FREE Citation Management Software |
- RefWorks site (Login) can help you manage your footnotes & bibliography on the web. Easy to use, interfaces directly with MS Word to create footnotes & bibliographies
- Don’t forget to install Write&Cite plugin on your PC!
- For off campus use, get the York group code here.
- FAQ and Instructions for various databases
- RefWorks Tutorial
- Plan B: various style guides & Landmarks Citation Machine
Logging in from Home |
- Need to use Passport York or bar code number & PIN from library card to authenticate asYork user
- Information here on logging in
Background Information |
- Scientific publication cycle
- For bibliographies: various style guides & Landmarks Citation Machine
- Academic Integrity and Plagiarism site and quiz.
- Oxford Reference Online — lots of online dictionaries in science & other fields
My topic: Darwin’s voyage on the Beagle
- pick a topic that interests you
- narrow your topic
- get a angle/perspective
- have a plan B
- I also picked a more obscure explorer: John Stuart
Looking for Books |
Do a search in The York Catalogue:
- by title: Charles Darwin’s zoology notes & specimen lists from H.M.S. Beagle
- by author: Darwin Charles
- by journal title: Scientific American
- by subject: Beagle Expedition (1831-1836)
- by keyword:
- darwin and beagle
- darwin and exploration
- exploration and technology
- voyage and technology
- Google Book Searchis absolutely vital for more obscure topics!
- “john stuart” “british columbia”
Finding Articles |
All the article databases are similar. Try searches like these.
- darwin and beagle
- darwin and beagle and compass
- darwin and voyage
- victorian and sea and travel
A list of the best databases for general science topics
- JSTOR– full text of various history & history of science journals
- For JSTOR it is very important to use the advanced search
- “john stuart” and “british columbia”
- “charles darwin” and beagle and galapagos
- Scholar’s Portal: mostly full text, good general source of articles
- Historical Abstracts — Indexes major journals in history.
- America History and Life – focus on North American history
- Poole’s / 19th Century Masterfile: 19th century books, magazines and journals
- Canadian Newsstand — good newspaper coverage
- New York Times deep archives 1851 – 2003.
- London Times Digital archives 1785-1985.
- York Libraries Newspapers page
- Web of Science — Very good coverage of all humanites & social sciences, good for book reviews & for citation tracking
- History of Science, Technology & Medicine — most advanced, but best choice for history of science topics, finds books and articles
Using the Internet Wisely |
- Using Googleas a scholarly research tool:
- Find a good portal site
- remember: who, why and when
- Google Scholar: good source, often can find information not available elsewhere
- Go to Preferences/Library Links to set up find it at York feature
- Wikipedia– solid source of links & basic info, not academic or 100% reliable Wikipedia as a starting point. Remember that for a controversial topic there can be a lot of back and forth and “conflict of interest” changes
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Email: sshujah@yorku.ca
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