Using Web Resources to Enhance Your Research

Dani Or Department of Environmental Systems Science (D-USYS)Swiss Federal Institute of Technology, ETH Zurich

Outline

• Types of web searches• Primary search engines• Search strategies and evaluation of

information• Specialized scientific sites (Web of Science,

Scopus, Google Scholar)• Finding publications, citations, analyzing

individual research profiles • Conduct a web search and write an abstract

(~250 words) on the topic: “Pharmaceuticals in water resources” include and correctly cite top 5 most definitive (and recent) references on the subject

What is the Internet?

The Internet is a network of networks, linking computers to computers sharing the TCP/IP protocols. It can be compared to an international communications utility servicing computers

The Internet itself does not contain information - information is found through or using the Internet

Computers on the Internet may use one or all of the following Internet services:

• Electronic mail (e-mail) • Telnet or remote login • FTP or File Transfer Protocol • The World Wide Web (WWW or "the Web"). The largest,

fastest growing activity on the Internet

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/About.html

What is the World Wide Web (WWW) ?

WWW incorporates all Internet services and much more

When you log onto the Internet using a web browser (e.g., Internet Explorer, Firefox, Mozilla, Netscape, Opera, Safari), you are viewing documents on the World Wide Web

A programming language called HTML (HyperText Markup Language) provide basic foundation for WWW functions

Hypertext is the ability to create links to retrieve other documents. This "clickability" is the feature which is unique and revolutionary about the Web

How do hypertext links work? Every document or file or site has a unique URL (uniform resource locator) that identifies what computer is on and where it is within that computer

Types of web search tools

http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invisible/Inv_Web.html

http://www.surfwax.com/

Useful search engines

Why Google? (1)

Google is the BIGGEST search engine database in the world

PageRank often finds useful pages. It is one of the defaults that cannot be turned off in Google and is not for sale. It considers

• Popularity - based on the number of links to a page and the importance of the pages that link

• Importance - traffic, quality of links

• Word proximity and occurrence in results

Google has many useful ways to limit searches

Google offers special "fuzzy" searches that are useful to search synonyms, find definitions, find similar pages, etc.

Shortcuts & special databases can enhance certain searches

Google Books and Google Scholar have great potential for university-level research using the web

Why Google? (2)

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/fuzzy.pdf

Useful subject directories

(needs updating – 2011 !)

Example of subject directory

Web search strategy (1)1. Analyze your topic to decide where to begin

does your topic have:• have distinctive words or phrases?• have NO distinctive words or phrases you can think of?• seek an overview of a broad topic?• specify a narrow aspect of a broad or common topic? • have equivalent terms, variant spellings to be included?

2. Pick the right starting place using this table:

http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/TeachingLib/Guides/Internet/Strategies.html

Web search strategy (2)

3. Learn as you go & VARY your approach with what you learn(Don't assume you know what you want to find. Look at search results and see what you might use in addition to what you've thought of)

4. Don't bog down in any strategy that doesn't work(Switch from search engines to directories and back. Find specialized directories on your topic, change search terms and keywords)

5. Return to previous strategiesbetter informed

Before you click to view a page

1. Look at the URL - personal page or site ? (~ or % or users or members)

2. Domain name appropriate for the content ?(edu, com, org, net, gov, ca.us, uk, ch, etc.)

3. Published by an entity that makes sense ? 4. News from its source? www.nytimes.com5. Advice from valid agency? www.nih.gov/6. Can you tell who wrote it ?

(name of author, organization)7. Credentials for the subject matter ?

(links to: “About us” “Background” “Biography”)8. Is it recent or current enough ?

Cross-reference for information quality

• One more thing about information quality – don’t stop at the first entry on the topic! Obtain information from diverse sources

Web of Science – “invisible web”

http://scientific.thomson.com/tutorials/wok3/index.html

http://library.rider.edu/scholarly/rlackie/Invisible/Inv_Web.html

Web of Science (1)

1. Caution – not all scientific journals are listed on Web of Science

2. Different documents (other than papers), data bases, and search time window should be specified

3. Analyses of the results and export to “Endnote” and alike are useful

Web of Science (2)

Web of Science (3)

Web of Science (4)

Web of Science - Citations

Web of Science – productivity & citation analysis

# of papers

# of citations ~ impact

sustainable “productivity”/holes? time record of “impact”citation record for a particular paper

SCOPUS – similar to Web of Science

Google Books and Scholar

Citation formats (APA)

Citation formats (AGU)

Citation format – in text

Tasks for today

• Conduct a web search and write an abstract (~250 words) on the topic: “Pharmaceuticals in water resources” include and correctly cite top 5 most definitive (and recent) referenceson the subject.

• Use Web of Science citation analyses to identify the top researcher working on: “Temperature and ice core CO2 records”;provide key indices for their activity (publications, citations, affiliation, etc.)

• Please write neatly and clearly mark your name

Abstract components - checklist• an impersonal, noncritical, and informative account

• gives a clear, grammatically accurate, exact, and stylistically uniform treatment of the subject

• provides rationale for the study - a brief account of purpose, need, and significance of investigation (hypothesis or how differs from previous)

• state the objectives clearly as to what is to be obtained

• gives a brief account of methods, emphasizing departures from standard

• states results succinctly

• outlines conclusions or recommendations, if any. An emphasis of the significance of the work, conclusions, and recommendations.

• uses specific figures whenever possible - avoid use of general terms, especially in presenting the method and reporting

• never cite references (for this exercise – cite separately)

• contains about 150-250 words