kuptdss
TRANSCRIPT
Keeping up to Date with Research in the Social Sciences
Susan Heaster - Faculty Team LibrarianTony Simmonds - Faculty Team Leader
Learning outcomes
Enable you to:
Set up table of contents & saved search alerts Subscribe to RSS feeds in your subject area Create a personalised webpage Consider the role of social media in the
research cycle
Keeping up to date
Vital for all researchers; BUT
Volume of new information is huge
Tools to manage information overload
Alerting services
Why? Helps save time by capturing relevant
information and delivering directly to desktop
How? Set up a profile (username, password, email
address). Do not need to be the same as your university details.
Receiving Alerts for new publications
Publisher websites allow you to set up an email alerting profileto receive details of new titles for subjects of interest to you.
Examples of key publishers in the area of social work:
Jessica Kingsley http://www.jkp.com/ Policy Press http://www.policypress.co.uk/ SAGE http://uk.sagepub.com
Communities of Interest: Mailing lists
JISCmail The mailing list provider for the UK academic community.
CataList A directory of the public LISTSERV lists on the Internet.
Yahoo Groups A directory of publicly available Yahoo groups
Google Groups Browse current and an archive of posts from 1995.
Services for keeping up to date with internet resources
Google Alertshttp://www.google.com/alerts
Giga Alert http://www.gigaalert.com
Watch That Page http://www.watchthatpage.com
Change Detectionhttp://www.changedetection.com
Alerts - journal publications
Table of Contents (TOC) Alerts - email notification when new issue of a specific journal title is published. Often receive the alert in advance of print publication.
Saved Search Alerts - save searches on chosen keywords/authors, then schedule to re-run automatically against new content in the database at a set frequency. Receive an email notification of the results.
Table of Contents (TOC) alerts
ZETOC (British Library)
Access to the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents (ETOC). Covering all subject areas - approximately 28,000 current journals + 6,000 conference proceedings published every year. Alerts by email or RSS feed.https://zetoc.mimas.ac.uk/
JournalTOCs http://www.journaltocs.ac.uk/
Setting up saved searches
Some databases allow you to save search sets. Register with the database to use this feature.
Database interfaces differ, but principles of saving searches broadly the same.
Saved Search Alerts - re-run saved search automatically at set intervals. email notifications Generally expire after a year delete / renew regularly (many expire after a year)
Databases
Social science databases
Some databases for you to try…
ProQuest host (e.g. ABI/INFORM, ASSIA, British Education Index, IBSS, Sociological Abstracts, Worldwide Political Science Abstracts)
Business Source Premier (EBSCO) Psycinfo (OVID) Scopus Web of Science
All allow creation of Alerts which will deliver a report of new data associated with your saved search strategy via email.
Citation Alerts
Feature of Web of Science and Scopus
Notify when an article of interest is referenced or cited by another publication.
General tips
Databases may use different names for alerting services - look for links to “Alerts”, “Updates”, “SDI”, “Save search”
Most databases allow multiple alerts:
Use separate alerts for different subjects
Give alerts meaningful names to organise them
Be ruthless! Amend or delete any searches which are not returning helpful results.
What is an RSS feed?
RSS = Rich Site Summary (or "Really Simple Syndication“) Pushes automatic updates when new content is available Suits frequently updated web sources - blogs, news Need an RSS Reader (also called feed readers, feed aggregators &
news readers) to receive feeds desktop-based (e.g. Outlook) browser-based ( e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox) web-based (Netvibes, Bloglines)
Find out more http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/10628494
Have a go…
Register for one of the feed reader services (e.g. Bloglines, NewsGator)
Identify a discussion group in your subject
Set up an alert for your favourite journals
Set up a saved search or a citation alert
Communities of Interest: Social Media
• Web services where content is generated by users– Social interaction: communicate and collaborate– knowledge exchange: produce, disseminate, discuss and
consume information
Social media: A guide for researchershttp://www.rin.ac.uk/social-media-guide
http://prezi.com/wpex31xj_9kv/what-the-tweet-social-media-for-grad-students/
Social media tools for researchers
1. Social & professional networking tools2. Social bookmarking3. Social citation sharing4. Blogging5. Microblogging6. Research & writing collaboration tools7. Reference management and sharing tools
Blogosphere
Online diary + multimedia Fast, easy, free web publishing Why …?
Float ideas / reflect on developments?Feedback – informal peer review? Disseminate research findings?Engage with public outside HE?Build your profile / reputation?
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/
Blog writing tips PGR Tips on writing great blog postshttp://www.vitae.ac.uk/CMS/files/upload/PGR-Tips-issue-54-on-blogging.pdf
So, You Want to Start an Academic Blog? Four Tips to Know Before You Start
http://getalifephd.blogspot.com/2011/02/so-you-want-to-start-academic-blog-four.html
What is Twitter?
real-time information network Updates tailored to what you find interesting Tweet is a burst of information 140 characters in
length (e.g. ‘headline’ with links) contribute or just follow conversations good for networking - “virtual water cooler”
“Why do you find Twitter useful as an academic?” http://markcarrigan.net/
Isolation of a PhD- engage with global community - discussion, support, advice, exchange references
Engage with practitioners and experts- networking
- reality check
Keep up to date - policy issues, developments, new ideas, blogs, publications, etc- augments F2F academic conferences, extends the conversations
Dissemination- increased visibility- spread word to non-academic audiences (public engagement)- shameless self-promotion
http://blogs.lse.ac.uk/impactofsocialsciences/2011/09/29/twitter-guide/
Research Communities Online
New generation of online research communities Mendeley / Zotero: social networking built on reference
management software (http://www.mendeley.com/ ) ResearchGate (http://www.researchgate.net/ ) Academia (http://academia.edu/ ) Build research profile Manage and share references / papers; monitor impact Ask / answer questions Join networks of interest / find collaborators
Thank you for your attention.
Any Questions?