SFU Library: Resources and
Research – Criminology Honours
Presented by
Yolanda Koscielski,
Liaison Librarian,
Criminology & Psychology
ysk6@sfu.ca
Outline
1. The Literature Search
2. Where to Search
3. Information Sources
4. Working your Topic
1. The Literature Search
“ A systematic and thorough search of all types of published
literature in order to identify as many items as possible that are
relevant to a particular topic” (Ridley, 2008).
Systematic = documented, planned, mindful
Thorough = considered scope of research (broader, narrower
and related concepts), inclusive of possibly contradictory data
All types of info = range of databases, books, government
documents, statistics, theses, etc.
The Literature Search
1. To identify the field and specific context in which your
work is situated.
2. It can assist you in identifying your approach to the
research and the methodology you wish to adopt.
3. It will help you identify the type of data you might collect
and use, sites of data collection, the sample size, and how
you might analyze this data.
The Literature Search
4. A means of extending your understanding of the key
concepts, theories, and methodologies in your field.
5. To find out what others have done in the area so as
to avoid duplicating previous work.
6. Identify key people, organizations, and texts which
are relevant to your research.
2. Where to Search
SFU Library: beyond books
•
1.35 million books
•
400,000 ebooks
•
63,000 ejournals
•
500 database subscriptions
•
GIS + Maps, images, streaming music + movies, video games, etc.
•
Research data library with specialized datasets
• Notable Resources: Subject Research Guides, Publication
Type Research Guides, Databases by Subject Area
Where to Search…?
Catalogue
Fast
Search
Library
Search
Databases
Google
Where to Search
Most?
Least?
Fast Search
Library Search
SFU Library’s
matryoshka
dolls
Catalogue
aussiegall. (2006). Russian dolls. Retrieved from http://www.flickr.com/photos/aussiegall/288377539/
The Catalogue
Demo: Access
in the Academy
• Strengths:
• Book searching, including book searching by
subject headings
• Good for: do we have it? Contains records on all
books and other individual items (movies, maps,
journal titles, database titles, government reports,
law reports, etc.)
• Weaknesses: no journal article or newspaper article
information; less aesthetically pleasing
• DEMO: 3 fields to note, typical book record, icons,
Freedom of information—Canada subject heading
Fast Search
 Strengths
Broad search can capture unique terms/proper
names across 100,000s of sources
Tool for beginning research outside your
discipline
Easy export to citation managers
Search multiple libraries option
Search for books and articles at the same time
Fast Search
 Weaknesses:
Subject terms not useful for systematic literature
review
Missing journal content; coverage is maybe 95%
of SFU Library content
Not mapped to a specific discipline, with
associated beneficial search limiters and features
(controlled vocabularies, populations, etc.)
Lots of citation “noise”
Peer-review limit facet not completely accurate
(as with most databases)
FastSearch
Subject
Terms ≠
Subject
Headings
Library Search
14
Library Search
Criminology 220
All catalogue
content + Fast
Search + PLUS the
library’s website
(FAQS, Research
Guides, Summit,
etc.)
Library Search
 Searches 100% of Fast Search content, plus catalogue, for the
broadest library search available
 Strengths:
 Divides Fast Search content by info type (books & media, newspaper
articles, journal articles)
 One click
 Quick way to access library-authored and library-curated content,
such as
 Summit (SFU’s Institutional Repository)
 Library FAQs
 Library Research Guides
 Weaknesses:
 Not robust at all for topical and advanced info searching
 Best for known items
Google
Strengths
• Allows you to cast a wide net in your search. As of
November 2014, about 1 million to 1.6 million records are
searched in Google Scholar
• The most popular articles are revealed
• A high volume of articles are retrieved
• Google's algorithm helps compensate for poorly designed
searches
• Full-text indexing of articles is now being done in Google
Scholar
• US Case Law
Google
Strengths
• A search feature allow you to search within articles citing
your key article
• Excellent for known-item searching and locating a
quote/citation
• Helpful when searching for very unique terminology (e.g.,
places and people)
• Times cited tool can help identify relevant articles
• Extensive searching of non-article, but academic,
information items: universities' institutional repositories, US
case law, grey literature, academic websites, etc.
• Books – out of copyright
Google
Weaknesses
• Database is not mapped to a specific discipline
• Much less search sophistication and manipulation
supported (analogy: automatic vs. standard car)
• Psuedo-Boolean operators
• Missing deep data (e.g., statistics)
• Mysterious algorithms and unknown source
coverage at odds with the systematic and
transparent mandate of a literature review.
• Searches are optomized (for example, by your
location), thwarting the replicability criteria of most
literature review types
Google
Weaknesses
• Low level of subject and author collocation - that is,
bringing together all works by one author or one
sub-topic
• Challenging to run searches that involve common
words (e.g., art + time)
• New articles might not be pushed up if the
popularity of an article is emphasized
• Indexes articles from predatory publishers, which
may be hard to identify if working outside of your
field
• Articles are not usually free – just the indexing
Subject-Specific Databases
 Examples: PsycINFO, Criminal Justice Abstracts, Sociologial
Abstracts, Westlaw Next Canada
 Strengths
 Mapped to a disciplinary perspective
 High quality metadata
 Search limiters unique to discipline, allow fine-tuning of
search results
 Search history and search sets
 Subject headings that are key to a lit review
 Weaknesses:
 More time-consuming to use
 More particular / technical to search (varies)
Information Sources
The usual suspects for Crim articles:
 Criminology databases:
 Criminal Justice Abstracts, National Criminal Justice Reference
Service
 Other discipline-based databases:
 PsycINFO, Sociological Abstracts
 General databases:
 Academic Search Premier, Web of Science
The above are great for journal articles.
Information Sources
 PC Census or Simply Map
 Canadian Public Policy Collection
 PsycTESTS
 Sage Research Methods Online
 Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research (ICPSR)
 Encyclopedia
DEMO: Try finding a Criminology Encyclopedia via the library
website. Bonus points for finding a really specific
encyclopedia.
Information Sources
Encyclopedias
• Overview of your topic / the “big picture”
• Particularly helpful if working outside your area
• Written with the academic in mind, often by
specialists in the field
• Use the bibliography to identify key articles, studies,
authors, etc.
•
Gale Virtual Reference Library (multiple subject areas)
•
Sage eReference Library ( about 15 Crim titles)
•
Check research guides, Online Reference Sources web page
Information Sources
Oxford Bibliographies Online
-Subject module for Criminology
-Written and peer-reviewed by international experts
•
•
“Crime Victims' Rights Movement”
“Routine Activity Theories”
Provides:
• Key Readings
• Ideas for keywords for searching
4. Working Your Topic
 Do you have a subject area, topic, or thesis?
 Subject is very broad: freedom of information,
Charter of Rights and mental illness
 Topic adds a second concept, explores a
relationship or question between the two
concepts: testosterone levels in sex offenders,
effect of art therapy on recidivism
 Thesis: you are making an assertion and
providing supportive evidence: Art therapy
decreases recidivism in young offenders
Working Your Topic
Next, think of synonyms, plus broader, narrower and
related terms for each of your concepts:
What is the impact of art therapy on recidivism in young
offenders?
Art therapy
Recidivism
Young offenders
Music therapy (RT)
Dance therapy (RT)
Graffiti club (NT)
Repeat offender
(synonym)
Early adolescent
offenders (NT)
Juvenile Delinquents
(synonym)
Criminals (BT)
Working your topic
 Test your keywords out in the database: find the best
keywords and subject headings for your searches.
 Subject headings: a systematic, hierarchical, and finite
language used for describing subjects/concepts.
 Articles and books will usually have 3-8 subject
headings assigned to their bibliographic record. These
are provided by real people (as opposed to their
robot counterparts).
Working Your Topic
Subject Headings
• Subject heading languages will usually be unique to each
database, e.g., MESH (Medical Subject Headings) of
PubMed, PsycINFO thesaurus for PsycINFO
• Demo: our 3 concepts in PsycINFO
• Can start with thesaurus directly or keyword search
• Sometimes keywords = subject headings
Art therapy
(a broad
“subject”) +
something
else
Art therapy AND
criminals, or
Criminals AND
recidivism
Art therapy
AND recidivism
AND young
offenders
Working your Topic
• Boolean operators AND and OR used to join keywords in
database searching (often automatic in search forms)
• Use AND to narrow or focus the search (using key
words/terms)
• Example: creative arts therapy AND criminals
Creative
arts therapy
Criminals
AND
creative
arts therapy
Criminals
• Use OR to expand your search results (using related
words/concepts)
• Example: music therapy OR art therapy OR dance
therapy
Art
Dance
Music
therapy
therapy
therapy
Working Your Topic
• Use quotation marks to search for an
exact phrase
•
Example: “art therapy”
• Use truncation (*) to search for related
words
•
Truncation. This expands a search term to include all
forms of a root word
•
Example: technolog* will search for technology,
technologies, technological, etc.
Submit your Honours Thesis
• You are welcome to submit your Honours
Thesis to Summit, SFU Library’s Institutional
Repository
• Criminology grad theses & dissertations