What's where in the library
Be sure you can locate the the OSU Libraries Home Page and from there find these three links
You may also find the links to "Get help with a Subject" and "Demos and Guides" helpful.
To familiarize yourself with materials on the first and second floors use the floormaps (http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu/ locations/valley.html). A word to the wise:, the first floor, which houses most forestry material, seems complicated at first. On this floor we house older volumes of journals in "compact shelving" on the North side. Journals volumes from 1990 through last year are shelved with the books on the South side. The current year of print journals are unbound in display shelving in the Southeast corner. However, most of our current subscriptions are no longer received in print, rather they are receive electronically and can be found from the link to "E-Journals."
Copyright and Open Access
Honor copyrights: It is common for people to prefer electronic copies of journal articles as they are portable and seemingly easy to share with others. You should be aware that unless the copyright holder specifically states that you have permission to share their article via the web or distribute it, you are likely in violation of their copyrights. Unless the author specifically retained his/her copyright for a published article, more than likely it is the journal that has the copyright on that article. In most cases the publishers are making a good deal of money licensing electronic access to the articles in the journals they publish. So not surprisingly they will not want to find you have posted it on the web for free. The general exception to this is that employees of the federal government (notably the US Forest Service) cannot copyright or transfer copyright of their work.
Participate in Open Access: In addition to "open access" journals (free to the user), and a growing number of publishers (thanks to some legal and economic pressure) have liberalized their standard copyright transfer agreements to include the right of the author to "self-archive" pre-prints and/or post-prints in their local institutional repository (IR). At Oregon State University, that repository is the the "ScholarsArchive" located on the web at http://ir.library.oregonstate.edu/jspui/index.jsp . Items in such repositories are much more visible to your scientific peers and the world. Refer to the guide to Scholarly Communication for tips on how to become an active participant in open access.
Selecting Databases in Forest Science
When considering a database, it is important to be aware of its content including:
- Subject coverage
- Types of publications indexed in the database e.g., research journals, scientific magazines, conference proceedings
- Dates of coverage
This information is usually found indicated from the "i" on the database listing. It is tempting to limit yourself to databases that provide a lot of full-text coverage but you do this at your own peril. The point of databases (which index the content of journals) is to show you what is available. If the article you need is not available here at OSU, the library will do everything it can to borrow it from another library and usually this can be done within a week.
Here are some suggestions for databases to search for forestry and natural resource topics. As you use these, notice that each has a "help" or "search tips" screen which will answer most of your questions on the mechanics of searching in that database.
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AGRICOLA (EBSCOhost)
Important index for all areas of agriculture research and extension. Indexes the holdings (including many journals) of the US National Agriculture Library. The EBSCOHost platform also provides access to a homegrown database Academic Search Premier that you may find useful but not as comprehensive as the others listed here.
Coverage Dates: 1970 - -
Biosis Previews/Biological Abstracts (via ISI Web of Knowledge)
Important index for all areas of biological research. Indexes conference proceedings as well as primary research journals. Currently we get this on the Web of Science platform.
Coverage Dates: 1991 - present -
CAB Abstracts
"Parent" database for the database Forest Science. Same high quality with some added searching features but coverage begins in 1973 (should be fine for most topics).
Coverage Dates: 1973 - present -
Environmental Sciences & Pollution Management (ESPM)
Indexes a wide variety of literature related to the environment. Include Environmental Impact Statements.
Coverage Dates: 1967 - present -
Fish & Fisheries Worldwide
Use these databases if your topic of study includes a need to investigate habitat.
Coverage Dates: 1971 - present -
Forest Science
Indexes the peer-reviewed journals and agency report literature of all aspects of forestry and forest science; has a strong international perspective, but covers North America well. Considered by many the ultimate forestry database. The "parent" database to this is CAB Abstracts. It indexes all aspects of Agriculture and Forestry including economic and social issues from a research perspective.
Coverage Dates: 1939 - present -
Treesearch: USDA Forest Service Research Publications
Indexes research report series published by the US Forest Service and as of 2004, includes the full-text of all peer reviewed research published by authors employed by the USFS.
Coverage Dates: 2004 - -
Web of Science
The web version of Science Citation Index (SCI) and Social Science Citation Index (SSCI). Indexes the major peer-reviewed journals in all fields of science. Represents core life science journals defined as those most often cited in peer-reviewed research articles. Searchable by topic, author, journal name, cited author, and cited journal. One way to use Science Citation Index is to see who has cited core primary sources. The assumption is that authors of later works are working on similar research. If you do not already know everyone doing research in your area, this can be a way to break into their "invisible college."
Coverage Dates: 1970 - present -
Wildlife & Ecology Studies Worldwide
Indexes agency reports as well as peer reviewed journals. Note: Mac Users are unable to use this database. We are looking into, but have not received a good explanation for this. A complementary database from the same provider, with a similar search interface is Fish and Fisheries Worldwide.
Coverage Dates: 1935 - present
Limiting CAB Abstracts to Forestry
To limit a CAB search to articles related to agroforestry, forestry, forest products (e.g. those in the Forest Science Database) add this line to your advanced search
|
AND |
KK |
in |
CABICODE |
V |
That is add "KK" as your CABI Code. KK includes all aspects of forestry, forest products, and forest science research. For a brief over view of other CABICODES follow the read more link below:
Read moreCourse Instructor
- Lisa Ganio
- Contact:
Instructor's Website
Course Description
- FS 520 acquaints beginning graduate students in the natural resources to the scientific method and formation of good researchable questions.
Things to do now
Follow the read more link for things to do now that will make your literature review manageable later.
Read moreAccessing Library Databases
You want to make your case with the best evidence. The library purchases access to indexing databases which help you to identify articles on specific topics. Most databases are not freely available to the public and are only licensed to OSU Libraries for the OSU community of users. They are independent of the holdings of any one library.
To begin using these databases and locating articles in "peer reviewed" journals and other reliable resources, start on the OSU Libraries home page: http://osulibrary.oregonstate.edu,
- Click on "Databases," and then on the first letter for the name of the database you want.
- If you are not on campus, you will encounter the "ez-proxy server" asking you to "authenticate" yourself as a qualified OSU user by entering your ONID username and ONID password.
- Apart from this, you should never be asked for a username nor a password while attempting to use a database. If you are asked for one, this is usually an indication that the ports are busy. Just try again later.
Obtaining journal articles from OSU Libraries
- The indexing databases are independent of the holdings of any one library so you should expect that OSU Libraries will not subscribe to or own every journals you need. If you find reference to an article but are asked to pay for it (maybe you tried Google Scholar), be sure to try the library first.
- Citation Linker: If you have a reference and want to see if OSU Libraries subscribes to the electronic version of that journal (or some service that provides the full-text from that journal), click the E-Journals link on the Library's home page and look for the Citation Linker.
- 360 Link to Full Text: When you do a search in a database you should look for the "360 Link to Full Text" by each reference. Use this link to check if the library has a full-text version of the article. If not it will provide you with a link to check the library catalog so you can see if we have the journal in print. AND if we don't have either of these, you will find a link to the Interlibrary loan form needed to request it from another library.
- Online Catalog: Not all references are in journals so if in doubt, try the library catalog. You can borrow most books and bound items or you can photocopy/scan what you need from them.
- You may need to use Interlibrary loan (ILL) to obtain the articles but as explained above, we are trying to make that an easier process.
- Graduate students: You should expect that OSU Libraries will not subscribe to or own every journals you need. You will need to use Interlibrary loan to obtain the articles.
- When you find a reference to an article but are asked to pay for it (maybe you tried Google Scholar), be sure to try the library first.
Interlibrary Loans (ILL)
You can get a copy of any journal article not available at OSU Libraries by using Interlibrary Loan (ILL). This service is free to you.
You must have an ONID account to register for ILL. From the OSU Libraries catalog, look for the link to Interlibrary Loan and select "Log on for ILL Service." Consider registering now, before you actually need to request an article.
We are able to obtain the majority of requested articles within 3-5 days depending on the number of libraries owning the journal. Some requests take more time some take much less. On the rare occasion that the Library is unable to identify a lending library, we will try to get the information you will need to contact the author directly.
Articles come as PDF files that are sent you on a secure website for your use. You can also use ILL to request books (or chapters of books) if you are unable to locate then in the Summit catalog.
Finding the Earliest literature
Many if not most online databases were preceded by a print index. Some of these go back one hundred or more years. While you can do a good deal of retrospective searching using the bibliographies in articles you should be aware that the library houses many of the classic print indexes for the sciences. Should you need help locating these, let me know.
It is also a good idea to look for primary sources in Archives. For example, the University of Wisconsin Libraries, has begun a digital archive for Aldo Leopold , one of their notable faculty members. This collection will grow over time as more of his private papers are digitize.
Finding a Thesis or Dissertation
Theses and dissertations written by students at OSU will appear in the online catalog (and in Summit). They are housed in the library under the general call number LD4330 and then grouped by year and then by author last name. If you add the term "theses" to any keyword search in the OSU library catalog you will get theses and dissertations on that subject (or by that author) -- but only those from OSU.
Since 2006, theses and dissertations are submitted electronically to the ScholarsArchive@OSU with a link in the catalog to each document.
Dissertation Abstracts International is a database that indexes and provides abstracts for PhD dissertations and some theses worldwide. To locate these, you would need to use interlibrary loan ("request a thesis") unless they were from one of the universities in Oregon of Washington and appear in the Summit catalog.
Masters theses are often only cataloged by the local library but you can use WorldCat to identify these or for those written between 1900 and 1992 in the U.S. you could use the 7 volume work "Forestry theses accepted by colleges and universities in the United States" created by some dedicated OSU librarians of years past (these are available as pdf files).
Style Guides
Consistency is the rule of thumb in creating a bibliography. To this end, there are several style guides available and you can learn more about these from the library's page on Style and Citation Guides. Another approach for consistency is to select a journal of note in your field and follow the instructions to authors writing for that journal. To locate these, look for a link to "instructions for authors" on the journal's website or on the cover pages of the most recent issue. Since you will be citing some articles from the web, be sure to note their instructions about how to do this.
You may want to plan to use a software package like EndNote to organize bibliographic sources as you find them and later to reformat them for specific publications. This software is not free, but may pay for itself in saved time. Or you might consider using one of the free bibliographic services such as Zotero. The Library provides workshops on EndNote and Zotero several times during the year or you can learn quite a bit by visiting their websites as well.
