Difference between revisions of "Literature searching"

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''Don't forget to try and answer the "Questions to think about ..." at the bottom of this page!''
 
  
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How can you find out what scientists already know about a particular astronomy topic or object?
  
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Searching the literature is an essential part of doing research. Nearly all the astronomical literature is online at
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'''Searching the literature is an essential part of doing research. Reading the literature is different than reading a newspaper article.'''
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[http://adsabs.harvard.edu/ ADS] (http://adsabs.harvard.edu/).  From anywhere, you can search via the ADS form, and read abstracts and old papers.  However, because the journals want you to pay for access to recent articles, you will only be able to read recent papers when you're connecting from a university internet domain such as caltech.edu (although your local public library might also have access).
 
  
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[http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fid SIMBAD] (http://simbad.u-strasbg.fr/simbad/sim-fid) is a slightly different database, with different strengths, weaknesses, and tools than ADS.  Try searching there too; you will probably find different information than at ADS.  Note that there are links between the two databases, such that you can move between them and take advantage of both resources.  (Note too that SIMBAD is based in France, and thus might be down for maintenance during their evening hours -- which is our middle of the day.)
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=Most coherent, developed, tested materials=
  
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ADS will cough up abstracts to proposals, abstracts from conferences without conference proceedings, full articles from conference proceedings, and refereed journal articles.  NB: that list is from least useful to most useful.  
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[https://youtu.be/xy0a2ablSCs Movie (25:35) on basics of astronomical literature searching] (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2022) -- newly updated!!
  
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SIMBAD tabulates data, but is notoriously unreliable at doing so. Don't believe any Vmags, types, or classifications of objects you find as part of their 'basic data.' SIMBAD provides links back to articles (and the data tables therein), though, which is ''far'' more useful. In SIMBAD, you can search by position, so you can find out, e.g., what other named objects are near to a region you care about. There may be other useful papers calling objects near your targeted region by those other names, rather than the name you're using.
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QbhT9wqdR5E Movie (21:54) on basics of astronomical literature searching] (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2016) 2nd half particularly out of date, sorry.
  
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[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Negz3lERk6I Screencapture tutorial] on literature searching, with particular emphasis on SIMBAD-based searching, designed for the 2012 C-WAYS team, but may be of some general benefit. Nearly 10 minutes long, sorry.
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DClJod4___c Movie (15:57) on how to read scientific literature] (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2016)
  
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= Questions to think about and things to try with literature searching=
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[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Z1G5g6oektA Movie (17:38) on a case study on how to read a scientific paper] with a goal of getting data out. It was for one of my IC417 teams, so it uses a paper relevant to IC417. (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2016)
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Try these examples below to be sure you understand how to use this form.  All of these are relevant to the IC 2118 project, but similar searches can be done for any topic.  Come up with your own answers and then you can [[discuss literature searching]] with others on this wiki.
 
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* Find all papers by Luisa Rebull, or another astronomer friend. Which are refereed, and which are conference proceedings?
 
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* Find all papers involving a target of choice, say, IC 2118. What is the most recent one?
 
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* Find all the previously known objects in a region of your choice, say IC 2118 (probably easiest to do in SIMBAD). Experiment with searching by name and searching by position.  Do you get different results for your object of choice?
 
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* Find the paper with the following reference: Rebull et al., 2008, ApJ, 681, 1484
 
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* How many papers have Luisa Rebull, Varoujan Gorjian, or any other mentor scientist you know published? How many refereed articles has he or she published?
 
  
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=[[I'm ready to go on to the "Advanced" Literature Searching section]]=
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'''[[Important note about publications]]''' (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2020)
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[[Literature: Observation and Inference]] by David Strasburger (NITARP alum)
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=Somewhat less coherent (or less standalone) materials=
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[https://nitarp.ipac.caltech.edu/ckeditor_assets/attachments/175/aasoverview.pdf?1578207631 "How to read scientific posters" portion of this NITARP kick-off workshop talk] (by Dr. Varoujan Gorjian; this version from the AAS workshop 2020)
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[[Literature searching worksheet]] (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, circa 2009 but updated slightly)
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=Other sources of interest=
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[https://astrobites.org/ Astrobites] is an AAS-supported site that is run by grad students. Every day, they pick at least one article from arXiv and summarize what the article is discussing, including relevant background if relevant. This is a great way for anyone (you, your students) to keep current on astronomical literature. They tend to pick important articles, so even if you don't want to read their summaries of the journal articles, you can take their paper suggestions and read the papers completely on your own. There are also summaries of really important papers from the past, as well as guides for students on careers and graduate school, and basics about telescopes, etc. There are even [https://astrobites.org/2017/06/11/astrobites-lesson-plans/ materials on using Astrobites in classes]; also see [https://bitescis.org/ BiteScis]. The same parent organization also has [https://perbites.org/ PERbites] which summarizes physics education research articles.
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[https://aasnova.org/ AAS Nova] is research highlights from the AAS journals. Some overlap with Astrobites above, but also some content unique to it.
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[https://xkcd.com/2085/ This specific xkcd comic]
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[https://arxiv.org/abs/2006.12566 Astronomy Paper Seminar Participation Guide & Reading Walkthrough],  Cooke et al. (2020), written for an undergraduate and graduate student audience. (Incidentally, this is an example of an astronomy-relevant paper that only appears  in arXiv, not in a journal.)
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01757-1?utm_source=natastron_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_41550_6_9&utm_content=20220915 How to plan your astronomy research paper in ten steps
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https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01759-z?utm_source=natastron_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_41550_6_9&utm_content=20220915 How to write and develop your astronomy research paper

Latest revision as of 21:53, 28 September 2022

How can you find out what scientists already know about a particular astronomy topic or object?

Searching the literature is an essential part of doing research. Reading the literature is different than reading a newspaper article.

Most coherent, developed, tested materials

Movie (25:35) on basics of astronomical literature searching (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2022) -- newly updated!!

Movie (21:54) on basics of astronomical literature searching (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2016) 2nd half particularly out of date, sorry.

Movie (15:57) on how to read scientific literature (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2016)

Movie (17:38) on a case study on how to read a scientific paper with a goal of getting data out. It was for one of my IC417 teams, so it uses a paper relevant to IC417. (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2016)

Important note about publications (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, 2020)

Literature: Observation and Inference by David Strasburger (NITARP alum)

Somewhat less coherent (or less standalone) materials

"How to read scientific posters" portion of this NITARP kick-off workshop talk (by Dr. Varoujan Gorjian; this version from the AAS workshop 2020)

Literature searching worksheet (by Dr. Luisa Rebull, circa 2009 but updated slightly)

Other sources of interest

Astrobites is an AAS-supported site that is run by grad students. Every day, they pick at least one article from arXiv and summarize what the article is discussing, including relevant background if relevant. This is a great way for anyone (you, your students) to keep current on astronomical literature. They tend to pick important articles, so even if you don't want to read their summaries of the journal articles, you can take their paper suggestions and read the papers completely on your own. There are also summaries of really important papers from the past, as well as guides for students on careers and graduate school, and basics about telescopes, etc. There are even materials on using Astrobites in classes; also see BiteScis. The same parent organization also has PERbites which summarizes physics education research articles.

AAS Nova is research highlights from the AAS journals. Some overlap with Astrobites above, but also some content unique to it.

This specific xkcd comic

Astronomy Paper Seminar Participation Guide & Reading Walkthrough, Cooke et al. (2020), written for an undergraduate and graduate student audience. (Incidentally, this is an example of an astronomy-relevant paper that only appears in arXiv, not in a journal.)

https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01757-1?utm_source=natastron_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_41550_6_9&utm_content=20220915 How to plan your astronomy research paper in ten steps https://www.nature.com/articles/s41550-022-01759-z?utm_source=natastron_etoc&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=toc_41550_6_9&utm_content=20220915 How to write and develop your astronomy research paper

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