MATH 1044: Discovering Mathematics II: Find & Evaluate
Recommended Resources
VT's University Libraries has over 1,000 databases! In order to select the databases most relevant to your research topic. Discovery Search indexes around 80% of these. I recommend that you start with Discovery Search. Then, if you want to look further, explore some of the other math specialty databases below as time permits.
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DISCOVERY (library search engine)Discovery replaced Summon as the library search engine in May 2018. Discovery includes records for books, articles, conference proceedings, theses and dissertations, videos, music, images, manuscripts, standards, maps, and all the records from the library's catalog. It indexes citations from over 80% of the journals to which we subscribe. It also has records from other publishers, government agencies, database providers, and the numerous other libraries that participate in Discovery. A single search in Discovery can return records from all of these sources. It can be related to Google Scholar, though Discovery has many advantages over Google Scholar.
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Mathematics specific databases:
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Math Subject GuideUse this guide to perform background research to refine a research topic, confirm terminology, and get a general understanding before finding books and articles to support a research project.
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Web of Science from Clarivate AnalyticsThe three Web of Science databases index citations from journal articles and conference proceedings in the sciences, social sciences, and arts and humanities. You can perform cited reference searches, analyze trends and patterns, and create visual representations of citation relationships. 1900-present
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MathSciNetMathSciNet is an electronic publication offering access to a carefully maintained and easily searchable database of reviews, abstracts and bibliographic information for much of the mathematical sciences literature. Use MSC (Mathematics Subject Classification): 01 (History & Biography)
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History of Science, Technology & Medicine from EBSCOhostThe History of Science, Technology, and Medicine database indexes citations and abstracts of journal articles, conference proceedings, books, dissertations, maps, and other materials on the history of science, medicine, and technology. 1600s-present.
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Lecture Notes in MathematicsThis series reports on new developments in all areas of mathematics and their applications - quickly, informally and at a high level.
Why Evaluate information from the web?
Information Evaluation Criteria
As you decide which resources to include in your research, here are some things to think about:
Authority: Who wrote it? What sort of expertise do they have in this area?
Accuracy: Is the author an expert? Is the supporting information cited and correct? Is it in alignment with other research findings or articles?
Objectivity: Are multiple viewpoints considered? Is there any bias? If so, how much?
Coverage: Does it present a broad overview of your topic? Is it detailed and well documented? Is it relevant to your topic?
Currency: When was your resource produced? Does this matter for your topic?
Audience: Is the audience easy to identify? Is the intended audience scholarly or a knowledgable one?
