1. IL Step 3: Using Bibliographic Databases Information Literacy 1

2. Bibliographical DB: Overview Collection of bibliographical records ► references to scientific publications ► in specific disciplines e.g., Biological Abstracts ► in multiple disciplines e.g., Web of Science, Scopus Information Literacy 2 Bibliographical DBs ► contain rich information Keywords, abstracts, (full-text, citation data) ► are mostly proprietary Charge usage fees ► use English as primary language Non-English titles translated to English ► may have different record format e.g., title vs. original title, author vs. primary author ► may offer different search interfaces & options

3. Bibliographical DB: Coverage It is important to consider DB coverage before using. ► Document Type Journals, magazines, books, book chapters, dissertations, etc. ► Publication Type Scholarly, Popular, Trade, etc. ► Discipline/Subject Area Math & Physics, Computer Science, Social Science, etc. ► Time Period 1960-2000, 1990-present, etc. Update frequency: annually, monthly, weekly, daily, etc. ► Content Brief description (abstract & references) vs. full-text Citation metadata  For quality assessment  Enhanced search capability (e.g., following the thread) Information Literacy 3

4. DB Coverage: Examples Web of Science - Tutorial - Web of Science Tutorial ► 46M records (1900-present) ► 17,594 titles of journals & conference proceedings Multi-disciplinary, high impact scholarly publications ► Owned by Thompson Reuters Scopus - Tutorial - Scopus Tutorial ► 50M records 20M with references (1996-present) & 20M without references (1823-1995) ► 20,000 multi-disciplinary titles from 5,000 international publishers 16,500 peer-reviewed journals & 3.6M conference papers ► Owned by Elsevier (a major publisher of international scientific journals) JSTOR (Journal Storage) - Tutorial - JSTOR Tutorial ► 1000+ academic journals from 700 publishers ► Full-text publications in humanities, social sciences, & sciences ► Operated by JSTOR, non-profit organization Google Scholar ► 500M records ► Multi-disciplinary titles in 30+ document types (varying quality) Information Literacy 4

5. DB Searching: Records & Fields DB Record ► Describes information source e.g., journal article DB Field ► Contains metadata about the information source e.g., author, title, subject, publisher, publication date, etc. DB Searches ► Keyword Search – match in any field Emphasis on finding as much information as possible ► Field Search – search in specific fields Focus on finding only desired information General Strategy ► Begin with keyword search to find everything about a topic to discover subtopics ► Use field search To find precise information about specific topics on recalling as much information as possible ► Field Search Information Literacy 5 red + blue + green (Tie=red) + (Shirt=blue) + (Hat=green)

6. DB Searching: Options & Tools Wildcards ► To group words with various spellings and forms e.g., secret* → secret, secrets, secretary, etc. secret? → secret, secrets Quotation Marks ► Around exact phrases (i.e., exact match) e.g., “longevity secret?”, “longevity factor?” Boolean Operators ► Connecting words to broaden or narrow a search e.g., secret? AND longevity, (secret? OR factor?) AND longevity Proximity Operators ► Connecting words that should appear near one another e.g., (secret? OR factor?) NEAR longevity to prevent happenstance occurrence of words “Secret of happiness is love. Longevity has noting to do with it.” Information Literacy 6

7. DB Searching: Options & Tools Searchable indexes ► List of searchable terms (words that appear in DB) e.g., author index, journal index Thesaurus ► Standardized list of keywords ► Typically have a hierarchical structure ► Each term can have Broader term (BT) Narrower terms (NT) Related terms (RT) Equivalent terms (ET) Related Articles ► Tool for finding “more like this” articles. ► Offered by some DBs Web of Science → articles that cite at least one document cited by current article Scopus → articles that share same reference, keywords, or authors PubMed → articles that share same words in title, abstract, MeSH terms (keywords) Information Literacy 7

8. DB Searching: Search Refinement Too much information ► Examine non-relevant results Why were they retrieved? Modify the query to filter out non-relevant results  Add terms that exclude bad results  Use more specific terms  e.g. longevity AND secrets → longevity AND secrets NOT myths ► Search in specific fields e.g., subject, title Too little information ► Eliminate long phrases (i.e., exact match) e.g., “longevity secrets” → longevity AND secrets ► Use alternative terms e.g., “longevity secrets” → longevity AND factors, longevity AND research ► Try broader terms e.g., “longevity secrets” → “long life” e.g., “recombinant DNA” → genetic engineering Information Literacy 8