The University of Otago Library has updated to the latest interface, for the SciFinder Scholar (CAS) database.
The database is now called SciFinder-n.
First time users must register to use the database, which you can do by clicking here. If you have previously registered using the old version of SciFinder, this existing login will work for SciFinder-n.
Click here to access a short training video from the J. Murrey Atkins Library on using the platform to find chemical literature & substance data, or get in touch with your Subject Librarian to find out more.
Evaluating and thinking critically about sources of information are important skills to develop and apply while undertaking research.
Not all information is reliable and appropriate for academic work, and not all information is relevant to your particular topic.
You should challenge and reflect on information that you find; don’t just accept everything you read.
Assess sources, based on:
OROKOHANGA - ‘The Origins’: The source of the information
MANA - ‘The Authority’ of the information
WHAKAPAPA - ‘The Background’ of the information
MĀRAMATANGA - ‘The Content’ and usability of the
information
ARONGA - ‘The Lens’ or objectivity of the information
Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:
SIFT - Evaluating Information Tutorial
Even though the library databases are good sources of information, we still need to evaluate that information before we decide to use it. You can do this by asking the following questions:
Use the acronym BADURL to help you evaluate online sources:
B ... Bias
A ... Authority
D ... Date
U ... URL
R ... Relevance
L ... Links
Work through this tutorial to develop your skills in evaluating information that you find online:
Or apply these terms to assess if the information you have found answers your research question.
Currency
Reliability
Authority
Purpose/Point of view
Nature Food is a monthly online journal publishing top-tier original research, reviews, comments and opinions on the theme of food, crossing the disciplines of food-related research in the natural, applied and social sciences.
You can now access the full text of articles from this journal via Library Search | Ketu.
For more information about this journal, click here to go to the publisher's website.
Elsevier’s parent company, RELX, has launched a curated collection of 50 book chapters and journal articles to support research into the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) marking Earth Day’s 50th anniversary. This open access special issue is devoted to sustainability, and covers a range of topics, including; energy, food science, transportation and waste.
'Article Link' helps you access full-text research articles in databases that the University of Otago Library subscribes to, and in Google Scholar (when you access it via the library website).
You may see Article Link represented as:
or Article Link
If we don't hold it in our library, we can usually get it for you!
Borrow books and get copies of articles, from other libraries, via our free interloans service.
Look for the 'Interloan' button at the bottom of the search results screen in Library Search | Ketu:
For help, check out the interloans webpage.
Use the links in Library Search | Ketu to both request an interloan, and to report issues with electronic access:
'Report an issue with this title' is a way to report issues with electronic access, or you can email the e-resources team.
An RSS feed reader (aka a news aggregator) is an automated way to keep up-to-date with new information posted online, including news sites, blogs, podcasts, and other media channels.
To use, sign-up to a feed reader (some popular ones are listed below), and then search for content within your reader to subscribe/add it to your feed. Alternatively, when you are on a website, look for the RSS icon to add the web address or link to your reader.
Most of the library databases and search engines allow you to create alerts to newly added articles that are relevant to your search history.
By setting up an alert on your searches, this feature automatically and systematically helps you stay current with your field(s) of research.
You can choose the frequency of email alerts, and in some databases, you can also choose to get an RSS feed of your search.
For more information, and some instructional videos, check out the Keeping up-to-date with research LibGuide.
Here are some resources to help develop your evaluating skills: