1. How to get Information for
Your Geology Assignments
Gareth Johnson
gareth.johnson@le.ac.uk

2. Session Outline
• Why do literature searches
• Finding books – a quick recap
• What are journal articles
• Finding journal articles
• Improving your internet searching
• Information Sources Quiz

3. Information Sources
• Lecture Notes
– Good starting point for assignments.
• Books
– Good sources of background information.
• Journal Articles
– Good source of information on latest research
– Provide more detailed information than books
• Geological Surveys
– For geological data on a particular area.
• Websites
– Can provide useful information
– Need to evaluate website before using

4. Literature Searches – why do
them?
• “A few months in the laboratory can
save a few hours in the library.”
- Westheimer's Law
• You need to know what research has
already been done so you can build
on that research

5. Finding Books – A Quick Recap
• Library catalogue: http://library.le.ac.uk
• Brumbaugh, D. S. 1999. Earthquakes: science and
society. Prentice Hall.
Author/Title
– Use the ______________________ search
• Books by Philip Kearey
Author
– Use the ______________________ search
• Books on volcanoes
Word or Phrase
• - Use the ___________________ search

6. Why Use Journal Articles?
• Journals
– Publications that are issued at regular intervals
– Also called serials or periodicals
– Primary information sources through which research is made
known to the geological community
• Often the most up to date reliable resource
– Quality (scholarly) journals are refereed/peer-reviewed
– Articles are reviewed by other authors in the field
– Comments, corrections and revisions are made to submitted
papers
– Final published versions are therefore quality assured by the
research community

7. Three Types of Science
Journal
– General journals
• Devoted to news, opinion, comment and
articles for non-experts
• e.g. Geology Today
– Scholarly journals
• Devoted to original research contributions
• e.g. Journal of Geology
– Review journals
• Devoted to original contributions taking an
overview of the published literature
• e.g. Trends in Ecology and Evolution

8. Recognising Journal Articles
• Bohaty, Steven M., Zachos, James C,
2003. Significant Southern Ocean
warming event in the late middle Eocene.
Geology, 31(11):1017-1020.
• Look for whether it has
Article Title Journal Title
• An ____________ & a _____________
Volume Number Issue Number
• A ______________ & an ___________

9. What is a Bibliographic
Database?
• Need to search bibliographic databases
– Effectively an online way of searching for journal
articles
• Each one indexes lists of bibliographic
information for publications
– Such as books and journal articles
– Some overlap in coverage
• Bibliographic information normally comprises:
– Author, title, source (journal title), year, volume, page
numbers & abstract summary

10. Key Bibliographic Databases
• GeoRefs
– Geology and Earth-Sciences coverage
– Includes journals most other resources don’t
– http://firstsearch.uk.oclc.org/athens/
• Scopus
– General Science coverage
– http://www.scopus.com
• Web of Knowledge
– Multidisciplinary coverage
– http://wok.mimas.ac.uk

11. Types of Search
• Keyword/Subject Search
– When you are looking for material on a particular
subject
– Need to be systematic in your searches
– Ensures accurate results and avoid information-
overload
• Author Search
– When you are looking for material published by key
names in a field
• Identified in lectures, books, review journal or other articles

12. Keyword Searching (1): Concepts
• Question: Find out about ore deposits in
the UK
– Identify the important concepts and words in
the question:
• Ore
• Deposits
• UK

13. Keyword Searching (2):
Variants
• Think about variations of the keywords
you’re using:
• Ore
– Ores, Orebody, Mineral, Minerals…
• Deposits
– Deposit, Deposition…
• UK
– United Kingdom, Britain, England, Wales,
Scotland, British Isles…

14. Keyword Searching (3): Truncation
Ore
Ores Ore*
Orebody
•Saves typing!
•Picks up multiple terms from foreshortened
word-stem

15. Keyword Searching (4):
Boolean Logic
• AND
– This is used to combine search terms to narrow your
search

16. Keyword Searching (4):
Boolean Logic
• OR
– This is used where various terms might describe the
same object

17. Keyword Searching (4):
Boolean Logic
• NOT
– This is used when you wish to exclude a word from
your search

18. Keyword Searching (5):
Search Strategies
• Brackets are used as in a mathematical
equation, to tell the database how to
combine the words
(ore* OR mineral*) AND deposit*
• A more specific search could be:
((ore* OR mineral*) AND deposit*
AND (uk OR united kingdom)) NOT
hematite

19. Author Searching
• Question: Find an article by Dr Gawen RT
Jenkin
• Search on:
– Jenkin G*
• May or may not publish with middle initials
• Journals may or may not other initials

20. Tools to Refine Results
• You can also use limits/filters to narrow
your search
– E.g. by date or publication type
• Can include before or after a search
• Helps avoid potentially overwhelming
levels of results
– Easier to chose the pick of the crop

21. Improve your Internet Searching
• Use more than one search engine as they
use different searching algorithms
• Use the advanced search features in Google
& Yahoo
– Phrase searching
– Search a specific field e.g. title or URL
– Limit by language, file type, domain
• Use the options for specific media e.g.
images, groups, news

22. Google Scholar
• “Search specifically for scholarly literature”
– No definition as to what Google classify as scholarly!
– Can be some odd gaps/omissions
• http://scholar.google.com
• Often links to full text but might not link to the version
of the full text available to the University
– On-campus it will give you an e-link option to check whether
you can access the full text for free
• Good first place to see what is available and what
keywords to use
– But use bibliographic databases in your subject too!

23. Open Access Research
• A move from academics annoyed over journal
prices
– No passwords, subscriptions or access restrictions
• Researchers make articles available for free
(outside of journals)
– Held in online repositories
– Still include peer-review elements
• Can easily be searched using OpenDOAR
– http://www.opendoar.org/search.php

24. Evaluating Websites
• Intended Audience
– Is the site aimed at researchers or the general public?
• Authority and Reputation
– Is the resource well known?
– Is it an academic site?
– Is it factual or opinion based?
– Does the information have a basis in research and is a
bibliography provided?
• Subject Coverage
– Is the site an overview or does it cover the subject in-depth?
• Currency –
– Has the site been recently updated?

25. Questions?

26. Useful Links
• Geology Subject Room:
http://rooms1.library.le.ac.uk/rooms/portal
• Referencing:
• http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/geol/ist/reference
s.html
• Geology Information Retrieval Skills Tutorial:
http://www.le.ac.uk/li/sources/subject3/geol/ist/intro.html
• Web of Science tutorial:
http://inhale.hud.ac.uk/perl/jump.pl?72-678
• Library catalogue tutorial:
http://inhale.hud.ac.uk/perl/jump.pl?72-832