EES 491 Advanced Topics in Remote Sensing
Fall 2004
Goal:
-
To show how to use GeoRef, Science Citation Index on Web of Science, and other databases to find relevant literature.
-
Along the way, show how to do literature searches
NOTE: If you have questions about your project, contact Brian Simboli , x5003. Room 633 in Fairchild-Martindale Library.
TABLE OF CONTENTS
- JOURNALS FOR CLASS
- GEOREF
- WEB OF SCIENCE
- OTHER LIBRARY DATABASES AND RESOURCES
- OBTAINING COPIES OF PAPERS
Here are some journals that you may find useful for your research:
Print format (FM=Fairchild-Martindale)
-
Geophysical research letters. 550.5 G3455 1 JOURNAL FM 2nd Floor North
-
IGARSS International Geoscience and Remote Sensing Symposium. Summary Holdings: (1986-) 621.3678 I61i FM 4 North
- Journal of geophysical research. 551.05 J86 1 JOURNAL FM 2nd Floor North
Journals/Magazines for which we don't have subscriptions:
-
International Journal of Remote Sensing
-
Remote Sensing of the Environment
-
Earth Observation Magazine
Also, search in ASA for American Society for Photogrammetry and Remote Sensing related materials. Search on both the full name and the acronym ASPRS.
See also this webpage of journals for suggestions.
Getting to GeoRef
- Great place to start your literature hunt.
- Click here for overview and links to the software. GeoRef is on the library's webpage of database.
Searching GeoRef: OVERVIEW
- For your assignment, the goal of searching is to come up with really good documents, whether in print format or available electronically.
- To locate relevant items, run searches in GeoRef that come up with records, like the following:
-
This is not an article--it is a record with information about an article. (See information below on how to obtain copies of papers.)
-
Notice that GeoRef records are broken down into "fields" such as title, author, abstract.
-
GeoRef gives you additional fields, such as "descriptors", which enable you to obtain more focused results, as we shall see when we run some examples below
-
Descriptors are controlled subject headers assigned to records.
FOCUSED SEARCHING
Anyone can throw in a few keywords and bring up search results. But with a little extra effort, you can come up with really good results. Before reading further, if you are not familiar with the basics of online searching, see this Generic Searching Guide.
THE MAGIC OF FOCUSED SEARCHING
How do I find journal articles about remote sensing?
- Go to the library homepage, click on databases, and then select GeoRef.
- First, try a simple keyword on "remote sensing"A keyword search ranges over these "fields": Abstract, Source Phrase, Subject, and Title indexes. Limit to document type "serial" if you want.
- Scan through records that come up. Look at the "descriptors" for articles that look interesting to you. Again, descriptors are subject headers assigned to records.
- You will e.g. that "remote sensing" is a descriptor.
- Do a descriptors phrase search over "remote sensing".
- You know that these papers are "on topic" (and thus 'focused'), since they should not have been assigned the descriptors if they were not.
How do I further narrow the search results?
- You can narrow these search results by including further descriptors
in the search (using "and" between them).
- You can throw keywords into the mix, if a suitable descriptor is not available. (You can "truncate" these keywords using a "*").
- You can also limit results by year and document type.
- You can email or print the search results.
- Then see information below for information on how to obtain documents.
Note: Try out the feature at 
to find other relevant terms for searching.
1. For more information about GeoRef:
See GeoRef
Information Services
See also GeoRef
Subjects Covered
2. Following two statements are true of any FirstSearch database that Lehigh has:
Do not use the limit to full text feature. You may not get much of anything that is actually available in full text at Lehigh.
Items with the "library and book" icon are in our library. However, don't assume that if an item does not have that icon, that we do not have it. Check ASA.
When putting in search terms, you may want to use truncation and other special features, like proximity--see the help docs for FirstSearch
3. GeoRef
Preview Database
"The database consists of references to recent geoscience publications. Caution:
This data is in process for inclusion in GeoRef. It may not yet have been
indexed, been given a translated title, or been checked by a GeoRef editor
when you see it."
WHAT IT IS
A library database that lets you:
1. search for literature about a given subject, 1993-forward (journal articles,
some monographic series coverage)
2. start with a known paper (can be pre-1993) and find papers 1993 and later
that cite it.
ACCESS
Web of Science (hereafter, WOS) is available off the library listing of databases;
see information
and link here. NOTE: use this tutorial
(latest and greatest version). Select on-campus or off-campus
depending on where you are. If you are off-campus, you will be prompted for
your Lehigh login and ID.
To search WOS, click on general search. Enter your search term string. Set
search limits near the bottom of the page if you want. (Again, when you are
new to a field, it helps to begin by finding "review" papers that
give you an overview of a field. By virtue of being "reviews", these
papers can lead you to other papers.)
Now click on "search". A list of titles comes up containing articles.
Scroll through these to find one that of interest to you. Click on ones that
interest you to see their full WOS record.
What you see is *not* the full text of an article; it provides information
*about* an article, including an abstract. How do you get to the full text
of the article?
Click on "Lehigh SFX Links". This will bring up the SFX interface,
which will, let you access the full text of an article if it is available.
If you find, using SFX, that it is not available electronically, then off
the SFX screen you can access ASA, Lehigh's online catalog, to see if it is
available in print at Lehigh. Or, if if we still don't have it, you can click
on the ILLIAD (that is, interlibrary loan) option. The data is automatically
put in; all you have to do is submit the request. ILLIAD requires a one-time
ILLIAD 'registration' before using. (For further information
about obtaining articles, see below).
Finally, supposing you already know that an author is an important one for
the field you are searching, you can type in the author's name in the author
search area of the general search screen. OR, if you already know a good paper
(including ones that you found using another database), you can use the cited
reference search capabilities of WOS. Click on the Cited Ref Search button
near the top of the page.
OTHER LIBRARY DATABASES AND RESOURCES
(i.) ANNUAL REVIEW OF EARTH AND PLANETARY SCIENCES
The review articles in Annual
Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences are worth checking for bibliography
they contain.
Look for links for the following:
"Search for citing articles in: ISI Web of Science" "Alert me when: new articles cite this article"
This is a way to generate citations to new articles.
(ii). MCGRAW-HILL ENCYCLOPEDIA OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY
McGraw Hill Encyclopedia of Science and Technology provides a way to generate background information (including definitions of concepts) about your topic before you do further research.
(iii.) OTHER DATABASES
Other library databases may be relevant. Try these, using whatever subject header searching capability they provide. (Contact the science librarian for help).They may include but are not limited to:
Applied Science and Technology Abstracts
INSPEC and Engineering Index (searchable through a common interface--make sure you explicitly select the database(s) you want from the drag down menu.)
In general, see the library list of databases and drag down the "List By Topic" menu in the upper left. Selecting broad subject topics will bring up the databases for those areas.
-
We have used bibliographic databases to find references and abstracts for documents that look interesting.
How can you find out if we have a paper, journal, book or other type of document?
(1.) After doing your online search, see if there is an SFX link for the item. If we have electronic full text of a journal article, you can link to it from that link. To see what an SFX link looks like, see toward the top of the GeoRef record copied above.
[Note: if you have a citation and go here , you can link to full text if we have a journal article electronically.]
(2.) Or, check ASA to see if Lehigh has the item, whether it be a journal, a book, or some other material. Here is an example for a journal look-up: select "browse", type in the title of the journal, and then click "Journal Titles".
NOTE:
- A record will come up that shows you where the journal can be found in the library, if it is in print.
- Journals in electronic format have a link right out of the ASA record.
- Important: ASA does not identify specific articles--rather, titles of journals containing articles
(3.) You may want to see if one of the regional libraries has the item.
(4.) You may order an item through ILLIAD. Don't wait til the last moment to place ILL orders
Use of ILLIAD requires a one-time registration. ILLIAD is also available as a menu item off SFX, for use when we don't have the electronic full text or print of an item.
NOTE: a way to order books is via PALCI. See details here. By ordering books via PALCI, you receive reports on the status of your request via email.
An additional way to find paper or books. For journals, browse the tables of contents of recent issues or archived (bound) copies in the library, or look for relevant electronic journals browseable here by title or linked on ASA. For books, check the Dewey number for a book you like, then go to the stacks and browse in the book's vicinity to see if there are any other relevant materials.