The University of Birmingham

School of Computer Science

06-06991 Research Skills

Continuous assessment

The assessment takes three parts: two investigations (citation analysis and currency analysis) with a written report and an oral presentation. The presentation is worth 30% of the final mark; the citation service evaluation is worth 35% of the final mark; the currency analysis is worth 35% of the final mark.

Oral presentation

(Learning Outcome 4)

The task is to give a talk on your first semester mini-project topic or PhD topic in 20 minutes (including time for questions). The talks will be to the remainder of the students following the 06-06991 Research Skills course plus other members of the School who wish to attend. A title and informative abstract must be emailed to the module tutor at least two working days before your talk. (Learning Outcome 4).

There will be a trivially small prize for the MSc student and research student voted the best speakers by their peers.

Presentations will be held on:

• Tuesday, 20^nd November 2012, 12.00-13.00, UG10 Learning Centre
• Thursday, 22^nd November 2012, 13.00-14.00, UG10 Learning Centre
• Tuesday, 27^th November 2012, 12.00-13.00, UG10 Learning Centre
• Thursday, 29^th November 2012, 13.00-14.00, UG10 Learning Centre
• Tuesday, 4^th December 2012, 12.00-13.00, UG10 Learning Centre
• Wednesday, 6^th December 2012, 13.00-14.00, UG10 Learning Centre
• Wednesday, 9^th January 2013, 14.00-17.00, UG06 Learning Centre
• Wednesday, 16^th January 2013, 14.00-17.00, B23, Mech Eng
• Wednesday, 23^rd January 2013, 14.00-17.00, B23, Mech Eng

Order of presentations and venues are here.

If you swap the time slot of your presentation with someone else, please email the tutor with the details of the swap - and include the person with whom you have swapped in the email.

Written work

Part 1: Evaluating citation services

(Learning Outcomes 1, 2 & 3)

Objective

To evaluate three competing citation-based search engines: CiteseerX, Google Scholar and Web of Science.

Method

Select one issue of two different refereed journals related to your MSc mini-project or PhD topic. The issues should be no more than five years old and no less than three years old. For each research paper in each issue, retrieve the citations of each paper using CiteseerX, Google Scholar and Web of Science. Use the data you have generated to form the results of the experiment and draw conclusions from your findings. Your conclusions should enable you to comment on the relative effectiveness of CiteseerX, Google Scholar and Web of Science in searching for literature in your topic.

URLs

Relevant URLs are:

• CiteseerX: http://citeseerx.ist.psu.edu/
• Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.co.uk/
• Web of Science: http://wok.mimas.ac.uk/

Part 2: Coverage and currency analysis

(Learning Outcomes 1, 2 & 3)

Objective

To evaluate the coverage and currency of five abstracting and indexing services.

Method

Select three journals from your subject area of your PhD research or MSc mini-project topic for which the University Library has an electronic subscription. Select five indexing and abstracting services (including Google Scholar and Inspec and three other computing-relevant services of your choice).

Ensure that the five services do index your chosen journals, for instance by finding a paper from each journal that is at least two years old or by consulting lists of journals indexed by these services.

Starting with the most recently available issue of each journal, assess the time lag between the electronic publication of the journal and its appearance in the chosen indexing and abstracting services. (Obviously, if papers from the most recent issue of a journal are not in a service, you will have to use the previous issue and so on, until you find papers in the indexing service.)

Use the data you have generated to form the results of the experiment and draw conclusions from your findings. Your conclusions should enable you to comment on the coverage and currency of the chosen indexing and abstracting services.

URLs

Relevant URLs are:

• Compendex: http://www.engineeringvillage2.org
• Google Scholar: http://scholar.google.co.uk/
• Inspec: http://www.engineeringvillage2.org

Part 3: Report writing

(Learning Outcome 4)

Present your work for Parts 1 and 2 in the form of a journal paper with:

• introduction/motivation;
• description of your method;
• results;
• discussion of results/conclusions.

It is not necessary, on this occasion, to include the discussion of related work that is a normal part of a journal article.

Your report should also include:

• a reference list including any paper you mention in the text of your article;
• correctly formed references from your text to items in the bibliography;
• an appendix giving sufficient information about your searches that would enable them to be repeated by another person.

You should use a journal style sheet of your choice and include in your paper a statement of which style you have chosen.

Hand in date for written work: Noon, Tuesday, 8^th January 2013.

Work should be handed in to the School's reception with a cover sheet. You will be given a receipt.

P.J.Hancox

12^th November 2012