Researching for your Literature Review

1. Researching for your Literature Review Presented by Annie Jensen Liaison Librarian for Applied Science @ Surrey anniej@sfu.ca | 778-782-7419

2. Today’s Schedule • What is a literature review? • Literature searching • Key Sources • Books • Journal Articles and Databases • Grey Literature • Theses • Citation indexing • Avoiding information overload • Citation management software • Awareness tools • Getting Help

3. What is a Literature Review? It is important to explore the field in which you are going to do your research and gain a thorough awareness and understanding of current work and perspectives in the area so that you can position your own research clearly on the academic map of knowledge creation. An essential aspect of academic research is that it has connections with the work of others. Standing on the shoulders of giants…

4. Literature Search A systematic and thorough search of all types of published literature in order to identify as many items as possible that are relevant to a particular topic

5. Purposes of a Literature Search Extend your understanding of key concepts, theories, and methodologies in your field. Find out what others have done in the area so as to avoid duplicating previous work. Identify key people, organizations, and texts relevant to your research. Identifying your approach to the research and the methodology you wish to adopt. Identify the type of data you might collect and use, sites of data collection, the sample size, and how you mightanalyze this data.

6. Where to search? • At the beginning of your research, focus on reading key studies and scholarship as cited in encyclopedias and textbooks • Mine bibliographies. Spend less time “hunting” for recent articles and more time “gathering”

7. Library Research at SFU http://www.lib.sfu.ca/

8. Library Research Guide

10. Citation Indexing • Citations are the formal, explicit linkage between papers that have particular points in common. • A citation index is built around these linkages. It lists publications that have been cited and identifies the sources of the citations.

11. ISI Web of Knowledge Citation Index • Find out who cited a particular journal article and who was cited in a particular journal article. KEY TOOL. • http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CRDB/BVAS/resource/5662

12. ISI Journal Citation Reports Impact Factors • Provides the impact factor (the relative importance of journals within a given field) and other citation data for 8,400 scholarly and technical journals worldwide. • http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CRDB/BVAS/resource/5662

13. Ulrich's Periodicals Directory • Bibliographic information on over 240,000 journals, magazines, and newspapers sourced from over 130,000 publishers in some 200 countries, classified under 950 subject headings. • Find out alternate names a journal has had over the years, track it’s publication history, locate all copies of a journal, etc. • http://cufts2.lib.sfu.ca/CRDB/BVAS/resource/5792

14. Journal Title Changes Journal titles sometimes change. Use this guide to keep abreast of the latest changes. http://admin-apps.isiknowledge.com/JCR/JCR?RQ=TITLE_CHANGES

15. Science & Engineering Journal Abbreviations Citations often are abbreviated, making the journal title unclear. UBC’s abbreviation tool provides the full title for abbreviated science and engineering journal citations. http://scieng.library.ubc.ca/coden/

16. Citation Management Software Store your references online and format bibliographies instantly Access your account from anywhere in the world with an Internet connection Export citations from a variety of article indexes and databases into your account http://www.lib.sfu.ca/my-library/refworks

17. Student Learning Commons http://learningcommons.sfu.ca/

18. Furtherhelp • Library: contact your liaison librarian (Annie) for problems big and small (eg, I can’t find this article, or I’m not finding any relevant articles on my topic) • anniej@sfu.ca • http://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/ask-us/