Sources of Information
As research aims to add to the world’s body of knowledge, researchers must be
aware of the existing body of knowledge for the area in which they work It is
therefore important that the researcher knows how to search for that data and
has the ability to read, understand, and interpret it.
Thus, one of the most important issues when conducting research is the ability to
search for meaningful information in the vast world of data that surrounds us.
With the invention of the Internet and the WWW, much more information is
available to us than at any other time in history. This is a blessing, but it also
poses a problem – how the proper and relevant information can be found.
The frontiers of the world’s body of knowledge are not documented in text books,
but rather in:
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Remember that reading this kind of literature is important in identifying a problem
that is academically credible. If the problem in which you are interested is not
discussed in the academic literature, you should probably conclude that it is your
definition of the problem that is at fault. Knowing how to access the information is
thus the first step in research. By now you should know how to do this, having
taken the self-paced “Information Literacy Resource”. If you haven’t taken it by
now then it is strongly suggested that you do it as soon as possible, overlapping
it with the current course or even taking a break from this training and the “DS”
course until you have done so (of course, you will notify your DA if you do this).
A helpful guide to the “Best Search for Your Information Need” is found at (Best
Search, 2006).
Library Training Module
By now you should have taken the Library Training Module self-paced course
and be well acquainted with its units (Library Training Module, 2015):
Unit 1: Library Foundations
Unit 2: Searching for E-Resources
Unit 3: Referencing and Plagiarism
Unit 4: Your Subject Area: Computing
Unit 5: Research and Study Skills
All of the above have to do with the subject matter of this seminar. In case you
have not taken it yet or have not worked through all the units, we suggest that
you stop reading this lecture at this point and complete the missing parts of the
Library Training Module which is found at the Library. Links to additional
instructions and tutorials are listed in the DS Template.
Literature Search
The following is a short description of Literature Search which complements (but
does not replace) the above mentioned Library Training Module.
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You can search for literature through many different sources, such as: Literature
Sources, Databases and Search Engines (of publishers, literature DBs and Web
Search Engines).
The questions you should ask are “what am I trying to find out?” and “what type of
information do I want to find?” Is it an overview of a subject area? Is it an answer to
a specific question? Or is it just a specific document? Define why you need this
information and how quickly do I need it: if immediately then try the Internet, if in a
day maybe the library will help or if it in a week then you can use the inter Library
Loans.
Sources for literature on the Internet are freely available collections, publishers’
websites and databases and literature databases.
Interrelation of Sources
 Authors submit paper to conference/journal for peer review
 If accepted, paper is revised by the authors and submitted to
conference/journal editor
 The paper is processed to bring it into the publisher’s format
(typesetting/layout)
 The paper is then
– included in the publisher’s database,
– made available on-line via the publisher’s website, and
– possibly published in printed form
(not necessarily in that order)
 Literature databases
– collect the bibliographic information from several publishers, and
– add additional information (references with links, citation index)
– link back to publisher for full-text of papers