pepper
BROADENSSEARCH
salt or pepper
OR
NARROWSSEARCH
NOT
salt not pepper
11
Search preparation finding authors

• Use truncation to find all forms of an authors
  name
• To find articles by J.R.W. Yates search for yates
  j
• For common names, truncation may not be
  appropriate - enter the initials instead
• yates jrw or yates j r w depending on the
  database
• Compound names may be fused together or separated
  punctuation may be replaced with a space
• To find articles by M. DAngelo search for
• dangelo m OR dangelo m OR d angelo m
• Database tools can help you identify authors
• Author index
• Author search / author finder for including
  information about their subject and institution

12
Search preparation OxLIP

• http//oxlip-plus.ouls.ox.ac.uk
• To discover which databases are best for
  particular subject disciplines or formats, ask a
  subject librarian
• http//www.ouls.ox.ac.uk/libraries/subjects/librar
  ians