MDSC 203: Searching for Information

1
MDSC 203 Searching for Information

• Tips for Acquiring a Solid Foundation for Your
  Research Report
• Session Presenter Marcus Vaska
• October 23 and 25, 2007

2
Session Outline

• Research Project Goals (Review)
• Library Research and the IMRAD Format
• Primary objective to demonstrate the importance
  of library research skills
• Web of Science
• Cited Reference Search
• Additional practice is available during the
  tutorial session in the Bioinformatics Lab, Room
  1501, 1030 a.m.-1150 a.m..

3
Research Project Goals

• Reference of Newspaper Article
• See section 29 of the Vancouver Style guide
  (http//www.nlm.nih.gov/bsd/uniform_requirements.h
  tml)
• State Newspaper Article Storyline
• 5 Ws
• Newspaper Article Analysis
• IMRAD format
• Annotated Bibliography
• Read Chapter 14 of St. Martins Handbook or
  consult http//www.utoronto.ca/writing/pdf/annotat
  ebib.pdf

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Searching Strategies

• Boolean Operators
• AND (narrows search, retrieving records
  containing all of the terms)
• OR (broadens search, retrieving records
  containing any of the terms)
• NOT (excludes terms from a search, retrieving
  records that do not contain the term following
  it.)
• Truncation/Wildcard
• system returns records on system, systems,
  systematic
• ? wom?n returns records on both woman and women
  (singular and plural forms)
• Nesting
• Parenthesis, () keep related terms together
• If searching for an exact phrase, enclose phrase
  in quotation marks,

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Health Sciences Library Home Page
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Searching for a Research Paper-Library Catalogue
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Cited Reference SearchBenefits

• Cited Reference/Citation Searching finding
  articles that have cited a previously published
  work.
• The number of citations a particular work
  receives is indicative of its importance. This
  is known as the Impact Factor.
• Web of Science is the primary research database
  used to conduct a cited reference search

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Web of ScienceHome Page
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Web of ScienceCited Reference Search-Step 1
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Web of ScienceCited Reference Search-Step 2
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Web of ScienceTimes Cited
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The End

• This concludes part I of todays session. If you
  have any further questions, please do not
  hesitate to contact me. Thank you!
• Marcus Vaska
• E-mail mmvaska_at_ucalgary.ca
• Phone [phone]