Workshop 2: Literature Searching

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Using the Internet for Journal Resources

10-10:50 Tues 23rd Sept 2025, LB119 and LB203

Introduction

In chemistry we use multiple types of on-line resources, for example searching for journal articles, searching for information based on chemical structures and looking up crystal structures. In this first workshop we will be looking at finding the latest research in Journal collections.

We will open with a short introduction from each academic on their research area. Following this you have a small number of tasks to do , once they are complete raise your hand and your assigned academic will come to discuss the paper with you and mark your efforts. All marking is to be completed within the workshop time, the purpose is to be interactive and engage in discussion. The academic will be offering direct feedback during their discussion with you.

The workshop mark is for a pair and is out of 5

  • 2.5 completed set activities
  • 3 completed with help, and/or minimal team work
  • 4 completed with minimal help, worked well as a team and engaged in discussion
  • 5 as for 4 AND explored further, engaged in deeper discussion

Search terms and Student Groups


Prof. M Coles
10-11am Rm LB119, search term: aluminium (or aluminum)
  • group 1: Eric Young, Nate Brosnahan
  • group 2: Kate Wolfe, Sam Brown
  • group 3: Adrian Rae, Alex Callaghan
  • group 4: Mei Teh, Cameron Casey
  • group 5: Jasper Tait, Luke Clausen
  • group 6: Alexa Lee, Myesha Ibarra

Dr. K. McKelvey
10-11am LB203, search term: electrochemistry
  • group 1: Nistha Dev, Samuel Donoghue
  • group 2: Simon Nelson, Abi Geerts
  • group 3: Henry Murdoch, Zygmunt Grochowicz
  • group 4: Nur Alya Muhammad, Isla Hamilton
  • group 5: Ryan Lee, Alex Hay
  • group 6: Sophia Knoef, William Johnson

Assoc. Prof. R. Fulton
1-2pm Rm KK216, search term: germanium
  • group 1: Thomas Ru, Lucy Phelps-Barber
  • group 2: Isla Robertson, Freya Diggle
  • group 3: Max Ware
  • group 4: Abbie Potter, Kiara Flutey
  • group 5: Daniel Milmine, Wyatt Hart
  • group 6: Olivia Kusabs, Logan Jephson-Gear

Assignment (to be completed within the workshop period)

  • see here for detailed instructions (or use the Finding Journal Articles in the panel)
  • use SCOPUS to locate one paper published by your assigned academic from within the last 5 years =paper A
  • look at the paper on-line (at the source journal), read the abstract, look through the paper and save a tab with the paper open
  • discuss what you think the paper is about with your partner and then together with your academic
  • choose one reference from the paper (=paper B) and find it on-line, save a tab with the paper open, discuss how this paper relates to information in paper A with your partner
  • find one paper that has cited the article by your academic, ie that has cited paper A, (=paper C) save a tab with the paper open, if you have time, discuss how this paper relates to information in paper A with your partner

Things to think about before and after "marking"

  • How would you reference a paper in a report?
  • In writing a report how might you be critical about which papers to include?
  • Not all journals have the same "respect", how might a journals quality be determined?
  • There are other data-bases of articles in places like google scholar, ChemRxiv, each journal publisher also has a search engine for thier journal portfolio eg RSC journals
  • There are longer papers called review articles which summarise the knowledge of a field, can you find one?
  • There are shorter papers called communications which briefly report very new and high impact results, can you find one?
  • Our library pays huge amounts of money annually to give us access to a portfolio of journals, you will not be able to access these outside of VPN (have a go at home today)
  • There are predatory journals which do not have robust processes to evaluate articles before publishing, these are author pays for the article, payments are 1,000-2,000 NZ dollars per article, these journals have very low quality papers and frequently send academics unsolicited invite e-mails (as an academic you can get 1-5 these per day!). MDPI is a predatory publisher
  • There are open-access journals which do have robust processes before publishing, which do not charge you to read the articles thus researchers from poorer countries can access the research results. A problem here is that the author pays (1,000-2,000 NZ dollars per article), thus researchers from poorer countries have difficulty getting their research published in good journals.
  • An inexperienced researcher can have trouble identifying a predatory journal from a genuine well respected open access/author pays journal
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