Download Using Web Resources to Enhance Your Research

Using Web Resources to
Enhance Your Research
Dani Or
Department of Environmental Systems Science (D-USYS)
Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich
Outline
• Types of web searches
• Primary search engines
• Search strategies and evaluation of
information
• Specialized scientific sites (Web of Science,
Scopus, Google Scholar)
• Finding publications, citations, analyzing
individual research profiles
• Conduct a web search and write an abstract
(~250 words) on the topic: “Pharmaceuticals in
water resources”
include and correctly cite top 5 most definitive
(and recent) references on the subject
What is the Internet?
 The Internet is a network of networks, linking computers to
computers sharing the TCP/IP protocols. It can be compared to an
international communications utility servicing computers
 The Internet itself does not contain information - information is
found through or using the Internet
 Computers on the Internet may use one or all of the following
Internet services:
• Electronic mail (e-mail)
• Telnet or remote login
• FTP or File Transfer Protocol
• The World Wide Web (WWW or "the Web"). The largest,
fastest growing activity on the Internet
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/About.html
What is the World Wide Web (WWW) ?
 WWW incorporates all Internet services and much more
 When you log onto the Internet using a web browser (e.g.,
Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Safari), you
are viewing documents on the World Wide Web
 A programming language called HTML (HyperText Markup
Language) provide basic foundation for WWW functions
 Hypertext is the ability to create links to retrieve other
documents. This "clickability" is the feature which is unique and
revolutionary about the Web
 How do hypertext links work? Every document or file or site has
a unique URL (uniform resource locator) that identifies what
computer is on and where it is within that computer
Types of web search tools
http://www.surfwax.com/
http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invisible/Inv_Web.html
Useful search engines
Why Google? (1)
 Google is the BIGGEST search engine database in the world
 PageRank often finds useful pages. It is one of the defaults that cannot be
turned off in Google and is not for sale. It considers
• Popularity - based on the number of links to a page and the
importance of the pages that link
• Importance - traffic, quality of links
• Word proximity and occurrence in results
 Google has many useful ways to limit searches
 Google offers special "fuzzy" searches that are useful to search synonyms,
find definitions, find similar pages, etc.
 Shortcuts & special databases can enhance certain searches
 Google Books and Google Scholar have great potential for university-level
research using the web
Why Google? (2)
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/fuzzy.pdf
Useful subject directories
(needs updating – 2011 !)
Example of subject directory
Web search strategy (1)
1.
2.
Analyze your topic to decide where to begin
does your topic have:
•
have distinctive words or phrases?
•
have NO distinctive words or phrases you can think of?
•
seek an overview of a broad topic?
•
specify a narrow aspect of a broad or common topic?
•
have equivalent terms, variant spellings to be included?
Pick the right starting place using this table:
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html
Web search strategy (2)
3.
Learn as you go & VARY your approach with what you learn
(Don't assume you know what you want to find. Look at search results
and see what you might use in addition to what you've thought of)
4.
Don't bog down in any
strategy that doesn't work
(Switch from search engines
to directories and back.
Find specialized directories
on your topic, change search
terms and keywords)
5.
Return to previous strategies
better informed
Before you click to view a page
1.
Look at the URL - personal page or site ?
(~ or % or users or members)
2.
Domain name appropriate for the content ?
(edu, com, org, net, gov, ca.us, uk, ch, etc.)
3.
Published by an entity that makes sense ?
4.
News from its source? www.nytimes.com
5.
Advice from valid agency? www.nih.gov/
6.
Can you tell who wrote it ?
(name of author, organization)
7.
Credentials for the subject matter ?
(links to: “About us” “Background” “Biography”)
8.
Is it recent or current enough ?
Cross-reference for information quality
• One more thing about information quality – don’t stop at the first
entry on the topic! Obtain information from diverse sources
Web of Science – “invisible web”
http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invisible/Inv_Web.html
http://scientific.thomson.com/tutorials/wok3/index.html
Web of Science (1)
1.
Caution – not all
scientific journals are
listed on Web of Science
2.
Different documents
(other than papers), data
bases, and search time
window should be
specified
3.
Analyses of the results
and export to “Endnote”
and alike are useful
Web of Science (2)
Web of Science (3)
Web of Science (4)
Web of Science - Citations
Web of Science – productivity & citation analysis
# of papers
# of citations ~ impact
sustainable “productivity”/holes?
time record of “impact”
citation record for
a particular paper
SCOPUS – similar to Web of Science
Google Books and Scholar
Citation formats (APA)
Citation formats (AGU)
Citation format – in text
Tasks for today
• Conduct a web search and write an abstract
(~250 words) on the topic: “Pharmaceuticals in
water resources” include and correctly cite top
5 most definitive (and recent) references
on the subject.
• Use Web of Science citation analyses to
identify the top researcher working on:
“Temperature and ice core CO2 records”;
provide key indices for their activity
(publications, citations, affiliation, etc.)
• Please write neatly and clearly mark your name
Abstract components - checklist
•
an impersonal, noncritical, and informative account
•
gives a clear, grammatically accurate, exact, and stylistically uniform
treatment of the subject
•
provides rationale for the study - a brief account of purpose, need, and
significance of investigation (hypothesis or how differs from previous)
•
state the objectives clearly as to what is to be obtained
•
gives a brief account of methods, emphasizing departures from standard
•
states results succinctly
•
outlines conclusions or recommendations, if any. An emphasis of the
significance of the work, conclusions, and recommendations.
•
uses specific figures whenever possible - avoid use of general terms,
especially in presenting the method and reporting
•
never cite references (for this exercise – cite separately)
•
contains about 150-250 words