Rumsey S. How to Find Information: A guide for researchers

Open University Press, 2008. – 243 p. – 2nd ed. – ISBN: 0335226310, 9780335226313Anyone setting out to research a topic, whether at undergraduate or postgraduate level, needs to find information to inform their work and support their arguments. This book enables researchers to become expert in finding, accessing and evaluating information for dissertations, projects or reports. The book works systematically through the information-seeking process, from planning the search to evaluating and managing the end results. It suggests how to do this efficiently and effectively whilst using a range of sources including online bibliographic databases and the internet.List of figures
List of tables
List of abbreviations
Foreword to the first editionAcknowledgements
The information gathering process
The process
The skills required
Defining the subject
Defining the purpose and scope of the research
Setting up and getting started
Plan of campaign
Making the most of a library
Getting to know your library and librarian
Finding information about existing research
The type of research referred to in this chapter
Access to information about research
Indexes and online databases of research activity
Research Councils UK and other funding bodies
Theses
The type and detail of information requiredTypes of information
Primary and secondary sources
Multidisciplinarity and subject overlap
Defining the area and limits of the research
How much information is appropriate?
What is already known?
Planning an information finding strategy
Discovering relevant materials
Resource discovery: where details of relevant materials
can be found
What are abstracts and indexes?
Online bibliographic databases
Issues relating to online databases
e-Books
Catalogues and bibliographies
Open access materials
Other sources and types of information
Selecting sources relevant to the subject
The online searching process
The importance of planning a search
The online searching process
How to plan a search strategy
When to run the search
Evaluating the results
Saving the results
Completion of the search
Citation searching
What is citation searching and why is it important?
Citation indexes
When to stop
Electronic citation searching
Problems associated with citation searching
Cross-referencing
Obtaining the full textLocation of items at the home institution
Locating items not held in the home institution
Searching the catalogues of other collections
Locating electronic materials
Finding a commercial source of the material
Grey literature
Other sources for locating materials
Using the World Wide Web for researchMeans of locating information on the WWW
Accessing the selected site
Subject gateways
Using search engines
Evaluating information found on the WWW
Some useful tips
Accessing materialsAccessing physical materials held at the home institution
e-Resources available via the home institution
Using other libraries
Document delivery services
Open access to scholarly publications
Persistent identifiers
Accessing other sources of information
Evaluation of resources
The importance of evaluation
Criteria for evaluation
Citing references
Terminology
The purpose of citing references
Citation and reference style
Keeping records
Efficient searching and well ordered records
Maintaining records of searches
Saving records and details of works accessed
Bibliographic software
Intellectual property and plagiarismIntellectual property
IP considerations when researching and creating documents
The IP of the researcher’s work
Plagiarism
The research community and keeping up to dateThe research community
Conferences, conventions, colloquia, and symposia
Alerting or current awareness services
Mailing/discussion lists
The changing landscape of researchJISC activities
Dissemination of research results
Searching for research materials
Open URLs
e-Books and e-theses
The importance of data
The e-science programme and the Grid
Means of managing and presenting information
Digital preservation and curation
Research Information Network (RIN)
Journal impact factors, peer review, and citation services
Summary checklist
Appendix 1: Using a library
Appendix 2: Formats of information sourcesReferences and bibliography
WEB addresses