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How do I find relevant information for my thesis, dissertation or report? How do I evaluate the relevance and quality of the information I find? How do I find the most up to date information in my subject area? Anyone setting out to research a topic, whether at undergraduate or postgraduate level, needs to find information to inform their work and support their arguments. This book enables researchers to become expert in finding, accessing and evaluating information for dissertations, projects or reports.

The book works systematically through the information-seeking process, from planning the search to evaluating and managing the end results. It suggests how to do this efficiently and effectively whilst using a range of sources including online bibliographic databases and the internet.

This edition has been thoroughly updated to reflect the use of new technologies in research by offering the most contemporary information on:

Online research Critical evaluation of resources Intellectual property rights Research communities The changing landscape of research information Subject-specific resources Written by an academic librarian, this book provides key reading, not only for academic researchers, but for anyone working for commercial, public or government bodies who has to contribute to research projects.

Tabla de contenidos provista por Syndetics

• List of figures(p. ix)
• List of tables(p. x)
• List of abbreviations(p. xi)
• Foreword to the first edition(p. xiii)
• Preface(p. xv)
• Acknowledgements(p. xviii)
• 1 The information gathering process(p. 1)
• The process(p. 1)
• The skills required(p. 2)
• Defining the subject(p. 2)
• Defining the purpose and scope of the research(p. 5)
• Setting up and getting started(p. 5)
• Plan of campaign(p. 6)
• 2 Making the most of a library(p. 9)
• Getting to know your library and librarian(p. 9)
• 3 Finding information about existing research(p. 16)
• The type of research referred to in this chapter(p. 16)
• Access to information about research(p. 16)
• Indexes and online databases of research activity(p. 17)
• Research Councils UK and other funding bodies(p. 19)
• Theses(p. 20)
• 4 The type and detail of information required(p. 23)
• Introduction(p. 23)
• Types of information(p. 24)
• Primary and secondary sources(p. 25)
• Multidisciplinarity and subject overlap(p. 26)
• Defining the area and limits of the research(p. 26)
• How much information is appropriate?(p. 27)
• What is already known?(p. 27)
• Planning an information finding strategy(p. 27)
• 5 Discovering relevant materials(p. 29)
• Resource discovery: where details of relevant materials can be found(p. 29)
• What are abstracts and indexes?(p. 30)
• Online bibliographic databases(p. 31)
• Issues relating to online databases(p. 32)
• e-Books(p. 41)
• Catalogues and bibliographies(p. 42)
• Open access materials(p. 46)
• Other sources and types of information(p. 46)
• Selecting sources relevant to the subject(p. 47)
• 6 The online searching process(p. 49)
• The importance of planning a search(p. 49)
• The online searching process(p. 51)
• How to plan a search strategy(p. 52)
• When to run the search(p. 76)
• Evaluating the results(p. 76)
• Saving the results(p. 77)
• Completion of the search(p. 77)
• 7 Citation searching(p. 79)
• What is citation searching and why is it important?(p. 79)
• Citation indexes(p. 81)
• When to stop(p. 82)
• Electronic citation searching(p. 82)
• Problems associated with citation searching(p. 85)
• Cross-referencing(p. 86)
• 8 Obtaining the full text(p. 88)
• Introduction(p. 88)
• Location of items at the home institution(p. 91)
• Locating items not held in the home institution(p. 91)
• Searching the catalogues of other collections(p. 92)
• Locating electronic materials(p. 93)
• Finding a commercial source of the material(p. 95)
• Grey literature(p. 96)
• Other sources for locating materials(p. 96)
• 9 Using the World Wide Web for research(p. 99)
• Introduction(p. 99)
• Means of locating information on the WWW(p. 100)
• Accessing the selected site(p. 101)
• Subject gateways(p. 102)
• Using search engines(p. 103)
• Evaluating information found on the WWW(p. 109)
• Some useful tips(p. 111)
• 10 Accessing materials(p. 112)
• Introduction(p. 112)
• Accessing physical materials held at the home institution(p. 113)
• e-Resources available via the home institution(p. 113)
• Using other libraries(p. 115)
• Document delivery services(p. 115)
• Open access to scholarly publications(p. 117)
• Persistent identifiers(p. 120)
• Accessing other sources of information(p. 120)
• 11 Evaluation of resources(p. 124)
• The importance of evaluation(p. 124)
• Criteria for evaluation(p. 125)
• 12 Citing references(p. 129)
• Terminology(p. 129)
• The purpose of citing references(p. 130)
• Citation and reference style(p. 131)
• 13 Keeping records(p. 137)
• Efficient searching and well ordered records(p. 137)
• Maintaining records of searches(p. 137)
• Saving records and details of works accessed(p. 138)
• Bibliographic software(p. 140)
• 14 Intellectual property and plagiarism(p. 144)
• Introduction(p. 144)
• Intellectual property(p. 144)
• IP considerations when researching and creating documents(p. 148)
• The IP of the researcher's work(p. 149)
• Plagiarism(p. 151)
• 15 The research community and keeping up to date(p. 154)
• Introduction(p. 154)
• The research community(p. 155)
• Conferences, conventions, colloquia, and symposia(p. 157)
• Alerting or current awareness services(p. 158)
• Mailing/discussion lists(p. 160)
• 16 The changing landscape of research(p. 162)
• Introduction(p. 162)
• JISC activities(p. 163)
• Dissemination of research results(p. 163)
• Searching for research materials(p. 167)
• Open URLs(p. 168)
• e-Books and e-theses(p. 169)
• The importance of data(p. 170)
• The e-science programme and the Grid(p. 170)
• Means of managing and presenting information(p. 171)
• Digital preservation and curation(p. 172)
• Research Information Network (RIN)(p. 173)
• Journal impact factors, peer review, and citation services(p. 173)
• Summary checklist(p. 174)
• Appendix 1 Using a library(p. 178)
• Appendix 2 Formats of information sources(p. 194)
• Glossary(p. 206)
• References and bibliography(p. 208)
• Web addresses(p. 214)
• Index(p. 219)

Notas de autor provistas por Syndetics

Sally Rumsey is leading the implementation of the Oxford University Research Archive, an institutional repository for research output at the University of Oxford