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Citation analysis- Copyright
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- How to cite
- Keeping up to date with RSS
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- Open access publishing
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- The Scientific Method
- Social Bookmarking
- Standards
- Using search operators
- Watch a lecture (Collegerama)
- Working with EndNote
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- Glossary of used terms
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A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
Adjacent (operator): proximity operator, using this operator in a search means that all terms must appear adjacent to each other.
Alert: notification of new content. Database providers often offer automated alert services: once an alert has been set (constructed from a search), it will be sent periodically to the user.
AND (operator): Boolean operator, using this operator to combine terms determines that all combined terms must appear.
Article: a piece of writing on a specific topic or subject found in a journal, periodical, magazine, or newspaper.
Article database: a bibliographic database that contains predominantly articles.
Availability: the circulation status of a specific item or category of items in a library collection. For example, a reference work marked 'library use only' may not be checked out except by special permission. Under normal circumstances, an item marked 'available' in an online catalog can be found on the shelf ready to be checked out. In a more general sense, the capacity of an item to be seen, used, or obtained by a library patron, including reference materials and items in special collections for which access may be subject to certain restrictions.
Bibliographic database: a database which provides descriptive records of items such as books and articles. A bibliographic database allows the user to identify publications by author, subject, title, or other search terms. It generally provides at least a full citation to the item, and often other information such as abstracts and assigned subject headings.
Bibliography: a listing of bibliographic citations to books, articles, and other materials that are related to a topic; usually found at the end of the book or article, but sometimes appearing as a self-contained publication.
Blog: see Weblog
Book: a book is a collection of leaves of paper, parchment or other material, bound together along one edge within covers. A book is also a literary work or a main division of such a work. A book produced in electronic format is known as an e-book. Sometimes the term monograph is used as a synonym.
Boolean: a system of logic developed by the English mathematician George Boole that allows the user to combine words or phrases representing significant concepts when searching an online catalog or bibliographic database by keywords. See also Boolean operator.
Boolean operator: a logical operator (or command) used in a system of logic developed by the English mathematician George Boole. There are 3 Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT.
Catalogue: a comprehensive list of the books, periodicals, maps, and other materials in a given collection, arranged in systematic order to facilitate retrieval. Most modern libraries provide an online catalogue that contains bibliographic records of the available collection.
Citation: reference to an information source, which includes all the information needed to find it. See also Reference
Citation style: formatting rules for making a citation, quote or reference list.
Concept map: a diagram showing the relationships among concepts. See also Concept mapping
Concept mapping: a technique for visualizing the relationships among different concepts. Concept mapping can be used as a tool in defining a research topic. See also Concept map
Conference paper: an original paper presented at a formal gathering of peers, usually at the invitation of the group or organization sponsoring the conference, which may be subsequently published in its proceedings. In the sciences, ground-breaking research results are often publicly introduced in such presentations.
Conference proceedings: see Proceedings
Database: a collection of data; information stored, typically in electronic format. It may contain bibliographic, numerical or other data, generally structured so that it can be sought and retrieved automatically.
Database field: part of a record held in a database, containing specific information, e.g. author's name, title or keywords.
Database record: a group of fields that contain specific data describing the indexed entry of an item or subject, for example a piece of written work such as a journal article or conference paper.
Dictionary: a list of words with their definition or translation into other languages, usually arranged alphabetically.
Dissertation: a dissertation or thesis is a substantial academic work written on an original topic of research required for an advanced degree.
Document: a generic term for a set of information designed and presented as an individual entity. A publication is a good example of a document. Document formats can be for example print publications (books, reports, maps etc.) or electronic publication (electronic books, electronic journals etc.)
E-book: see Electronic book
E-journal: see Electronic journal
Electronic book: books that are available in digital (or electronic) format. An ever increasing number of electronic books (or e-books) are available at the TU Delft Library, but access is usually restricted to campus.
Electronic journal: journals that are available in digital (or electronic) format. A vast number of electronic journals (or e-journals) are available at the TU Delft Library. Also, a growing number of (often freely accessible) e-journals can be found on the Web.
Encyclopedia: a reference work containing information (articles) on various topics (normally arranged in alphabetical order).
EndNote: software tool for storing, managing literature references and creating bibliographies.
Et al.: Latin abbreviation of et alii meaning 'and others'. Used for example instead of summing up all authors of an article (e.g. Johnsson et al.).
Factual database: a database containing facts and/or figures (as opposed to bibliographic data), usually on a specific topic.
Handbook: a single-volume (compact) reference book that provides concise factual information on a specific subject, organized systematically for quick and easy access.
Impact factor: a quantitative measure of the frequency with which the 'average article' published in a given scholarly journal has been cited in a particular year or period; this is used in citation analysis. The impact factor is a measure of importance of scientific journals.
Import filter (EndNote): the files used by EndNote to transfer information previously downloaded from an online database.
Journal: a type of periodical, often issued by a society or institution, containing news, proceedings, transactions and articles about work carried out in a particular discipline.
Keyword: a significant word or phrase in the title, subject headings, contents notes, abstract, or text of a record in a catalogue or database which can be used as a search term in a (free-text) search to retrieve all the records containing it.
Knowledge Centre: see Virtual Knowledge Centre
Library: a collection or group of collections of books and/or other print or nonprint materials organized and maintained for reading, consultation, study, research, etc. Institutional libraries, organized to facilitate access by a specific clientele, are staffed by librarians and other personnel trained to provide services to meet user needs; By extension, the room, building, or facility that houses such a collection.
Literature reference: see Reference
MARC tags: MARC stands for MAchine Readable Cataloging. It is a standard record structure used to show bibliographic information in online library catalogues. Fields are 'tagged' using standard prefix codes.
Monograph: a non-serial work, complete in one part or set, usually on a narrowly defined single topic. For example, a book or pamphlet (as opposed to a periodical).
Near (operator): proximity operator, using this operator in a search means that all terms must appear in a certain proximity of each other (either left or right).
Nesting: in Boolean searching: the use of sets of parentheses to embed a logical operation within another logical operation to indicate the sequence in which the logical commands are to be executed by the computer (syntax).
Newspaper: a serial publication, usually printed on newsprint and issued daily, on certain days of the week, or weekly, containing news, editorial comment, regular columns, letters to the editor, cartoons, advertising, and other items of current and often local interest to a general readership.
Norm: see Standard
NOT (operator): Boolean operator, using this operator to combine terms determines that the term following the NOT operator is excluded.
OpenURL: a standardized type of URL that contains resource metadata for use primarily in libraries. The OpenURL standard is designed to support mediated linking from information resources (e.g. bibliographic record) to library services (e.g. full-text information). A link resolver or link-server parses the elements of an OpenURL and provides links to appropriate services as identified by a library.
Operator: A symbol (such as AND, OR, NOT, +, -) that represents an operation. see also Search operator; Boolean operator
OR (operator): Boolean operator, using this operator to combine terms determines that at least one of the combined terms must appear.
Paper: a brief composition, especially one prepared for presentation by the author at a conference or other professional meeting. Conference papers may be published in proceedings or transactions.
Parentheses: brackets used in online searching to indicate syntax in Boolean search statements in a technique called 'nesting'. See also Nesting
Patent: a licence issued by government that gives the holder exclusive rights to a process, design or new invention for a designated period of time. Patent documents contain information on inventions for which a patent is requested or has already been granted, or for which a utility model has been registered.
Peer review: the evaluation of a scholarly or creative work by other people in the field to ensure it meets specific (quality) criteria.
Phrase search: using quotation marks to force a search tool to find terms in a phrase only, e.g. ""solar power station"".
Plagiarism: the adoption of pieces of text, ideas, designs and theories from others without mentioning the source. Fraud is more broad than plagiarism, for instance, cheating during exams or doing nothing in a work group and yet profit from a collective mark both fall within fraud.
Portal: web site that is a major starting point or gateway to additional information on the Internet, sometimes general (like Yahoo) and sometimes specific (like the VKCs of the TU Delft Library). See also Virtual Knowledge Centre
Pre-print: a draft of a scientific paper that has not yet been published in a peer-reviewed scientific journal. As peer review takes quite some time (publication delay is at least several months and sometimes exceeds a year), pre-prints are the medium of choice to communicate current results within a scientific community.
Proceedings: the published record of a conference, congress, symposium, or other meeting sponsored by a society or association, usually but not necessarily including abstracts or reports of papers presented by the participants.
Proximity operator: an operator to determine a set distance and order in which your search terms should appear. The most common proximity operators are Near and Adjacent. There are many variants in spelling and meaning depending on the actual system you search, so always use the available help options of the system you are searching.
Reference: a conventional word or phrase used in a work to refer the reader to another part of the text (see above or see below) or a similar word or phrase used in an index, catalog, or reference work to direct the user from one heading or entry to another (see or see also). Also refers to any Latin phrase used in footnotes, endnotes, and bibliographies to refer the reader to works previously quoted or cited, for example, ibid. and op. cit. Sometimes used synonymously with citation. See also Citation
Reference Manager: software tool for storing, managing literature references and creating bibliographies. See also Endnote
Reference work: a compendium of information, usually of a specific type, compiled for ease of reference.
Refine: to alter a search in order to retrieve fewer hits. The use of the Boolean operator AND refines a search. This is also known as 'limiting' or 'narrowing' a search.
Report: a separately published record of research findings, research still in progress, or other technical findings, usually bearing a report number and sometimes a grant number assigned by the funding agency.
RIS format: a standardized tagged format developed by Research Information Systems (RIS) for importing files that contain any or all of the reference types allowed in a reference management database (such as Endnote or Reference Manager).
RSS (Real Simple Syndication): a family of web feed formats used to publish frequently updated content such as weblog entries or blogs, entries, news headlines or podcasts.
Same (operator): proximity operator, using this operator in a search means that all terms must appear in the same record field.
Search: a systematic effort on the part of a library user or librarian to locate desired information by manual or electronic means, whether successful or not, as opposed to browsing a library collection casually with no clear intention in mind.
Search engine: a tool or program which allows general or topic-specific searching for relevant sites or information on the Web.
Search operator: terms that are used to narrow or broaden a search. Some common search operators are the Boolean operators AND, OR, NOT.
Search plan: a plan on paper or in your head about how and where you are going to find the information you need. This is one of the first steps when performing a literature search.
Search string: a string of words or a phrase that is used to search and locate or retrieve a specific piece of information or file from a database or a set of documents. With some databases, or with advanced searches, the search statement may include words, Boolean operators and other characters such as +, = or *. Sometimes called 'search statement'.
Search term: a word or phrase representing one of the main concepts in a research topic, used alone or in combination with other terms in a search statement, to query an online catalog, bibliographic database, or search engine and retrieve relevant information.
SFX: an OpenURL link resolver used for interconnecting library-controlled resources and services. SFX (an acronym for 'Special Effects') provides users with dynamically created context-sensitive links to services (e.g. links to the full text of an article) that librarians define on the basis of their institution's e-collections and policies.
Standard: standardization is the process in which agreements on the basis of consensus are made between interested parties, concerning the specifications of a product, service or business process. The documents in which these agreements are recorded are called standards or norms.
Terminology: the meaning or synonyms of an abbreviation or a concept; Information about concepts and terms; Translation of concepts or terms.
Textbook: an edition of a book specifically intended for the use of students who are enrolled in a course of study or preparing for an examination on a subject or in an academic discipline, as distinct from the trade edition of the same title, sometimes published in conjunction with a workbook, lab manual, and/or teacher's manual. Also refers to the standard work used for a specific course of study, whether published in special edition or not.
Thesis: see Dissertation
Topic: a subject for research or discussion. Finding and formulating a workable topic is the first step in a research project.
Truncation (masking): replacing characters with symbols at the end, beginning, or within a word in a search to retrieve variant forms. It can for example be used to retrieve singular and plural forms of a word in the same search. Synonymous with character masking. See also: Wildcard
Virtual Knowledge Centre: a portal managed by the TU Delft Library to provide references to relevant information resources for specific study programs. You can find e.g.: sources of technical and scientific information (books, journals, databases, patents, reference works), other relevant and high-quality (Internet) sources (websites, congress agendas, newspaper articles and newsletter), specialists in the field of education and research, an overview of current research, and recent publications by TU Delft employees. In addition, you will be assisted in your efforts to search, find, assess and process information.
VKC: see Virtual Knowledge Centre
Weblog: a web-based publication consisting primarily of periodic articles, often listed in reversed peridocial order. Most weblogs are RSS-enabled. Weblog is usually shortened to blog, and occasionally spelled as 'web log'.
Website: a location on the (World Wide) Web usually containing a collection of hyperlinked documents and files.
White paper: an authoritative report by a team of experts; a government report outlining policy; or a short treatise whose purpose is to educate industry customers.
Wildcard: a special character usually used in the middle of a search term in a keyword search to retrieve results containing words with any character or no character in the position, useful for retrieving irregular plurals and variant spellings of a word. The wildcard symbol is not standardized, so you should should check the help section of the system you want to search. Often * or ? are used. See also: Truncation
With (operator): proximity operator, using this operator in a search means that all terms must appear in the same sentence."
| Disclaimer: Some of these definitions are common, others are used commonly. We respect copyright, but when definitions occur on multiple websites without proper reference, we cannot point to the correct source. |
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