Chapter 7
Library and Literature Work
Robert V. Smith*
Llewellyn D. Densmore†
Abstract
Expanding reading skills and abilities to use library resources are necessary for the researchers’ progress. Reading helps by stimulating ideas, improving and organizing knowledge, avoiding duplication of accomplished work, and reinforcing or refuting hypotheses. Librarians can assist the learning of library resources. Learning includes understanding of university online catalogs, enhanced abilities for searching the literature through databases such as WorldCat™, Web of Science™ Core Collection, Scopus™, SciVal™, and Google Scholar™, besides discipline-based article databases and discovery services. Researchers also need to know how to access, evaluate, and manage reference articles through bibliographic software, and methods for staying current with the literature. Subject librarians can be helpful in related efforts through workshops and seminars they arrange or conduct, in addition to one-on-one instruction. Additionally, electronic update services, departmental seminars and guest lectures, journal clubs, and research group and professional organizational meetings assist in keeping abreast of scientific fields.
Keywords
reading
resources
searching
websites
databases
managing
articles
citation
The real voyage of discovery consists not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes.
– Marcel Proust (1871–1922) French author and critic
Literature work is critically important to the growth of scholars and researchers; it provides them the opportunity to have Proust’s “new eyes” [140]. Expanding your professional reading and honing your ability to use library-provided resources will quickly pay dividends by helping develop your writing talents and by building a stronger foundation for experimental work.
Reading helps researchers by
• stimulating ideas;
• improving and organizing knowledge;
• avoiding duplication of previously accomplished work; and
• reinforcing or refuting hypotheses.
Professional reading
Reading the scientific literature, especially the works of prominent researchers in your field, can also provide a valuable reminder of why you became interested in a topic in the first place. Seeing how others approached a problem and overcame difficulties can inspire your own efforts. As reading habits become stronger, and your understanding deepens, perspectives begin to develop that will improve your abilities to make meaningful contributions to research, and its attendant discussions. This, in turn, promotes respect from peers, and helps them see you as a valuable member of the research community. Once committed to reading, your library and the resources it provides can assist you in a variety of ways, as you seek to improve your abilities to search, evaluate, organize, and keep up with the literature.
The word library has roots in the Latin “liber,” for book. Libraries today, however, are much more than mere collections of books. They are depositories for many types of materials, gateways to electronic information, and instructional centers. Within the academy, libraries are integral to cultivating the life of the mind. Among the most important resources in libraries are the people who work there. These individuals are dedicated to the advancement of learning and the dissemination of knowledge.
Recent years have seen a great deal of change in academic libraries, and the services they provide, so much so that you often may not even realize you are using materials made available through your library. By providing seamless access to many resources online, libraries have sought to put the needs of students and faculty first, by making it simpler to connect to the needed information in a web-based environment. While their role may not always be immediately evident, libraries continue to play an important part in supporting learning and research in academia.
Graduate level literature work
During your baccalaureate studies, you may have benefited from opportunities to develop research expertise through an undergraduate research project, summer research program, or in-depth independent study. These kinds of activities can provide a definite advantage when making the transition to a graduate program. For many undergraduate courses, however, professors likely provided most or all of the assigned readings used as part of the curriculum. If you had to write a term paper, and find sources on your own, the number required was likely small, and predetermined by the instructor. For example, 10 different sources, including at least 5 journal articles. The actual articles used were often not as important as having the minimum number. With a little effort, you could easily meet most such demands, even without knowing much about how to search the scholarly literature effectively. After doing some basic web searches, you probably had identified most of what was needed to complete the requirements of the assignment.
Researching the literature as a graduate student is different, and requires a more individualized and focused approach. You will be responsible for developing the expertise needed to advance your own work and, ultimately, reach the goal of successful completion of your thesis or dissertation. While your advisor may share some key papers to help get you started, and will provide continued guidance as you progress, you must familiarize yourself with the literature in your chosen area of study. Who are the key figures? What are the leading theories? What questions can your own research help answer? Has anyone else already completed any portion of what you are proposing? This latter question is particularly important because your committee will expect you to break new ground in some way with your studies. To do that, you first need to have a firm grasp on what others have already documented. (See Chapter 3 for more on choosing a research problem.) No longer will you be looking for just a modest number of sources. Instead, depending on your topic, you may need to look at hundreds of papers, though not all of these may ultimately prove useful. With so many sources, learning how to evaluate and organize them becomes critical. You will also need to find ways to keep up-to-date with new developments and publications in your field.
Using the library
To help you with these tasks of searching the scientific literature effectively, managing numerous references, and keeping current, you should determine first what forms of support and guidance your library can provide. Whether it is through workshops, online training modules, or individual consultations, libraries offer a variety of means to help you master these important skills. The person likely to be of greatest assistance in this regard is a subject librarian or liaison for your department – for example, a chemistry librarian, or biomedical information specialist. While their exact titles may vary, you should identify and seek out that person early in your course of study. These individuals are specialists in finding and managing information, and they often have advanced degrees or extensive work experience in their designated areas. Subject librarians also often serve as a first point of contact for other units and services throughout the library. Librarians are service-oriented professionals and can help you identify key tools and techniques to facilitate your work.
On the library website for your university, you can begin to find out about available services and resources. In fact, the sheer range of information and choices can be overwhelming at first. As you navigate the site, look to see if there is a section geared specifically to the needs of graduate students. Also, check for links to such key items as the library catalog, article databases, and off-campus access. Especially in the sciences, the vast majority of journals you are likely to need should be available in electronic format over the Internet. Most libraries are also moving quickly to adopt ebooks, especially for newly acquired titles. While the importance of the library as a physical place in which to conduct literature research has diminished with the rapid growth in the availability of information on the web, a visit there can still help you to get oriented and better attuned to what is available at your location. Look in particular for any discipline-based or graduate libraries. Moreover, many libraries have expended considerable resources in recent years to create inviting facilities, conducive to study and research. Available spaces may include an information commons, group study rooms, meeting areas, lecture practice rooms, video editing or content design labs, and designated areas reserved just for graduate student use. While on the library website, take note of any upcoming talks or workshops that may be relevant. Check also for any news or announcements that the library may share via social media channels.
Searching the literature
There are few ideas that have not already occurred in some way to researchers. Even wholly novel ideas have their parallels in the scientific literature. During subsequent experimental work, literature searches will help to uncover information that may help to explain observations or refute hypotheses. The exact nature of the scholarly output will vary by discipline. For example, certain fields in physics rely heavily on preprints to disseminate new information rapidly, while in some other areas in the sciences this approach is comparatively rare. Researchers in genomics may share gene sequence data, while for those in computer science, algorithms, and programming code may be the key elements of their academic work. These disciplinary differences aside, there is also a great degree of similarity in how scientific information is generated and shared. By understanding more about the process of scholarly communications, you can begin to develop the skills needed to search the literature effectively, even when exploring entirely new avenues of inquiry.
Recent books and research articles can be a good starting point for a literature search. Literature work in a new area, however, will often require beginning at a more fundamental level. This can be accomplished through scientific encyclopedias, dictionaries, and handbooks, as found through your university library’s website. Another good way to begin a literature search is to find a recent review article. Review journals and annuals are available in most disciplines and many periodical databases allow search results to be limited to review articles as a document type.
Library catalog
On the library website, look for the online catalog. Library catalogs offer a quick and easy way to search the collection in order to locate materials of potential interest and determine their availability. This includes both print and electronic resources, held by your library. In addition to basic keyword searches, most online library catalogs offer advanced capabilities, with a variety of search options, such as title, author, subject, and ISBN. The catalog at your local academic library may list holdings for just a single campus, but many libraries are a part of larger networks, giving you access to the shared resources of the entire group of schools. Delivery time for these extended resources is often overnight.
Beyond your local library catalog or library network, you may find it useful to expand your search further. One of the best resources for this is the OCLC WorldCat™ database that provides a way to search across the combined holdings of some 72,000 participating libraries. The database includes not only books and journals, but also conference proceedings, newspapers, computer files, maps, visual materials, sound recordings, and other types of materials held by libraries around the world. Collectively, these WorldCat [141] holdings now represent well over 2 billion items. OCLC offers a subscription-based interface to WorldCat, but the database is also freely searchable over the web at http://www.worldcat.org/. By entering your location, the system will even show you any nearby libraries that possess a copy of the item you are seeking.
Library discovery services
Many libraries have now added discovery services to their website. Several commercially available products offer this functionality, but the basic idea is the same – to make it faster and easier to locate materials, by providing a single search box to examine and explore, across multiple types and sources of bibliographic data, at once. In most cases, the material being searched will include not only the full content of the library catalog, but also multiple article databases, as well as select locally developed resources, such as an institutional repository. The primary advantage is that you may find items that previously required searches across multiple separate systems. Discovery services can also offer benefits when you are researching topics that extend across traditional disciplinary boundaries. What is often lacking, however, in such a combined search, are the specialized features that an individual article database can provide. For example, the medical literature database Medline™ offers ways to limit your search results precisely, by sex, age, type of study, etc. Likewise, the SciFinder™ database supports advanced features, such as chemical structure, and similarity search capabilities when looking for compounds.
Article databases
No literature search is complete without a search of the periodical literature. Journal articles, especially those that have been through the peer review process, are of vital importance in the sciences. While researchers may utilize a variety of scholarly communication venues to publish their work, the journal article remains central to the dissemination of new ideas. Articles that report directly on the results of research are often referred to as primary literature. Those that synthesize existing research, such as review papers, are considered secondary sources.
The volume of scholarly output continues to grow each year. With so many articles being published, you need to be able to search effectively in order to find the information relevant to your needs. Understanding what parts make up a journal reference is the first step. A full bibliographic reference for a typical journal article consists of the title of the paper, name(s) of author(s), title of the journal or publication, volume and page numbers of the article, and the date of publication. Bibliographic management software, as discussed later in this chapter, can assist with collecting, storing, and outputting this article information in a variety of styles.
For scientific literature inquiries, two of the best general article databases in which to start your search are Web of Science™ Core Collection, and Scopus™. Both of these databases are subscription based. In many respects, these two systems are similar, so most academic libraries will only have one or the other available, but some do offer both to their users. Google Scholar™ has also emerged as a compelling free alternative that can meet many of the same types of searching needs. All three of these systems may be used in calculating a researcher’s h index, as discussed in Chapter 3. A full comparison is beyond the scope of this chapter, but a review of essential points about each follows.
Of these three major products, the primary databases underlying the Web of Science Core Collection, from Thomson Reuters, have been around for the longest time. In fact, the oldest component, Science Citation Index™ [142], reached its 50th anniversary in the year 2014. While electronic versions have long since replaced the original print indexes, the Science Citation Index remains an integral part of Web of Science. The index approached article searching in a fundamentally new way and grew out of the ideas of the Institute for Scientific Information (commonly referred to simply as ISI), founded in 1960 by Eugene Garfield. Many of Garfield’s key insights concerned the importance of citation linking between papers. By studying these citation patterns, new kinds of relationships became evident, and it was possible to determine what authors and papers were cited most [143]. While similar functionality has now been incorporated into many other article databases, the Web of Science implementation remains among the best.
Since it includes over 12,000 journals, the Web of Science Core Collection [144] can be a great place to find interdisciplinary coverage. But, unlike discovery services that offer content of widely varying quality, the journals included in the Web of Science go through a careful selection process to determine their merit. Because many of the journals covered in Web of Science are leading journals in their respective fields, you have a greater likelihood of finding high-quality results, in any search you do. The Web of Science Core Collection also includes Book Citation Index and Conference Proceedings Citation Index that, as their names suggest, each provide coverage of additional types of materials, beyond journals. The full collection extends back to 1900, but not all libraries have acquired the entire file, so your institution may only have more recent years available for searching.
Records in the Web of Science Core Collection include full bibliographic information, article abstracts, and author-provided keywords. Each record also provides contact information for one or more authors. Once you find a paper of interest, you can readily see how many times it has been cited, and where. This serves as a valuable way to see how the results and conclusions reported in the original paper have been applied, and incorporated, into the work of others. The “view related records” feature uses the citation data in a different way, in order to find how many references are shared in common among different papers. This can be useful to locate items that are on a closely related topic and, thus, share many of the same references, but might otherwise not have been found because of different wording in the title, abstract, and author keywords. To learn more about the Web of Science Core Collection and what it offers, visit http://thomsonreuters.com/web-of-science-core-collection/. In addition, training and support materials can be found at http://wokinfo.com/training_support/training/.
Scopus is a subscription product that has emerged as a key marketplace competitor to Web of Science. While originally limited to providing references from 1996 onward, Scopus is expanding coverage back to 1970, for all subscribers. Scopus includes journal content, as well as books and conferences. With over 21,000 titles from 5,000 publishers, Scopus [145] claims to be the world’s “largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature.” Titles are selected by an independent advisory board to ensure quality.
The document search results display for records in Scopus includes bibliographic information, such as article title, author(s), and source title, along with a count of how many times that paper has been cited. Clicking on the title of an entry will bring up additional details, such as the article abstract, author affiliation, keywords, link to citing papers, and a “related documents” feature that finds other papers that share references in common. By clicking on an author name, or by running an author search, you can access the author’s profile page. This includes a record of their publication history, data on citation counts, and a listing of coauthors. More info about Scopus and details on using the system are available at http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scopus.
SciVal™ is an optional subscription product that builds on the massive dataset of abstracts and citations found in Scopus. SciVal [146] features greatly expanded analytical, reporting, and data visualization capabilities. The system allows one to study and compare a wide range of research performance metrics, across institutions. Moreover, it allows for determinations of strengths, stature, and productivities at the researcher or program level. SciVal can even be used as a means to identify potential institutional partnerships or to find prospective research collaborators. Further details about SciVal can be found at http://www.elsevier.com/solutions/scival.
Google Scholar offers the advantage of being completely free to use. Thus you do not need to ascertain if your library has a subscription. However, under “library links” in the settings function, you should select your library from the list of participating institutions. If you are connecting from a recognized campus IP address, this step may have already been completed for you. If not, specifying your library access links will help the system match you up with the best available options for full text, through your institution. As with many of its offerings, the company is rather secretive about exactly what content is included and how items are ranked in the search results. Nevertheless, Google Scholar still offers a powerful tool for searching the scholarly literature.
Google Scholar [147] focuses on a wide range of scholarly content, including journal articles, conference papers, technical reports, dissertations, books, case law, and patents. As a result, you can sometimes find works or citations that are not included in either Web of Science or Scopus. For a particular work, multiple versions of it may be indexed. In such cases, the full text from the publisher is considered the primary version, and is linked to the title, while alternate versions are listed below each abstract. If you cannot connect to the primary version of a work, then one of the alternate access routes may work for you. In addition, “Cited by” counts, and links to citing papers for each entry, are provided in Google Scholar. Similar counts for Web of Science are also included, with links to the full database available to subscribing institutions. Google Scholar offers an advanced search page, with many ways to refine and target your queries, at http://www.google.com/advanced_search and a variety of helpful search tips may be found at http://www.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html.
Discipline-based article databases
Nearly all well-established disciplines will feature one or more article databases that provide in-depth coverage of the literature of that field. Along with journal articles, these often include conference papers, book chapters, technical reports, patents, dissertations, and other types of more specialized literature. As such, they are generally the best place for in-depth searching on your topic of interest. As mentioned earlier, discipline-based article databases can also offer specialized search features, customized to the needs of that subject area. Some examples of leading science-related databases include Agricola™ for agriculture, BIOSIS™ for biology, SciFinder for chemistry, Compendex™ for engineering, GeoRef™ for geoscience, Inspec™ for physics and computer science, MathSciNet™ for mathematics, Medline for medicine, and PsycInfo™ for psychology. Consult with the subject librarian(s) for your area of research and they can explain exactly what databases are available locally that will best match your needs. They can also show you how to utilize some of the advanced search capabilities these products offer, and provide advice on how best to construct your search queries.
General searching tips
When beginning a search, it can be helpful to first list the major terms of interest, along with any synonyms or closely related concepts. Think also about any jargon, acronyms, or abbreviations, and try to use the same terms that scientific researchers would be likely to use (e.g., “fracking” is now often used by the media, but “hydraulic fracturing” is the scientific term). If you have already located a good article or two, check to see what keywords used there may be relevant. Documenting your search history in your research notebook, or by other means, can make it easier to replicate your search in another database, or at a later date, and avoid needless repetition.
Boolean operators
And. Or. Not. It is difficult to believe that three little words can be so important to successful searching. Most databases make use of these three Boolean operators in their search logic. Sometimes, this functionality is hidden from the searcher, while other search interfaces make it more explicit.
AND – for example, stem cells AND ethics. This returns only the intersection of two sets. That means that all search terms must occur in the record. Useful for narrowing down or focusing your search results.
OR – for example, automobile OR motor vehicle. This returns records that contain either of the terms. Useful for expanding your search results by specifying synonyms, or closely related concepts.
NOT – for example, depression NOT economic. This returns records that contain the first term, but not the second. Useful for excluding alternate meanings of a word. Use with caution to avoid blocking relevant records.
Some databases will also support proximity searching. For example, genetic NEAR testing. The idea behind this search function is that the closer the two terms are in the record, the more likely they are to be related.
Truncation and wildcards
Truncation allows you to specify the root portion of a word and retrieve all variants. Each database is unique but you can often specify truncation by using an asterisk or question mark. For example, Crystal* would return crystal, crystals, crystallographic, crystallography, etc.
Wildcards can be placed within a term to retrieve variant spellings. Again, the character used can vary but may be an exclamation point or question mark. For example, Behavio!r would retrieve records with the American spelling behavior as well as the British spelling behaviour. Truncation and wildcards can also be combined. For example, Behavio!r* would return either spelling of behavior, behaviors, and behaviorism.
Evaluating the literature
When searching the literature, it is important that you constantly assess the value of what you find. As you build your personal knowledgebase about your research topic, this process will become easier. Some evaluative criteria to consider include the following:
1. Is it from a reputable source? Leading journals, with many submissions, can be highly selective in what they ultimately choose to publish. Articles found in lesser-known sources can vary widely in quality.
2. Has the work been subject to any kind of formal review? While not a perfect process, peer review helps ensure the quality of the finished product. Many peer-reviewed papers will show both the date initially received and the date accepted for publication.
3. Is the author(s) an acknowledged expert? Especially if there are multiple authors, not all may be familiar to you, but look for any names you recognize as being established leaders in the field.
4. What is the author’s affiliation? Where authors work can give you some insights about them. Those connected with well-known educational institutions, research organizations, and government agencies, are often good sources of information.
5. Are the methods stated clearly? The author(s) should present their methods, equipment, and techniques in a way that is understandable to others in the field. Documenting the means by which research was done is important for anyone else seeking to replicate or build on that work.
6. Are the conclusions well supported? The conclusions should follow logically from the rest of the research. Errors or omissions in technique or analysis can lead an author to overstate their case, or worse, to give an incorrect reporting or interpretation of their findings.
7. Are the references complete and up-to-date? This is especially important in rapidly changing fields. Also check that the works of other key authors are cited where appropriate. Watch out for excessive numbers of self-citations.
8. Is there a potential bias? Those working for a corporation or funded largely by corporate grants may be less objective than those that do not have a vested interest in the outcome.
Organizing literature references
Keeping track of what you have found is an important part of the literature research process. Without proper planning, it can quickly become overwhelming to manage a large number of references. Fortunately, several bibliographic management products exist that can assist with this task. These can be extremely valuable for building and maintaining bibliographies, and can output references in a variety of different formats. EndNote™ is probably the most widely used of these reference management systems. A simplified version, known as EndNote Basic, is available at no cost, but the standard version is commercial software. EndNote supports over 5000 bibliographic styles, and allows you to attach the PDFs of articles you find into your reference library. Some other popular products that provide advanced reference management capability include RefWorks™, Zotero™, and Mendeley™. As with EndNote, free versions of Zotero and Mendeley are available, with paid versions offering enhanced functionality. Most bibliographic managers can input or export references using a standard “.RIS” file format, so you are not locked into a single choice. Check with your library to see which product(s) are supported at your institution. Your library may also offer workshops in their use.
Keeping up with the literature
If you have thoroughly searched appropriate overlapping databases for your topic, you should have found a number of references giving an initial indication of work published up to that point. Following the references in those papers can lead to still more works that are relevant to your needs. Nevertheless, science does not stand still, and you must be aware of new developments and publications, so you can stay fully up-to-date. Develop a schedule, and set aside time each week for this purpose, as part of your ongoing commitment to research and scholarship.
Current awareness tools are built directly into many article database search platforms and journal websites. Often, you will first need to register for a free account to utilize these features. One of the first things you should look for is whether the database allows you to save your searches. If you have crafted a search strategy that provides good results in a given database, save the strategy for future reference. You can then set it to run at periodic intervals to notify you of new results matching your terms. Having your searches saved also makes it easier to revise them, if needed, and avoids having to try to recreate them later from memory. Similarly, most journals offer some form of current awareness tools. These can range from simple email alerts or RSS feeds, providing you with table of contents information on new issues, to more advanced search capabilities that let you specify terms of interest. Some databases such as Web of Science or Scopus can also alert you whenever someone cites a paper of interest. Regardless of the type of alert, monitor the results closely, especially at the outset. You may find that you need to modify an alert, or adjust its frequency, so that it best meets your needs.
Another good way to keep up with the literature is through journal clubs and lab meetings. Participation in journal clubs is an enjoyable way of reviewing literature with friends and colleagues. The groups, developed informally, can gather for 1–2-h meetings every week or two, to discuss journal articles. At each meeting, the group should have a discussion leader, who is responsible for reviewing the article(s) in-depth. To help fit into busy schedules, journal club meetings can be scheduled as a “brown bag lunch,” as a means of saving time, and encouraging participation.
Lab meetings, typically organized by the graduate advisor or senior postdoc, are often used as a venue for presenting reviews of relevant or interesting papers. Such meetings specifically give newer graduate students (and undergraduate researchers) the chance to discuss topical issues in a nonthreatening environment, where the free exchange of thoughts and viewpoints is not simply tolerated, but strongly encouraged.
Department seminars and guest lectures provide yet another important means for staying current. Universities often sponsor lectures by visiting scholars and scientists. Most departments schedule regular seminars for visiting scientists during the academic year, and it is wise to attend lectures that are relevant to your discipline and interests. However, it is often difficult for students to discern what will be valuable to them, early on, so it is generally best to attend as many of these events as possible. Even if the speaker’s research is not directly relevant to your work, you may still pick up important ideas, or learn ways to convey complex scientific information in the best manner.
You should also take advantage of opportunities to hear noted scientists taking part in invited presentations, at your college or university. These lectures will often be informative and inspiring, since many researchers admit failures and difficulties they have experienced in their work; in some situations, students can even meet and carry on a discourse with these scientists, before or after the main lecture. Such experiences can often be very important, or even life-altering events for new researchers.
To connect better with the broader world of research, you should become involved early in your graduate career with professional societies in your field. Professional societies promote the welfare of scientists in their discipline, host conferences and meetings, and provide opportunities for continuing education. Your advisor or graduate program coordinator would be helpful in choosing one or two prestigious professional societies, for your consideration. Many such organizations will have a provision for student membership, with fees significantly less than for regular members. Consider the cost as an investment in your future. After joining, you will generally receive access to the society’s journal, and other password-restricted portions of their website. You can also often sign up for newsletters, or notices about forthcoming events. As a member, you should qualify for special rates on society publications, or for meetings and conferences.
Professional meeting attendance is important for learning how to present scientific papers to a larger audience, and for making contacts that may be useful when seeking future employment. Besides satisfying these needs, professional meetings give life to the literature by giving faces to the names of authors and colleagues. Meetings provide opportunities to hear, and visit with, scientists whose papers you have read. Opportunities may also exist to visit with representatives of instrument makers, publishers, and other discipline-related organizations taking part in the conference. These are worthwhile activities, and it is important to discuss with your graduate advisor the possibilities for attending regional and national meetings, during your graduate career.
Becoming a good researcher is dependent on developing skills for searching, evaluating, organizing, and keeping up with the scientific literature. These skills are essential for three of the most important jobs of the researcher: writing, presenting, and publishing.