Revision as of 13:52, 9 March 2006

Introduction

LitSearch mainpage

Searching databases by category

File:Hinesr.jpg Roger Hines

This is a short introduction to the literature search facility of Sheffield Hallam University's Learning Center.

The tutorial is based on a lesson given by Roger Hines, the information specialist of the Learning Center.

Accessing

1. Access the LitSearch site with your browser and follow the instructions carefully
2. Search for a database by name or category.
3. Access the particular database.

Notable Databases

INSPEC

Thesaurus of INSPEC

Search History

INSPEC offers the facility to extend the search over Compendex as well. Note that Compendex is using the american-english Thesaurus in contrast to INSPEC, which is a british-english database.

• The two Thesauri are containing the tree of known search terms of each database.
• The search history allows to reuse and combine (f.e. #5 AND #7) search-queries.
• You can search for a phrase by using quotation marks (f.e. "computer vision").
• My Profile can be used for saving search queries and for setting up e-mail alerts for new papers matching a given search term.

METADEX

METADEX mainpage

METADEX is the database of choice for materials engineers.

ISI Proceedings/ISI Web of Science

ISI Web of Science offers Cited Reference Search

ISI Web of Science offers Cited Reference Search with search patterns: One can determine, wether a particular publication or author is being referenced in newer publications.

ZETOC

ZETOC offers a powerful bibliography search. Especially useful is the e-mail reminder service: It can send you the table of contents, whenever a new issue of a journal is being published.

Other Notable Databases

• ACM Digital Library
• Index to Theses is a database of abstracts of PhD theses. It can be very useful to find out about recent research in a specific area.
• SCOPUS has a citation search with limit to and exclude feature.
• LexisNexis Executive is a full-text database of news and company information taken from approximately 2,500 international publications.
• ComSoc (including IEEE Communications)
  • There is no full IEEE access unfortunately. However you can use ZETOC to get e-mail notifications about IEEE publications matching certain criteria and get the articles by inter-library loan).

Notable Journals

It is also possible to access the pages of some journals directly using the LitSearch authentification. F.e.:

• ScienceDirect (offers fulltext search)
• SpringerLink (offers fulltext search)

See Also

• RefWorks

External Links

• Sheffield Hallam University
• Learning Center
• Sheffield Hallam Library Catalogue
• LitSearch
• Athens Toolbar for Mozilla, Firefox and Netscape