13 The Article - Searching Specific Formats (Information Research)
Description
This article is from the Information Research FAQ, by David Novak david@spireproject.com with numerous contributions by others.
13 The Article - Searching Specific Formats (Information Research)
links and more at http://spireproject.com/article.htm
Articles hold a definitive value, a statement of quality and currency.
Sometimes articles are long, unique and informative works. Sometimes
articles are short, simple, trite; a rehash of common knowledge. There
is a range of ways to access articles - though none are particularly
inexpensive. We also have difficulties paying copyright - so most paid
research assistance is restricted to certain, more expensive tools. In
all, articles are cumbersome, cumbersome and time-consuming to work
with. They can also be brilliantly rewarding.
There are three difficulties with article searches:
1_ Finding the articles which interest us.
2_ Getting our hands on a copy. (Many articles you locate may be
impractical to access in person while electronic access can be
expensive.)
3_ Copyright permission, (which can be potentially simple or
exceedingly expensive).
Of course, the main stay of article research is photocopying an article
directly from a journal. Find a library nearby which holds the journal
then read or photocopy it then and there. This process can be improved
by using the online library catalogues (to see if they hold the
journal) and by searching a database of library holdings (often
available for free by asking or calling a librarian at your state
library). As you could expect, some commercial businesses will
undertake this work on your behalf, for a fee.
The difficulty with this process, of course, is this does not help you
discover what articles will interest you - this only works if you have
a useful bibliography to work from.
In recent years, a concerted effort has been made to bring you full
text articles electronically. Commercial databases in general have
moved from being strictly bibliographic to many full text articles. A
system of full text articles on CD-ROM has a brilliant future. Up to
500 journals are updated frequently in this inexpensive format. (Most
Research Libraries have this station.)
Some of the commercial full text databases have emerged online too.
Northern Light presents this. Unfortunately, the better quality
articles are not included in these databases. It is not an absolute
rule but to date, many of these commercial databases are filled with
regional business papers, newspapers or similar middle to low quality
publications.
There is another system for accessing articles, which comes to us from
a very long time ago. Inter-library loans are a system worked out
between libraries so articles can be exchanged between libraries.
Naturally you need the assistance of a library - and a great deal of
patience. Such requests can take over a month to arrive.
Lastly, there is always the option of direct purchase of periodicals
from the publisher.
Commercial Services
Carl Uncover service (fatback articles).
CARL (http://www.carl.org) is one of the great library groups in North
America established a service to provide articles by post or fax. Carl
promises to fax articles provided you use their system to check one of
their many libraries has the required document.
Northern Light - online database of articles
Northern Light (http://www.nlsearch.com) is a search engine of both the
web and their own database of articles available for purchase. The
rates are cheaper than Carl (up to $4.00 per downloaded document) and
the articles are delivered over the internet (not faxed) but the range
is smaller.
Information Theory
Many of the databases will begin to offer their services either as a
pay-per-view, or through reasonable direct subscription methods on the
internet. This has been predicted for years but depends on the
emergence of a fine way to purchase cheap items on the internet:
digital money. No effective digital money has emerged yet, and most
databases will either wait, or try one of the existing incomplete
methods. Essentially, critical mass has not yet arrived, and it now
appears that the true fall in price of information is waiting on an
effective digital money. In preparation, magazines and newspapers are
purchasing all the rights possible - especially the electronic rights.
More appears on this topic later.
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