• CAMPUS LINKS
  1. Inside UNCG
  2. Admissions
  3. Academics
  4. Libraries
  5. Administration
  6. Research & Centers
  7. International Programs
  8. Continuing Education & Outreach
  9. Technology
  10. Arts & Entertainment
  11. Employment
  12. Corporate Resources
  13. Giving to UNCG

1. Libraries Home Page
2. Ask Us!
3. Renew Items/My Account
4. Research Tutorial: Finding It!
5. Virtual Reference Shelf
6. About the Library
7. Library Depts. & Staff
8. Contact the Library
9. Hours
10. I.L.L. Request Forms

Literature Searching for Biology 302

1. Turn a Topic into a Search
2. Search Databases for Articles
3. Journal Finder Practice
4. Google Scholar
5. Citing Sources

Turn a Topic into a Search

1. Choose one word (or two if absolutely necessary) for your main ideas.
2. Look for synonyms, related ideas, examples, and different spellings for your main ideas.
   • Can't think of any related words? Just add them as you search.
   • Using a truncat* symbol is an easy way to search for different versions of a word

Example topic: Ethics and pollution

Search Databases for Journal Articles

Web of Science (1955-present) Guide to the scholarly, peer reviewed research journals in the sciences and social sciences. You must use quotation marks to search "your terms as a phrase." If you'd like to search for different endings for a word, truncate with * at the end of the root: pollut* will search for pollute, pollution, polluters, etc.

1. Type a topic such as ethic* pollution
2. Hit Search button

Set the sort (upper right corner) to Times cited to see the most prominent articles first.

Environment Complete (1950s-present) Guide to journals in environmental studies and related disciplines. Will automatically search for multiple words as a phrase unless you include a Boolean search connector (and, or, not). If you'd like to search for different endings for a word, truncate with * at the end of the root: pollut* will search for pollute, pollution, polluters, etc.

1. Type a topic such as ethics and pollution
2. Hit search button

Too many results? Add another term to your search. Or you could open an article description and follow a subject term to related articles.

To get the entire article: look under each citation. Journal Finder link will open a new window, with information on whether we own the journal you need.

Other science databases

Journal Finder Practice

Search from the library home page when you already have publication information about the article that you need:

1. Search Journal Finder by Journal Title (NOT by topic, by author, or by article title) to find out whether the library subscribes to the journal.
2. If you see the journal title in Journal Finder, click on these symbols to find out if the library subscription includes the year your article was published:
   • means we have some of the journal online
   • means we have some of this journal sitting in the library

Current issues of print journals are kept inthe Reading Room.

Most older issues of journals are bound together and shelved near books with similar topics. They are arranged by LC (Library of Congress) call number: HM206 .E5

• What's the deal with those numbers and letters?? There are lots of online guides on How to Read Library of Congress Call Numbers: http://library.apsu.edu/guides/1_3_5.htm
• Lost about how to get from a call number to your journal? Ask at the Access Services Desk (across from the photocopy machines) or at the Reference and Government Information Desk (near the Reading Room)

Google Scholar

What does it do?

An older article (Sullivan, 2004) from the respected site SearchEngineWatch describes Google Scholar well: Google Scholar (GS) searches publisher sites, on Web pages usually only visible to those who have purchased a subscription, in order to help researchers discover article references they normally wouldn't encounter. Full text of the articles isn't always available. GS ranks results by citations. You can even look for other items that have cited your result by clicking on a Cited by link.

What can GS do for me? Where might I run into problems?

It's tempting to rely on Google Scholar to get into scholarly scientific literature, rather than going to the library Web site to use databases and Journal Finder. But how well does GS work compared to library databases?

Several information researchers have compared the performance of Google Scholar to library subscription databases:

• Google Scholar "often succeeds in providing a good-enough answer" especially with fairly recent scientific and interdisciplinary scientific literature (Christianson, 2007, Conclusions)
• Researchers agree that GS doesn't provide adequate coverage of arts, humanities, and related literature
• Citations are often incomplete and many citations do not lead to article full text
• Neuhaus et. al. found that GS worked best as a single search interface across many sites offering "free stuff" and some publisher sites (Neuhaus et. al., 2005, Discussion)
• In a recent study of access to ecology articles through Google Scholar, Christianson found that GS did not compare favorably with a thorough lit review using subscription databases. But GS provided more full text to users searching on a campus with a "well-financed academic library" (HINT - Jackson Library falls into this category!!) than to the same users working off campus (Christianson, 2007, Conclusions)

Getting Started with Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.com

Set preferences so that you will see UNCG Journal Finder links from home!

1. Choose Scholar preferences
2. After library links, search for and select University of North Carolina at Greensboro
3. Save preferences

Choose Advanced Scholar Search to see additional search options

1. Type a topic
2. If desired, enter a date range or the name of a journal you'd like to search
3. Scan the first couple of lines of a result to determine whether the result is a journal, book, or web page.

To look for the text of an article

1. Click article title (might lead to full text) or UNCG Journal Finder (if available)
2. If article title doesn't lead to full text and you don't see a Journal Finder link, click on the hyperlinked title to get more information about the item. If it's a journal, copy the full journal name and search it in Journal Finder from the library home page.

Google Scholar Help explains results and describes search commands: http://scholar.google.com/intl/en/scholar/help.html

Citing Sources

When do you need to cite a source? How can you restate an idea without plagiarizing? Check out these and similar pages from Finding It! A Research Skills Tutorial:

• When should I cite my sources?
• What is a paraphrase?

Lea Leininger
laleinin@uncg.edu
Nursing Librarian