InfoMine's Mining Library Resources Guide
This guide outlines the process for finding and obtaining published papers using the Internet. It has been prepared by InfoMine's librarian with a special focus on mining-related database, library and journal resources available on the Internet.
The process involves several steps:
If you already know the exact reference, you can skip to Step 3.
The first step in finding information is figuring out exactly what it is you need to know. Before you start searching for a paper, narrow down your question as much as possible. Do you already have the name of an author, or a title? The more keywords you have to describe what you are looking for, the more you can focus your search and get better search results.
At this point you are trying to find the citations (author, title, publication source and date) and possibly the abstracts of publications that interest you.
There are databases available with large numbers of references and abstracts of papers. Most of these databases only cover a limited subject area, others are more general.
A good example for the a database covering a limited subject area is GeoRef, the database compiled by the American Geological Institute. It contains more than 2.4 million references, 80,000 are added each year. Unfortunately, the information in this database is only accessible through a library or through an expensive subscription to a database host like Dialog. The Institut de l'Information Scientifique et Technique offers a catalog database, as well. We have prepared a comprehensive list of mining- or geology-related databases.
Ingenta, the largest online database with 17 million citations from more than 28.000 periodicals, covers a wide range of subjects back to 1988 and is freely accessible on the World Wide Web. You can search by title keyword, author or journal title. Two other search engines for journal contents are Scirus and Google Scholar, they are useful for searching references in online journals that can be accessed through pay-per-view.
All databases have online help files to guide you through the process of searching, refining your search and interpreting the search results.
Before you start locating and ordering a hardcopy, make sure you have the full bibliographic reference. It needs to include:
If you don't have this information yet, please go back to step 2.
When trying to locate the hardcopy of a paper you are interested in, you are faced with several options:
The "Classic" Solution:
The Fast Solution:
The charges for online articles are usually between US$5.00 and US$35.00 for each document. An additional copyright fee may also apply.
Questions? Comments? Need help? Please contact InfoMine's .
You can also see the articles on our Librarian's Help Desk page.