Information Skills Sessions

​Duration: 1.5 hours

I. Contents

1. What is SCOPUS:

i. Abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature

ii. Includes scientific journals, books and conference proceeding

iii. Subject areas: science, technology, medicine, engineering, social sciences, arts & humanities, etc.

2. Accessing to SCOPUS

i. via A-Z Database.

ii. Create account and sign-in.

3. Searching SCOPUS

i. Affiliation search.

ii. Author search.

iii. Document search.

4. Analyse search results to find out:

i. Research trends.

ii. Key influencers.

iii. Potential collaborators.

iv. Sorted by and cited by to find most impactful books / articles

II. Learning Outcome

1. Student able to identify and explain that SCOPUS is a multidisciplinary database and determine which type of information meets the need.

2. Student able to access the database from the Library website.

3. Student able to conduct a search in SCOPUS such as affiliation search, author search and document search.

4. Student able to understand how SCOPUS can benefit one's research activity by demostrating the ability to use the tool to analyse search results.

Need further details? Contact Goh Wei Haan at whgoh@sunway.edu.my.

​Duration: 1.5 hours

I. Contents

1. What is ProQuest Dissertations and Theses (PQDT):

i. Citations, full text records and data sets

ii. Multi-disciplinary, multi-lingua, multi-cultural scholarship sources

2. Accessing to PQDT

i. via A-Z Database.

ii. Create account and sign-in.

3. Searching PQDT

i. Search titles of dissertations.

ii. Search authors of dissertations and discover their supervisors.

iii. Discover dissertations written in non-English Languages - alternate titles.

4. Analyse dissertations by Advisor name results and institution:

II. Learning Outcome

1. Student able to identify and explain that SPQDT is a multi-displinary, multi-lingua, and multi-cultural database of Msater's and Doctoral works contributed by research institutions, and detemine which type of works that best meets the need. They are able to find out what research had benn conducted in a particular discipline.

2. Student able to access the database from the Library website.

3. Student able to identify different fetuers and parameters in the search tool. They are able to conduct a search in PQDT such as title search, author search and also discover theses in other languages.

4. Student able to identify supervisors / advisors that are expert of a particular field or dissertations published by an institution by demonstrating the ability to use the tool to analyse the search results of dissertations.

Need further details? Contact Goh Wei Haan at whgoh@sunway.edu.my.

​Duration: 1.5 hours

I. Contents

1. Be aware of Researcher ID in different platforms:

i. ORCID (ORCID ID).

ii. SCOPUS (SCOPUS Author ID).

iii. Publons: Web of Science (Researcher ID).

iv. Google Scholar Citation Profile

2. Research Performance Indicators

i. Research productivity.

ii. Citation.

iii. Research performance or metrics.

3. Problems with researcher profiles

i. multiple name formats, email addresses, password, affiliation

II. Learning Outcome

1. Researchers will be able to create Author / Researcher ID.

2. Researchers can track research productivity.

3. Researchers are aware of inconsistencies in creating profiles resulting in multiple profiles.

4. Compare and contrast different research ID platform.

Need further details? Contact Goh Wei Haan at whgoh@sunway.edu.my.

​Duration: 1.5 hours

I. Contents

1. Search strategies

a. Advanced Search.

- Boolean operators (AND, OR, NOT)

b. Find related terms and synonyms. 

- Use thesauraus - EBSCO, Proquest

- Read abstrct of article

- Browse subject from relevant article

c. Use symbols in searching.

- Wildcards

- Truncation

- Phrase searching

2. Save searches

- Advantages

- How to save and retrieve searches from SearchAll

- How to save and retrieve from Proquest

- Folders: create, share, return/combine

3. Create Alert and RSS Feeds

a. Explarin create journal alerts

b. Explain RSS Feeds

c. Demo creating journal alerts and RSS feeds from

- SearchAll

- A-Z List of E-Journals

- Single article

II. Learning Outcome

1. Student should be able to manage searches using advanced search features.

2. Student should be able to save and retrieve searches.

3. Student should be able to Create Journal Alert and RSS Feeds.

Need further details? Contact Goh Wei Haan at whgoh@sunway.edu.my.

Duration:1.5 hours

I. Contents

1. Introduction to Google Scholar :

a) Overview of Google Scholar

b) Types of content available (Peer-reviewed journal articles, books and book chapters, Conference papers, theses and dissertations, patents and legal cases

2. Why use Google Scholar:

a)Broad scope of sources and interdisciplinary research

3. Building effective search strategies:

a) Difference between Basic Search vs Advanced Search

4. Using search operators:

a) AND / OR / NOT operators

b) Quotation marks for exact phrases

5. Time and Source Filters:

a)Filtering by time: finding the latest research

b)Filtering by source: searching within specific journals or by author

II. Learning Outcome

1. Students will be able to identify the types of content it indexes

2. Students are aware of the various types of academic resources available in Google Scholar

3. Students can apply basic and advanced search strategies to retrieve relevant materials

4. Students will be able to use Boolean search operators (AND / OR / NOT)

5. Students will be able to compare search results before and after applying filters

Need further details? Contact Goh Wei Haan at whgoh@sunway.edu.my.