Library skills 2019

Barry J Marshall Library

SCIE4403
OneSearch
Use OneSearch to search for a range UWA resources
at once.

Tip! Sign into OneSearch using your Pheme login.

• Some of our online resources require you to

sign in for them to appear in your results.
Retrieve more search results when you are off
campus or using Unifi on campus
• Access UWA subscription-only resources
• Save your search results and searches for as
long as you choose
• Request items from the UWA collections and recall those that are out on loan
• Access the GetIt document delivery service if UWA doesn’t have access to the full
text

Activity 1:
Use OneSearch to find the article: “Indirect Tracking of Drop Bears Using GNSS Technology”
Does this article meet the criteria we set out for good scholarly literature?
Evaluating resources
Is the resource up to date? Do you need it to be – some disciplines
Currency
advance more quickly than others. Is it the most recent version?
Is the information relevant for your topic? Is it too detailed or not detailed
Relevance enough? Do you have a range of views and perspectives? Who is the
intended audience?
Is there an obvious bias or agenda? Is the author trying to convince you of
their opinion or trying to sell you something? Did they receive funding
Bias from a corporation to conduct the research? You don’t need to
automatically discount biased information – it may provide a different
(and useful perspective) but be aware of bias.
What research methods have been used? Does it reference the work of
Validity
others? Does it appear logical?
Is the information presented in a logical format using appropriate
language? Does the information seem well researched with supporting
Reliability
evidence? Has the author made claims without backing them up? Was it
written by someone who is a recognised authority in that field?

Activity 2:
Search for ‘stem cells’ in OneSearch
• How many results did you get?
• How many of these are peer reviewed articles?
• How many of these include the subject of embryonic stem cells?
• How many of these have been published in the years 2014 -2019?
• How many of these are review articles?

Tip! Modify your results using the box on the left:

Databases
Activity 3: Scopus
• Go to the Scopus database (hint – it’s listed on most database lists or you can search
for “Scopus” in OneSearch
• Search for “stem cells”
• How many results did you get?
• How many of these were Review articles?
• How many were in the subject area of Neuroscience?
• How many were published in 2017?

Tip! You can refine your results using the box on the left
Try re-sorting the results (for example: cited by highest)

Click on Find It@UWA to see if the full text is available

Activity 4: Web of Science

• Go to the Web of Science database (hint – it’s listed on most database lists or you
can search for “Web of Science” in OneSearch
• This opens the Web of Science Core Collection by default
• Enter your search and click the Search button

• Check the number of results

• Use Refine Results on the left
 • Try re-sorting the list of results

Activity 5: Finding Databases

• Go to the library homepage
• Sign in to OneSearch
• Click on the Databases heading
 • Under the Life Sciences heading, select Anatomy and Human Biology or Physiology.
How many databases are there for either of these categories?
• You can select a database that is relevant to your subject area.

Tip! OneSearch includes the results from many of our databases but by no means all. To
ensure that you have systematically researched your topic, you must search selected
individual databases.

Where to look for information:

Citation Searching
Citation searching allows you to use a particular author or paper to trace the origins, growth
or progress of research over time.

Once you have an article, you can use citation searching to trace the origins, growth or
progress of research over time.
• Search the references of the original article – backwards in time
• Find who has cited that original article – forwards in time
• Search other articles by that author
• Search related records – articles that share many references with the original article
Several databases and Google Scholar offer this option. Web of Science and Scopus provide
great options to track research trails going both backwards and forwards in time in the most
highly cited journals in a field.

Why do a citation search?

• You can find relevant articles from unexpected disciplines you would not have found
otherwise
• You can see how an idea has developed and changed over time
• You can find other possible search terms you can use to find information

Keeping track of your references

Acknowledging the ideas of others is an essential part of academic and professional life. Accuracy in
tracking the resources you use enables you to do this. Maintaining records manually can lead to
errors. Try using software such as EndNote to reduce your workload and increase your accuracy.

Want to know more?

Visit the library home page https://www.uwa.edu.au/library/home
Library survival guides http://guides.library.uwa.edu.au/
Library services, guides and training: http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/current-students/guides

Contact us
Science Librarians scilibrarians-lib@uwa.edu.au
Information desk: 6488 2325 marshall-lib@uwa.edu.au