Finding and citing published information

The ability to find scientific information is a skill required for many exercises in your degree programme. You will need to research facts and published findings as part of writing essays, literature reviews and project introductions, and when amplifying your lecture notes and revising for exams. You must also learn how to follow scientific convention in citing source material as the authority for each statement you make. 

Browsing in a library - this may turn up j. interesting material, but remember the books on the shelves are those not 

Exarnple T eJii c /norgan/c Chemist, Srd edn -By, D.F.jifiriyiT and P.W. Atkms (1999 0xfdfdjl iversi PresI) js likelv to. be classifil. aS fdll6wsEi -,-= -  

Library of Congress system QD146-197 where Q refers to science 1  

You are unlikely to delve into the primary literature for these purposes -books and reviews are much more readable If a lecturer or tutor specifies a particular book, then it should not be difficult to find out where it is shelved in your library, as most libraries now have a computerized index system and their staff will be happy to assist with any queries. If you want to find out which books your library holds on a specified topic, use the system s subject index. You will also be able to search by author or by key words. 

Browsing in a library - this may turn up interesting material, but remember the books on the shelves are those not currently out on loan. Almost by definition, the latter may be more up to date and useful. To find out a library s full holding of books in any subject area, you need to search its catalogue (normally available as a computerized database). 

Example The book Inorganic Chemistry, 3rd edn, by D.F. Shriver and P.W. Atkins (1999 Oxford University Press) is likely to be classified as follows  

Computer databases - several databases are now produced on CD-ROM for open use in libraries (e.g. Medline, Applied Science and Technology Index). 

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The ACGIH publishes an updated TLV listing each year, and also publishes periodically a volume that summarizes the rationale for establishing the TLV, the Documentation of TLVs and BEIs . Some TLVs are shown in Table 6.2.2.1. For example, you will find mercury had a recommended TLV of 0.025 mg/m in 2000 and this limit is 4 times lower than the 1968 TLV cited in Incident 6.2.2. , demonstrating how TLVs are updated with new information. (See Chemical Connection 6.2.2.1 What Is a ppm )... 

A relevant citation not only provides the needed content, that is, data and information, it also contains clues to find other relevant citations. The author(s) may have published other relevant articles that can be found with an author search. Future authors publishing on this same topic may have cited this article in their own publication. Science Citation Index provides cited reference searching. The citation can be used as a Rosetta stone to determine the appropriate index term(s) for each bibliographical database searched. Some databases now offer a search command, find related articles, that automates this process. 

Due to the large number of topics to be addressed in the present volume, we have found it impossible to provide a complete review of the available literature. We anticipate that the interested reader will regard the discussions as a starting point and find additional references by consulting publications cited here. The periodic international assessments of the state of the ozone layer, published by the World Meteorological Organization and the United Nations Environment Program, provide additional information. 

To establish that your prospective supervisor and coworkers do publish their research, ask for copies of their publication lists, which should cite articles they wrote and the patents granted them. These lists demonstrate how often those scientists publish, while their articles and patents show that the results they report were obtained at the company where they work. The Author Indices of Chemical Abstracts also furnish this information. If you visit the Web site of the U.S. Patent and Trade Office (www.uspto.gov), you can search the Bibliographic Database by an inventor s surname to find the patents granted her. 

It should be mentioned here that I have endeavored to cite everybody who has made significant contributions to the field of Electrocrystallization. However, I feel sure that many excellent papers have been missed and I apologize to those colleagues who will not find their names in my References. It is a matter of lacking information and/or poor memory, not of bad intention. I should add that I always tried to cite the authors original publications, even when they have been published a long time ago. I realize that it would be more convenient for the reader to find the information needed in some recent review of another author, in which those publications have been mentioned and even discussed. This is, however, my way to pay tribute to our predecessors. 

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