Information Services and Systems
Criminology Dissertation
October 2013
Information Services and Systems
Are you feeling overwhelmed at the prospect of
doing a literature search for your dissertation?
1. Yes
2. No
3. A bit!
0%
1
0%
2
0%
3
Information Services and Systems
How do I begin a literature
search?
Information Services and Systems
By devising a search strategy
Information Services and Systems
How do I devise a search strategy?
1. Identify any limitations
2. Think about your topic & identify your keywords
Information Services and Systems
Devising a search strategy: how to tackle it
Limitations?
•Will there be any geographical limits
•Will there be any time limits i.e. how far back do
you want to search
Information Services and Systems
Devising a search strategy: how to tackle it
Identifying keywords?
•Think about your topic & select terms/keywords
that best describe or express it
Information Services and Systems
Let’s look at an example….
This is our topic:
‘Support for families with problems in the UK,
specifically Wales’
What terms best describe this topic?
What are the key concepts?
Information Services and Systems
Topic: Support for families with problems in the UK,
specifically Wales
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Concept 4
problems
families
support
UK, Wales
Information Services and Systems
What other keywords/terms could be used….
Think about:
•Broader/more general terms
•Narrower/more specific terms
•Related terms
•Synonyms
Information Services and Systems
Topic: Support for families with problems in the UK,
specifically Wales
Concept 1
Concept 2
Concept 3
Concept 4
problems
families
support
UK, Wales
conflict
parents
intervention
UK/GB
dysfunction
homes
conflict resolution
Wales/Welsh
disruption
children
parent training
United Kingdom
Domestic violence
siblings
illness
alcoholism
Great Britain
Information Services and Systems
Don’t worry the snowball effect will occur …..
Information Services and Systems
Keep a record
Information Services and Systems
I have a search strategy –
what’s next?
Information Services and Systems
To get the best out of a search strategy you need to
control how you use your search terms
These search tools will help:
•Combining terms using AND, OR, NOT
•Using the Phrase Search
•Using the Truncation Symbol
•Using the Wildcard Symbol
Information Services and Systems
AND
Aim
To focus
your search
results
Search Examples
problems AND families Only retrieves results
containing both
dysfunction AND child
keywords
conflict AND homes
&
Link your terms
Results
Information Services and Systems
OR
Aim
Search Examples
Results
To broaden your
search results
conflict OR problems
Retrieves results
containing either of
your keywords
&
OR will help you to
search for related
terms & synonyms
intervention OR
conflict resolution
Children OR siblings
Information Services and Systems
NOT
Aim
Search Examples
Results
To exclude a term
from your search
Wales NOT Australia
Will exclude records
containing the
second term
sibling NOT twins
Information Services and Systems
Phase search
Use quotation marks “ ” to keep keywords together
e.g.
“child protection”
“elder abuse”
“British association of social work”
Information Services and Systems
Truncation symbol *
child*
child
childhood
children
Information Services and Systems
Wildcard symbol ?
Behavio?r
Behaviour
Behavior
Information Services and Systems
I have received too few results: what
should I do?
1. Use the Boolean
operator AND
2. Use the Boolean
operator OR
3. Give up!
0%
1
0%
2
0%
3
Information Services and Systems
Too few results?
Try …
• Check the thesaurus; terminology can differ
• Use the truncation symbol
• Combine your keywords with OR
Information Services and Systems
Too many results?
Try …
• adding additional search terms with AND
• use more specific keywords
• use refining/filter menus within the search tool
Information Services and Systems
Do you know what peer-reviewed
journals are?
1. Yes
2. No
0%
1
0%
2
Information Services and Systems
Choosing the right search tool:
where to start?
You can use iFind Research to:
•To locate journal articles if you
have the full reference
•To search for articles on a topic
• Select & access key databases &
resources for your topic
Information Services and Systems
Do you agree with this statement:
“A good literature review gathers information
from many sources”
1. Yes
2. No
3. Don’t know
0%
1
0%
2
0%
3
Information Services and Systems
Sources of information to consider
• Books
•Journal articles
•Reports
•Newspaper articles
•Official publications
•Statistical information
Information Services and Systems
Where will you search for your
information?
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
Books & Journals
Academic database
Library catalogue
Google
iFind Research
All of the above
0%
0%
1
2
0%
0%
0%
0%
3
4
5
6
Information Services and Systems
How often do you use Google to look up
information for your Academic work?
1. All of the time
2. Some of the time
3. Hardly ever
0%
1
0%
2
0%
3
Information Services and Systems
Choosing the right search tool
It’s not a good idea to rely on Google
Google has many disadvantages
-you will receive an unmanageable number of results
-will give irrelevant & inappropriate results
-not everything will be free of charge
-there is no quality control
Information Services and Systems
Evaluating Web Resources :
Key questions to ask : The Five Ws
•Who wrote the information?
•What is the purpose of the site?
•When was the content created?
•Where does the information come from?
•Why is this information useful to me?
Information Services and Systems
Why academic databases are a better choice
•Indexing is entrusted to people not search engines
•They index academic quality publications
e.g. Journal articles, Conference papers
•A large proportion of the content is from peer
reviewed journals
Information Services and Systems
Further help:
Library Support for Criminology
on Blackboard (under “My Studies”)
Information Services and Systems
Need help? Just ask!
buslib@swansea.ac.uk
/swanuni.iss
@swanuni_iss
http://buseconlib.wordpress.com/