Spags with teh smarts.

[Salty]

How do I research?
Specifcally:
When I come across something like this
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1865485

How do I read the damned thing? Where's the rest of it? How? What?

I have tried to read things like this before and I can't even get as far as getting to the thing, which makes it difficult to actually, you know, process the contained information. I feel like a raccoon that can't get to the shiny.

HALP.

[Bruno]

Are you in school?

Ask your local/school librarian, he/she may be able to help you find what you are looking for.

I usually post a request in the Shroomery's Official Journal/ Academic Paper/ other authority request thread

http://www.shroomery.org/forums/showflat.php/Number/7880575/fpart/1

[moose]

I think you gotta sign in to view anything but the abstract. Or you can find it for purchase by highlighting the title and/or page numbers/journal title and then searching in a web browser. Not sure, I hate those school databases, I always hit the same kind of dead ends.

[Bruno]

Talk to the librarian. Those fuckers have PhDs in finding information.

Often your particular school won't have free access to the journal/publication you are looking for. It pays to know people at other universities who may have different connections through their school library.

[Kai]

How do I research?
Specifcally:
When I come across something like this
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/1865485

How do I read the damned thing? Where's the rest of it? How? What?

I have tried to read things like this before and I can't even get as far as getting to the thing, which makes it difficult to actually, you know, process the contained information. I feel like a raccoon that can't get to the shiny.

HALP.

Well, you've reached an abstract on PubMed. The abstract is a summary of the article in question. Scattered around the abstract are usually clues to the exact providence of the article. For example, the journal is listed at the top, with a numerical blurb including the year, volume, issue and page numbers. If you want to access the article straight from this page, you probably need access to a subscription that includes the Journal of Medical Primatology. Sometimes you can get these through a university service, sometimes not. The archives of science are unfortunately not open access (well, some of it is. Archive.org, for example, has the really old, out of copyright stuff, in part).

To find an article on a particular topic, I like to use article databases. PubMed is a good example, ISI Web of Knowledge is another. Most of the time you need a university service to access these, although some libraries subscribe to the lower tear of databases (EbscoHost, etc). The really good ones are important, because they mean you'll spend less time wading through articles you have no interest in, and more time choosing which of the relevant articles you want to go find.

Once I have an article citation, and if I can't get a PDF link from the database, here are the steps I go through.

1) Once I get an article I know I want, I do both a regular Google Web Search, and a Google Scholar search. The former sometimes turns up free PDfs. The latter, if nothing else, will turn up a full citation. Sometimes it will also link to the journal publisher, with a full abstract and a link to the pdf.

2) Here's where it gets tricky. Most journals require a subscription. If your university has that, great, you've got your pdf in hand. If they don't, maybe they have a print copy; you can check that in their online catalog. Welcome to the Stacks. I lived in there for months finding stuff. Some of the best stuff can only be found this way, because although it's old, it's not quite old enough to be out of copyright and therefore cannot be found on Archive.org.

3) If the article or book is REALLY old (pre-1940s), you may be able to find it the internet archive (http://www.archive.org/index.php), or in the case of stuff about species, biodiversity heritage library (http://www.biodiversitylibrary.org/). If you have access to a Jstor subscription, this can work wonders.

4) If you can't find it or can't access it through the above, and you absolutely must read it, the next step is interlibrary loan. Libraries are connected together by networks, public to each other and to the university libraries in the state, and the university libraries to each other across the country. The university library may have an interlibrary loan service online, or you may have to request in person. Either way, they will find the article for you, and will either send you the volume it's in, or send you a photocopy. Also, get ready to become close friends with the copy machine, because much of the good stuff is rare print. When you get ahold of it you'll want a copy. And if it's really old and there isn't a copy on archive.org, might I suggest scanning in a high res pdf and providing it for the world so no one else has to go through the same issue again?

5) The absolute final option is to go straight to the source. Find out who the authors are, email them or send them a letter (I've actually sent a handwritten letter to an old retired researcher who didn't have email). Explain your research situation and ask /nicely/ for a pdf or reprint. Many times they will be happy to hear someone is contacting them about their research and send you a copy. If not the authors, maybe there is a recognized expert in the field. Many of these old foggies have extensive libraries. They too are often more than happy to spend their personal time scanning and sending a copy. My mentor regularly does this.

If you can't find it in the above ways, you are either out of luck because it is so rare it doesn't exist, or it is just a (sometimes massive) expense you are just going to have to pay a publisher or rare book seller to get the info you want.

I have used all of these methods before, including purchase. This is just scratching the surface; I spent hundreds of hours of literature search and tracking to write my thesis.  If you want further explanation just let me know.

[Kai]

Using your article as an example, I Google searched "Journal of Medical Primatology", and discovered that the publishers don't even offer articles published prior to 1999. You can purchase the article in question here: http://pubget.com/paper/1865485 But there are cheaper ways to get this as I explained above.

[Nephew Twiddleton]

Alty- when do you need this article? They have it at my colleges library. If it can wait til next week i can see if i can scan it for you. Actually this goes for anyone- especially if its a medical journal since i work near harvard meds library and have access to it.

[Faust]

It's a pain in the ass that these aren't open to the public, especially so when I was out of college looking for work but still wanted to be up to date.

I just looked and my workplace has a jstor participation I'll have to try get a login

[Triple Zero]

Yeah, only after I left university did I notice how awfully locked up many publications actually are. If you're on a university network, most of those scientific journal download pages simply work without a hitch. The only thing I couldn't even get to from my university network were the IEEE publications, they didn't have a subscription for that one, which is kinda shitty if you're doing Computer Science, but we got by

Searchlores has some rough info about how to circumvent these issues and get to the juicy articles regardless:

http://www.searchlores.org/deepweb_searching.htm#quic

It's not a simple 123 process though, just a colourful description of a bag of tricks, that you need to try and persist and hope it works. Additionally where ~S~ suggests Google queries, you might also want to try DuckDuckGo or Yandex, because in the days those essays were written, Google Search was so much more powerful and less dumbed down than it is today.

The best trick is basically:

1. most if not all universities and university libraries have a good collection of subscriptions to journals
2. there are a LOT of universities, it does not matter which one you get
3. some of these universities might have open proxies or with guest or demo accounts or perhaps some poor student having leaked their login etc etc

[Faust]

I just got full access to the academic staff network, which includes some of the big databases. If there are any specific papers you are interested in that I might have access to just give me a shout.

[Kai]

Yeah, only after I left university did I notice how awfully locked up many publications actually are. If you're on a university network, most of those scientific journal download pages simply work without a hitch. The only thing I couldn't even get to from my university network were the IEEE publications, they didn't have a subscription for that one, which is kinda shitty if you're doing Computer Science, but we got by

Searchlores has some rough info about how to circumvent these issues and get to the juicy articles regardless:

http://www.searchlores.org/deepweb_searching.htm#quic

It's not a simple 123 process though, just a colourful description of a bag of tricks, that you need to try and persist and hope it works. Additionally where ~S~ suggests Google queries, you might also want to try DuckDuckGo or Yandex, because in the days those essays were written, Google Search was so much more powerful and less dumbed down than it is today.

The best trick is basically:

1. most if not all universities and university libraries have a good collection of subscriptions to journals
2. there are a LOT of universities, it does not matter which one you get
3. some of these universities might have open proxies or with guest or demo accounts or perhaps some poor student having leaked their login etc etc

I forgot all about searchlores. That website has some incredible research advice.

[Triple Zero]

I just got full access to the academic staff network, which includes some of the big databases. If there are any specific papers you are interested in that I might have access to just give me a shout.

DOWNLoAD ALL THE PAPERS!!!

j/k don't wanna end up like Aaron Swartz

I'll PM ya next time I hit a paywall cheers

I forgot all about searchlores. That website has some incredible research advice.

Yeah, a lot of it is getting outdated fast, but some of the stuff is quite timeless. I remember a long while back that I promoted the link and Nigel got a bit put off by the arrogant/pompous tone of nearly all the essays But that's just the tone of the place, they were mostly all good guys.

One day, when I get around to it I should try and contact the old guys see if the Seekers board community is worth reviving. I kinda owe that to +Fravia, I guess. But starting up a board is a burden I can't use quite yet.

[Salty]

Thanks a bunch for tips and offers for info!