Robbins Library Notes

Good morning, readers!

Today, I’ll outline the concept of “the literature search.”  Some of you may be wondering what exactly a literature search, or “lit. search,” is.

What is a literature search?

Basically, a literature search is a large search, usually over a broad range of resources and time period, to see what has been written about a particular topic.

The term “lit. search” is sometimes used when looking for one or two articles, but, properly speaking, lit. searches are, as noted above, broad searches for many articles, not targeted, focused searches.  If you are searching for a specific article, you are not doing a lit. search.

Here is an example to illustrate my definition.  Last fall, I was asked to do a literature search on the topic of “inner speech” in the database, MEDLINE. The patron was interested in the topic, and wanted to learn if any other research aside from the that being done by the one researcher with whom the patron was familiar existed.  Using just the phrase “inner speech” across the whole time period of the database turned up over a hundred articles going back to 1969.

When do you do a literature search?

Most often, a lit. search is performed when you want to get a broad background on a topic, e.g., when doing the preliminary research for a dissertation.  Another example would be for writing a book, or an article, to see what else has been done on a topic about which you are writing.

What databases would you use for a literature search?

For philosophical research, Philosopher’s Index and Arts & Humanities Index are two good places to begin.  However, the choice of database may vary with your topic; thus, it’s very important to establish at the start what exactly you’re looking for, since this will help guide you to the relevant resources.  (Remember the first guideline from my Searching 101: Research Guidelines post!)

As with my example above, of “inner speech”: both Philosopher’s Index and Arts & Humanities Citation Index would have been of limited help in answering this question, given its scientific and medical bent.  MEDLINE was the proper database to use, and was the one that the patron requested.  Likewise, for a literature search on philosophy of law or legal issues, LexisNexis is a relevant database, and perhaps the archives of law journals on JSTOR.

Speaking of JSTOR, it is useful for lit. searches of older materials.  However, I would not use it alone, unless your question is specifically looking at older research.  You are much better off combining it with other current database, so as not to miss more recent work.

Examples of Literature Searches

The list of potential literature searches is endless.  Here are four that I have been asked to do in my ten years as a librarian:

• All research on “inner speech” in MEDLINE
• All articles published on topics in early modern philosophy in the last 10 years
• All references to Alan Greenspan being “God” or “a god” in the popular press, from mid-1998 to late 1999.  (Yes, this was a real lit. search I was asked to do once.  How times have changed…)
• All literature on Hannah Arendt and research examining her project as being a phenomenological one

Hopefully, these examples give you some idea of what a literature is.

Summary

As I noted above, a literature search is a large search, usually over a broad range of resources and time period, to see what has been written about a particular topic.  There’s no trick to it, really, other than to dive in and start doing them.  As I’ve found, the more literature searches you do, the better you get at them, because you start to learn the quirks and tricks that will help you to define and refine your searches.  And if you get stuck, consult my searching guidelines post… or just ask me! I’m very happy to help. 

Good morning, readers!

Thanks to those of you who have sent in suggestions — they are greatly appreciated.  Please keep them coming in.  I’m happy to receive them.

A few days ago, I received a suggestion in which the reader asked the question: “Which feeds, mailing lists, webpages, etc. should one monitor to get ALL of the information on new publications?”  The reader, interested in early modern philosophy, and Kant in particular, wants to know if there is a way in which one can be informed of the latest publications from publishers, without having to search through publisher catalogs and Web sites.  It’s a very good question — here’s what I’ve found in answer to it.

I have not, to date, located one aggregator site or place that lists every new publication in philosophy.  Given the large number of books published every year — including philosophy — I’m not sure how feasible creating such an aggregator site or resource would be.

However, there are several resources that, used together, will likely give you a fairly robust list of new philosophy publications.  The majority of the books provided by these resources will be in English, though other languages (most notably German and French) will appear also.

• Notre Dame Philosophical Reviews.  This is a great site to learn about new philosophy books.  Oftentimes, I learn about books of potential interest from reading the reviews.

• Philosopher’s Index. This database is probably the closest thing to an aggregator site at present, though it is far from complete.  The database does list books among its records, and with the CSA Illumina interface, you can view records by book, book chapter, article, book review, and so forth.

Example — You want to search for recent books on Kant listed in Philosopher’s Index.  When you login, go to the Advanced Search Screen, if this is not set as your default search option.  Enter in “Kant” for your search term in the first line, setting the limiter to “Keyword.”  (Why?  Because this will focus the search more on books that specifically deal with Kant, rather than those that merely mention him off-hand.)  Next, go down to the “Date Range” field, to limit your search to the last year or so.  I chose 2007-2009 as a range.  Below that, in the Philosopher’s Index Indexes & Limits section, click on the “Browse Publication Type” link, and in the window that opens, click on “book,” then “Add to Search.”  When that window closes, click on “Search” and you should get 329 results, which are subdivided into books, chapters/essays, and book reviews, respectively.

• Book Reviews in Journals. Many philosophy journals carry book reviews, which are worth checking out, some more extensive than others.  (The Review of Metaphysics has an especially in-depth one once a year, for example.)  For those interested in Kant, e.g., Kant-Studien offers book reviews.  Thus, I’d suggesting checking out whatever journals focus on your interests, as they may let you know about the latest and greatest books in your area(s) of interest.

• Philosophical Books. This is a great journal to read in order to learn about new books being published in philosophy.  As the blurb on the Wiley-Interscience site reads, “Philosophical Books carries extensive discussions of major new publications in all areas of analytic philosophy.  The journal includes: book symposia in which two or three writers discuss a book and the author replies; articles discussing recent work in particular fields; full-blown critical notices; and short, one-page reviews”  I’d check this journal out on a regular basis.

• Publisher Web Sites: E-mail and RSS Feeds. Many publisher Web sites now offer the option of signing up for periodic e-mails and RSS feeds of notifications of new materials.  I’ve known several scholars who have done this, who then let me know so that we can look into acquiring the book for the Robbins collection.  A quick look reveals that Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Harvard University Press, and Yale University Press all offer e-mail alerts and RSS feeds.  So these might be worth subscribing to.  Other university and academic presses will likely have them as well.

• Ask Your Friendly, Neighborhood Librarian. Seriously!  I get a number of catalogs on a regular basis, so, if you ask me to keep an eye out for certain topics, persons, and the like, I’d be very happy to let you know when something new comes out.

Are there other resources out there that my readers use which might be of help?  What about non-English philosophy books?

Good morning, readers!

During the first week of term, I’m going to revisit some of my earlier posts, to remind you of some useful tools for philosophical research.  Today, I’ll be looking at databases.  All of the following can be located and accessed via HOLLIS, using your Harvard ID and PIN.  I will organize the list according to the classification scheme that I outlined last year.

Citation Databases

• Arts & Humanities Citation Index (and a note about an update.)
• Philosopher’s Index

Full-Text Archival Databases

• JSTOR (and a note about an update.)
  

Full-Text Current Databases

• POIESIS (and an update.)
  
• Project MUSE (and a note about an update.)
• Social Science Research (which includes the Humanities Research Network and the Philosophy Research Network)
• Science Direct
• Wiley Interscience (which includes the former Blackwell materials)

Hybrid Databases

• Academic Search Premier (and a note about an update.)

This list makes no claims to be exclusive or exhaustive.  These databases are merely the ones that you will most commonly use when doing philosophical research.  Depending on your area(s) of interest and study, you may want to consider other, more specialized databases as well, e.g., LexisNexis Academic, PubMed, or the Science Citation Index.  If so, please let me know, and I’ll be happy to direct you to them, and show you how to use them.

Good afternoon! Today, I’ll be reviewing Philosopher’s Index, a critical resource for research in philosophy. Harvard recently switched from the OVID SilverPlatter interface to CSA Illumina’s interface, which promises to be much friendlier to use.

What it is

The E-resource description notes that “Philosopher’s Index is the major indexing source for scholarly research in philosophy. It contains several hundred thousand bibliographic citations, with author abstracts for many of the citations. The database gives bibliographic information for journal articles and major articles from anthologies and books published since 1940. The articles covered in here are written in English, Spanish, German, Italian, and French, coming from more than 480 journals from 38 countries. Topics covered include all major fields of philosophy, including: aesthetics, epistemology, ethics, existentialism, logic (including mathematics), metaphysics, phenomenology, political philosophy (including philosophy of law), social philosophy, and philosophy of education, history, language, mind, science and religion.”

Strengths

• Philosopher’s Index is limited solely to philosophy and philosophy publications and books.
• It covers a wide number of publications in multiple languages back to 1940.
• The new CSA Illumina interface allows for easier and more focused searching. It is less cluttered in its presentation, and allows for more flexible and focused searching than the OVID platform.

Limitations

• Philosopher’s Index is a citation database — thus, there is no full-text available from the database, though you will be able to link to full-text (where available) and HOLLIS records using the “Find it @ Harvard” button —
• Older records tend to have less information, e.g. no abstract, less bibliographic information, etc., which may make searching for older records a bit more difficult.
• Also, materials before 1940 are not included in the Index. For these articles, you may need to use another citation database, such as Arts & Humanities Citation Index, which does go back to the turn of the twentieth century.
• The Index does not tell you how many times an article has been cited elsewhere. For that, you will need to look at Academic Search Premier or Arts & Humanities Citation Index.
• The records in the Index are not perfect, in terms of having complete, full, and accurate information for every record. Furthermore, it does not contain every record of every philosophical article every printed in the last century or so. Coverage, as noted above, gets a bit spotty the farther back you search.
• Finally, given that updates are released quarterly, it is usually a quarter or two behind what is actually published, e.g., July articles will not be found in the database until the Quarter 3 edition is released, usually late in the year.

Using Philosopher’s Index

1. Go to the HOLLIS search page, and select the “Digital Resources” tab.
2. Set the “Search type” to “Title beginning with,” and the search terms to “philosopher’s index”
3. In the results list, scroll down to the entry, “Philosopher’s index (Online: SilverPlatter),” and click on this link. The HOLLIS record has not been updated yet to reflect the new vendor.
4. Clink on the Internet link in the record, and login with your ID and PIN
5. When you reach the Philosopher’s Index home page, the default search is the basic “Quick Search” Screen, as seen on the first slide of the attached PDF file. Go to the “Advanced Search” tab and select that.
6. In the Advanced Search screen, you’ll have several options to set up your search, as you can see in the second slide of the attached PDF file. I’ve run an example to show you how an initial search, which we will go back and modify.
   1. I have become interested recently in the philosophy of personalism, a framework outlined by the early twentieth century French philosopher, Emmanuel Mounier. I’m curious to see what work of his can be found in Philosopher’s Index. So, getting to the Advanced Search screen, I enter in “personalism,” and set it the search to look for this term in the Descriptor field. I also enter in “mounier,” but, since I’m not sure that his name will be used as a descriptor, I leave the search to look for the term in any field. At present, I don’t set any limiters, because I want to get as many references as I can for my initial search. (All this is in the third slide of the attached PDF file.)
   2. I click on “Search,” and get nineteen results. Note that the CSA Illumina interface lists all nineteen at once, but then sorts them out into several sub-categories: [All] Journals, Peer-Reviewed Journals, and Books. (There is also a Chapter/Section sub-category, which does not appear in my search results.) From there, I can look at the listings under each tab, to see what turns up. (You can see this in the fourth slide of the attached PDF file.) Also note that each record gives a short bit of bibliographic information, lists a short abstract, and gives the list of descriptors for each record. And, unlike the old OVID platform, there is no search screen taking up three-quarters of the page.
   3. But, now, I want to refine my search a bit. So, heading up to the “Edit Search” link, just under and to the right of the reddish-brown “Browse” tab towards the top of the screen, I click on that. (I’ve circled this in the fourth slide as well.) As you can see on the fifth slide, there are several options available to me by which I can modify my search. I can add or remove rows to my search — which I won’t do now — I can change the date range — which I also won’t do — along with limiting my results to the latest update only (i.e., to the most recent quarter available.), including only journal articles (which I will check off), and limiting results only to English only (which I will also check off.) There is the option to change the database, but I won’t do that at present. Finally, I’ll set the search to show me the full record of each hit, and to list fifty records per page, mostly because scrolling through multiple pages listing only ten records at a time is about as much fun as watching paint dry. Click on “Search,” and you’ll see the results on the sixth page of the PDF file.
   4. From any of these results screen, I can click on in a record, and link either to the HOLLIS record or to the full-text, if available.
7. Search Tools – This version of Philosopher’s Index gives you three Search Tools, which may be of use to your searching. Click on the purple “Search Tools” tab towards the top of the page to access these. There is no Thesaurus searching in this version of the Index, so we will ignore that tab.
   1. History/Combine Searches — As you can see on the seventh slide, Philosopher’s Index keeps a history of your searches. Here, you can combine some or all of your search strategies to do larger searches.
   2. Command Search — The Command Search allows you to write your own Boolean searches, as seen on the eighth slide. This version of the Index gives you the code to write in so that you can set up your searches.
   3. Indexes –Philosopher’s Index gives you the option to search indexes for authors, journal titles, descriptors, and publication type, as seen on the ninth slide. These can be very useful if you want to see what a particular person has published, for instance, or to see what writings exist on a particular topic.
8. The “Browse” tab lists only social science journals published by SAGE Publications, and is generally not as relevant for philosophy as the other tabs are.

Summary

In general, Philosopher’s Index is the best place to start when you are looking for bibliographic information, to generate a list of resources about a person or topic, or to see what an author has published. Furthermore, the new CSA Illumina interface is much easier to use and navigate than the previous OVID SilverPlatter interface.

However, given the database’s limitations, it is generally a good idea to combine a search in Philosopher’s Index with one in Arts & Humanities Citation Index, or another such citation database.

Next week, I’ll look at Arts & Humanities Citation Index for my weekly review. As always, if you have a database that you’d like me to review, please let me know.