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RMIT University Library GEOM2071 Research Methods - Assignment 1 Name: Student No: Telephone: Your email: Program:

Instructions - Download and complete assignment “GEOM2071 Research Methods Assignment” - Submit assignment via email to Dr Suqin (Sue) Wu [email protected] by Friday 22 March

1. Explain your research topic in 50-200 words.

2. Identify the main aspects of your topic and list the keywords for each aspect. Make sure you include synonyms, alternative terms, plurals, and acronyms where appropriate.  Consult dictionaries, encyclopedias and thesauri. The Library subject guides list useful dictionaries, encyclopaedias and thesauri.

3. Convert your list of keywords into a search statement using linking words (i.e. Boolean operators: AND, OR, NOT).  Refer to the GEOM2071 tutorial for help if necessary. See Tutorial 1 Part 3. Search operators, or use the following example as a guide:

Figure 1. Search example

GEOM2071 Research Methods Author: Robyn Phillips& Kefei Zhang Save Date: 06/03/2013 Page 1 of 2 4. Name two Library databases that you will use to search for your topic.

5. Use these databases and the search strategy you devised in in Question 3 (above) to find 10-15 key references from the last 4 years for your research topic. Create a standalone bibliography from your EndNote Library in the Harvard style for these references. We encourage you to use EndNote to create your bibliography; otherwise, refer to our Referencing guides for assistance. (In EndNote, the current version of Harvard is Harvard ed6v9). Example of a journal article in Harvard style: Taylor, CM, Karunaratne, CV & Xie, N 2012, ‘Glycosides of hydroxyproline: some recent, unusual discoveries’, Glycobiology, vol. 22, no. 6, pp. 757-767.

6. Select two articles from this list that have been cited (hint: check Scopus or Web of Science) and are peer-reviewed (i.e. not in conference proceedings or magazine style publications). Copy and paste the details of the 2 articles with the number of citations from the database.

7. Select 5 journals from your bibliography and provide the Journal Impact Factor for each. (hint: use Journal Citation reports)

8. Provide a list of 5 prominent researchers in your field of interest. What are their citation counts and h- index from Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar (beware, they made be different!) Provide data (table or graph) over last 10 years for 2 of them.

9. Search the database, Dissertations and Theses Full Text (ProQuest) to find a thesis relevant to your research topic. Give the bibliographic details for the thesis in the Harvard style.

10. Plan a current awareness strategy to keep your research up-to-date, and to stay aware of developments in your field. Find ideas at the Staying current with your research Library subject guide. What will you do? List at least three different resources that you will use.  For example, set a search alert or; set up an RSS feed or citation alert to be advised when the key articles for your research are being cited by others … in which databases?...; subscribe to a relevant internet list; follow the blog your supervisor follows, etc.

GEOM2071 Research Methods Author: Robyn Phillips& Kefei Zhang Save Date: 06/03/2013 Page 2 of 2