Post on 18-Jan-2016
Lluís Codina (UPF)MUCS
Dept. Of Communication
Online Searching: role and characteristics of Academic
Databases
Academic Databases - I
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
Content specializations Humanities and Social Sciences Science and technology Multidisciplinary
Context At the heart of the cyclical process of academic research and
publishing Document typology. References or full text of:
Journal articles of peer review journals Reports, books, patents and theses, etc.
Users: Researchers (Universities) and engineers and developers
(Corporations) University students and professors In general: authors of academic journal articles, reports or
booksAccess:
Not free. In fact they are extremely expensive Access only by subscription or by pay per view (pay per document) Only subscribed to by universities or corporations (not by private
persons )
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Academic Databases - II
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
Main protagonists: Scientific publishers of journals or books:
Elsevier Springer …
Independent producers: Universities Private companies …
Distributors of tens or hundreds of different databases: Ebsco Dialog …
Authors: Researchers and developers University students and professors Authors of journal articles or books So… authors are both users and contributors
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The Process of knowledge production
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
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The Peer Review Journals
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
The most respected kind of scientific journals and the typical content of the academic databases
Process: Author submits their papers to a peer review journal. The journal asks the opinion of at least,two experts in
the field. If approved, and only if approved, by the experts, the
article will be published, probably with corrections and additions suggested by the experts.
The whole process is anonymous: the author is unaware of the identity of the referees (evaluators) and vice versa.
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The Search Process
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
1. Identification of the information need of the user and the keywords that express the main concepts of the information need.
2. Occasionally, identification of the proper names (persons, corporations, countries, etc.).
3. Identification and selection of the most suitable database.
4. Selection and execution of the query (basic or advanced search).
5. Review of the references in the database results page.
6. Occasionally, refinement of the query and obtaining new keywords to repeat the process.
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Main interdisciplinary international databases
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
Web of Science (ISI Web of Knowledge): the most influential database in the world. Provides access to tens of thousands of the most important international journals (Thomson).
Scopus: the database of the most important scientific publisher of the world. Access to one thousand two hundred journals (Elsevier).
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International databases by specialization
Computers, related with Art, Society and Humanities ACM
Humanities Arts and Humanities Citation Index
Social Sciences JSTOR
Communication Sage Taylor and Francis
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
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And in Spain…
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
Multidisciplinary: CSIC: The most influential in Spain and one of the
most important in Spanish speaking countries. Provides access to all peer review Spanish journals.
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To access databases in UPF
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
To access academic databases via UPF: www.upf.edu > Library > Databases > Alphabetic list:
Example: www.upf.edy > Library > Databases > Alphabetic list
> A > ACM Digital Library
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Off Campus
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
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Off Campus (II)
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
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Database List
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
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ACM Digital Library
Last update: October 2014L. Codina. UPF MUCS
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