Information literacy skills for

Engineering students
HW0288: Engineering Communication II
Improving your information literacy skills

Topic Structure Material

Searches Citations Resources

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 https://www.verywellmind.com/health-psychology-research-topics-2794787
Do you have a topic?
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 Getting ideas from other FYPs?

2. DR-NTU
1. NTU Papers (Restricted)

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 DR-NTU (Restricted)

2. After logging in:

Communities & Collections

1. Login

Information Literacy Skills for Engineering Students 5

Looking for FYPs

1.
Schools 2. College of
Engineering

4.
3. Your Student
school Reports
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 Found a topic? (other options for this lesson below)
 Aerospace:  Environmental
• Unmanned aerial vehicles • Indoor volatile
 Chemical & Biomedical: organic
• Magnetic nanoparticles compounds
 Civil  Maritime Studies
• Magnesium oxide cement • Global sulphur
 Computer Science emission cap
• IoT, home automation  Material Science
 Electrical & Electronic, Communication • Perovskite solar
• Wireless communication, wireless power cells
transfer
 Mechanical
• Localisation algorithm for autonomous
devices/robots • 3D printing

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 https://www.labics.it/img/projects/140/index/legno-axo2-low.jpg
How should you organize your literature review/background?
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 How do you structure your Background/Literature Review?

 What is your topic about?

 What do you need to
discuss and do research
on?
 How would you organise
your sections/chapter?
https://pro-papers.com/literature-review-writing

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 Identifying structure and keywords
Field
Sub-topic 1 Aspect 1
Your main
Sub-topic 2 topic Aspect 2

Sub-topic 3 Aspect 3

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Which headings may be relevant for your topic?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unmanned_aerial_vehicle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Magnetic_nanoparticles

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 Other relevant headings, keywords?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Internet_of_things
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Volatile_organic_compound

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 Any other relevant headings, keywords?

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sulphur_Emission_Control_Area

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3D_printing
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Perovskite_solar_cell

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 Possible areas for Background/Literature Review?
 History, trends
 Basic principles, definitions,
concepts, theories,
frameworks
 Existing models: strengths,
shortcomings, criticisms,
controversies, barriers, risks
 Classification, types
 Components, sources,
materials
 Features, functions,
properties, characteristics,
accuracy, behaviours
 Synthesis, manufacturing,
processing
 Markets, applications
 Social, legal, political aspects
 Design/development
considerations
 Safety and security
considerations
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 Possible areas for Background/Literature Review?
 History, trends  Features, functions, properties,
 Basic principles, definitions, characteristics, accuracy,
concepts, theories, behaviours
frameworks  Synthesis, manufacturing,
 Existing models: strengths, processing
shortcomings, criticisms,  Markets, applications
controversies, barriers, risks  Social, legal, political aspects
 Classification, types  Design/development considerations
 Components, sources,  Safety and security considerations
materials
How would you organise your material? General to
specific? By theme? Chronologically?
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 https://internshipntulibrary.wordpress.com/page/2/
How do you look for relevant material?
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 Which types of material can you use?

General Govt Academic

Books Newspapers Wikipedia
websites websites journals

Conference Company Professional

Patents Govt reports Magazines
papers websites websites

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 Academic sources

General Govt Academic

Books Newspapers Wikipedia
websites websites journals

Conference Company Professional

Patents Govt reports Magazines
papers websites websites

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 How do you choose keywords?
 More or fewer hits?
 Relevance?
 Type of material?
Academic/
scholarly?
http://blog.7search.com/?p=3215

 Number of 1. Use a single keyword for a search.

keywords in How many results do you get?
combination? 2. Add another word to the keyword.
What happens?
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One vs. multiple keywords: Number of results, first result?

26,700,000
results 7,220,000 results

Dictionary

Links to scholarly articles

Specificity
 Fewer, more relevant hits
 More scholarly material
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 Using keywords with Boolean operators
 AND (default): all words/phrases
must apply
• Fewer results (345,000 vs. 7.2 million)

 OR: any of the words/phrases can

apply (used when you get too few hits)
• More results (10.9 million vs. 345,000) Try using
 NOT: some words/phrases cannot Boolean
operators in a
apply search. How
• Fewer results (299,000 vs. 345,000) do your results
change?
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 Phrases
 “phrases in quotation marks”: adjacent words that occur in
that order
• To avoid getting too many results from the default use of the
‘AND’ Boolean operator

Try using quotation

marks or brackets in
a search. How do
your results change?
19.4 million vs. 1.09 million
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 Truncation
 Truncat*: Words that begin with those letters
• magnet* includes magnet, magnetic, magnetism, etc.

Google uses the wild card symbol only for WHOLE words

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 Wild cards
 Wild car*s: any symbol/letter can be substituted for the wild
card symbol
• Colo*r includes colour (British spelling), color (American
spelling)

Google uses the wild card symbol only for WHOLE words
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Information Literacy Skills for Engineering Students
Where do you search?
25

http://s18674.pcdn.co/wp-content/uploads/2015/01/iStock_000007301001Large.jpg
 Where do you search?

Google Google Scholar oneSEARCH Databases

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 Google vs. Google Scholar
 Number of hits  Relevance  Scholarly?

118 million vs.

0.883 million

Advertisement Journal article

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Google Google Scholar oneSEARCH Databases
Google Scholar options: Date range, sorting preferences

Selecting
date range

Sorting preferences

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Google Scholar options: Saving results

Saving results

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Google Scholar options: Citation information

Options to save
Citation citation details
statistics

Citation
information
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Google Scholar options: Related articles

Related articles

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Using Google Scholar: Hitting a paywall

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 Getting free
access?
 Library page
• Easy access to
full text

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Information Literacy Skills for Engineering Students 35
Look for at least one article using
Google Scholar. Try saving the
citation information, too.

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Google Google Scholar oneSEARCH Databases
 oneSEARCH vs. Google Scholar

Academic journal articles

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 oneSEARCH: Default vs. specific search

eBooks, Academic journal

books articles

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oneSEARCH: Other search options

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Accessing articles

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Reading the article

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Saving the article & citation information

Saving

Exporting
citation details

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Saving citations

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Full text not available?

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Searching the database

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Accessing an article from a database

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 Your turn!
 Look for a relevant article using oneSEARCH.

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Google Google Scholar oneSEARCH Databases
 What are library databases?
 Searchable catalogues of published resource
material
• Citation information
• Abstracts
• Full texts
 Types of material
• Books, reports, documents, etc.
• Periodicals: newspapers, magazines, journals, etc.
• Reference material: Dictionaries, encyclopediae,
etc.

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 Looking for databases

Databases

Engineering Village

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Engineering Village

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Refining by date and language

Date

Language

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Limiting the document type and choosing sorting preferences

Document type: Books, Journal articles

Sorting preference: Date, relevance

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449 results for ‘magnesium oxide cement’

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 Refining the search
Controlled vocabulary
Document type

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 Accessing the article, saving details
Saving details

Full text
Reading the abstract

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Reading the abstract first helps. How?

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Reading the full text
Remember to
download the
citation
information.

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Full text not available? Find it@NTU

No ‘Full text’: Click on ‘Find it @NTU’

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‘Go’

Enter the title

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‘PDF’

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 Your turn!
 Look for a relevant article using Engineering Village.

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Web of Science

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158 results for ‘magnesium oxide cement’

Sorting preferences

Citation statistics

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Refining the search

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Getting access to the full text

Full text

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Saving the full text and citation information

To save the article To save citation information

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 Your turn!
 Look for a relevant article using Web of Science.

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 http://thevisualcommunicationguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/10/MLA-FORMAT-BANNER-2.jpg
How can you manage your citations?
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Using EndNote to manage citations
1. Research
&
publishing 3. Download
support

2. EndNote

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 Citation needed

Open EndNote library and select the source

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 1. Go to EndNote tab

2. Insert Selected Citation(s)

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Automatic in-text citation

Automatic
References list

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Changing citation style

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 Automatic
change to
APA 6th

IEEE

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Using Microsoft Word’s References

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 Citing this
source?

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1. References tab
2. Insert Citation

3. Add New Source

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 1. Select correct source type

2. Check this box for all bibliography fields

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 1. Type in first
author’s first, 2. Click
middle, last names on ‘Edit’

Repeat for all the

3. Type in next
authors
author’s names

4. Click on
‘Add’
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 Fill in as many
details as you can

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 Don’t forget to
scroll down

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In-text citation appears.
References?
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 1. Click on
‘Bibliography’

2. Select the
option with
‘References’ as
the heading

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 References appear

Click on ‘Style’ to change

the citation style

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 APA 6th

Automatic
change to IEEE

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 Try adding an in-text citation using Microsoft Word?
 Authors: Qingyu Zhu, Geoff D.  Year: 2016
Moggridge, Mohamed Ainte, Mick D.  Journal:
Mantle, Lynn F. Gladden, and Chemical
Carmine D’Agostino Engineering
 Title: Adsorption of pyridine from Journal
aqueous solutions by polymeric  Volume: 306
adsorbents MN 200 and MN 500.  Pages: 67-76

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Other citation generators

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What other NTU Library resources can you use?
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Information Literacy Skills for Engineering Students 91
Subject
Guides

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Information Literacy Skills for Engineering Students 93
Information Literacy Skills for Engineering Students 94
Information Literacy Skills for Engineering Students 95
 Feeling more confident?

Topic Structure Material Searches Citations Resources

Look at Identify Identify Use the Manage Use

other topics for academic best your available
FYPs research sources & method to citations resources
keywords search

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