How to get Information for

Your Geology Assignments

Gareth Johnson

gareth.johnson@le.ac.uk

Session Outline

• Why do literature searches

• Finding books – a quick recap

• What are journal articles

• Finding journal articles

• Improving your internet searching

• Information Sources Quiz

Information Sources

• Lecture Notes– Good starting point for assignments.

• Books– Good sources of background information.

• Journal Articles– Good source of information on latest research

– Provide more detailed information than books

• Geological Surveys– For geological data on a particular area.

• Websites– Can provide useful information

– Need to evaluate website before using

Literature Searches – why do

them?

• “A few months in the laboratory can save a few hours in the library.” - Westheimer's Law

• You need to know what research has already been done so you can build on that research

Finding Books – A Quick Recap

• Library catalogue: http://library.le.ac.uk

• Brumbaugh, D. S. 1999. Earthquakes: science and

society. Prentice Hall.

– Use the ______________________ search

• Books by Philip Kearey

– Use the ______________________ search

• Books on volcanoes

• - Use the ___________________ search

Author/Title

Author

Word or Phrase

Why Use Journal Articles?

• Journals – Publications that are issued at regular intervals

– Also called serials or periodicals

– Primary information sources through which research is made known to the geological community

• Often the most up to date reliable resource– Quality (scholarly) journals are refereed/peer-reviewed

– Articles are reviewed by other authors in the field

– Comments, corrections and revisions are made to submitted papers

– Final published versions are therefore quality assured by the research community

Three Types of Science

Journal

– General journals • Devoted to news, opinion, comment and

articles for non-experts

• e.g. Geology Today

– Scholarly journals • Devoted to original research contributions

• e.g. Journal of Geology

– Review journals• Devoted to original contributions taking an

overview of the published literature

• e.g. Trends in Ecology and Evolution

Recognising Journal Articles

• Bohaty, Steven M., Zachos, James C,

2003. Significant Southern Ocean

warming event in the late middle Eocene.

Geology, 31(11):1017-1020.

• Look for whether it has

• An ____________ & a _____________

• A ______________ & an ___________

Article Title Journal Title

Volume Number Issue Number

What is a Bibliographic

Database?• Need to search bibliographic databases

– Effectively an online way of searching for journal

articles

• Each one indexes lists of bibliographic

information for publications

– Such as books and journal articles

– Some overlap in coverage

• Bibliographic information normally comprises:

– Author, title, source (journal title), year, volume, page

numbers & abstract summary

Key Bibliographic Databases

• GeoRefs– Geology and Earth-Sciences coverage

– Includes journals most other resources don’t

– http://firstsearch.uk.oclc.org/athens/

• Scopus– General Science coverage

– http://www.scopus.com

• Web of Knowledge– Multidisciplinary coverage

– http://wok.mimas.ac.uk

Types of Search

• Keyword/Subject Search

– When you are looking for material on a particular

subject

– Need to be systematic in your searches

– Ensures accurate results and avoid information-

overload

• Author Search

– When you are looking for material published by key

names in a field

• Identified in lectures, books, review journal or other articles

Keyword Searching (1): Concepts

• Question: Find out about ore deposits in

the UK

– Identify the important concepts and words in

the question:

• Ore

• Deposits

• UK

Keyword Searching (2):

Variants• Think about variations of the keywords

you’re using:

• Ore

– Ores, Orebody, Mineral, Minerals…

• Deposits

– Deposit, Deposition…

• UK

– United Kingdom, Britain, England, Wales, Scotland, British Isles…

Keyword Searching (3): Truncation

Ore

Ores Ore*

Orebody

•Saves typing!

•Picks up multiple terms from foreshortened

word-stem

Keyword Searching (4):

Boolean Logic

• AND

– This is used to combine search terms to narrow your

search

Keyword Searching (4):

Boolean Logic

• OR

– This is used where various terms might describe the

same object

Keyword Searching (4):

Boolean Logic

• NOT

– This is used when you wish to exclude a word from

your search

Keyword Searching (5):

Search Strategies

• Brackets are used as in a mathematical

equation, to tell the database how to

combine the words

(ore* OR mineral*) AND deposit*

• A more specific search could be:

((ore* OR mineral*) AND deposit*

AND (uk OR united kingdom)) NOT

hematite

Author Searching

• Question: Find an article by Dr Gawen RT

Jenkin

• Search on:

– Jenkin G*

• May or may not publish with middle initials

• Journals may or may not other initials

Tools to Refine Results

• You can also use limits/filters to narrow

your search

– E.g. by date or publication type

• Can include before or after a search

• Helps avoid potentially overwhelming

levels of results

– Easier to chose the pick of the crop

Improve your Internet Searching

• Use more than one search engine as they use different searching algorithms

• Use the advanced search features in Google & Yahoo– Phrase searching

– Search a specific field e.g. title or URL

– Limit by language, file type, domain

• Use the options for specific media e.g. images, groups, news

Google Scholar

• “Search specifically for scholarly literature” – No definition as to what Google classify as scholarly!

– Can be some odd gaps/omissions

• http://scholar.google.com

• Often links to full text but might not link to the version of the full text available to the University – On-campus it will give you an e-link option to check whether

you can access the full text for free

• Good first place to see what is available and what keywords to use – But use bibliographic databases in your subject too!

Open Access Research

• A move from academics annoyed over journal

prices

– No passwords, subscriptions or access restrictions

• Researchers make articles available for free

(outside of journals)

– Held in online repositories

– Still include peer-review elements

• Can easily be searched using OpenDOAR

– http://www.opendoar.org/search.php

Evaluating Websites• Intended Audience

– Is the site aimed at researchers or the general public?

• Authority and Reputation

– Is the resource well known?

– Is it an academic site?

– Is it factual or opinion based?

– Does the information have a basis in research and is a

bibliography provided?

• Subject Coverage

– Is the site an overview or does it cover the subject in-depth?

• Currency –

– Has the site been recently updated?

Questions?

Useful Links

• Geology Subject Room: http://rooms1.library.le.ac.uk/rooms/portal

• Referencing:• http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/geol/ist/reference

s.html

• Geology Information Retrieval Skills Tutorial: http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/geol/ist/intro.html

• Web of Science tutorial: http://inhale.hud.ac.uk/perl/jump.pl?72-678

• Library catalogue tutorial: http://inhale.hud.ac.uk/perl/jump.pl?72-832