After what I thought was a ground breaking epiphany of information resource 'awesome-ness' on Friday, back to the real world. Now that I see that Elsiever is the publisher and thus is picky enough to only promote their publications I feel that I've had a great experience in the next question- Interdisciplinary cross over would most definitely complicate any scientist's information seeking behavior.
In Rebecca Saxe's case, not only must she be able to find information on the biological workings of the brain, she must also be open to the constant stream of psychological and philosophical theories that pass through publications, forums, and conferences. It is very doubtful that Saxe would ever find a publication that would include all areas of her research or a conference that focuses specifically on her desired balance of biology, chemistry, neurology, psychology, and philosophy-- and whatever else she decides to throw in. Therefore, she must (as any librarian must also become accustomed to) be willing to search a variety of sources both traditional and non for research findings that could be woven together to serve her needs. As I have learned through 'googling' sometimes the best answers come from the most surprising places. In the name of science, a forum of scientists openly discussing their findings and theories could create new partnerships and spark new ideas.
Databases like Science Direct though would be most helpful since searching for a key word would produce articles from a variety of sources as in this age of technology it is hard to imagine that any non - librarian really spends time leafing through the latest journals. Electronic access is quickly taking over and as a result publications from a multitude of disciplines can be combined and searched in tandem easing the researching dilemmas of cross-over scientists utilizing a combination of disciplines to discover awesome things.
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Good insights!
ReplyDeleteI think you make an excellent point that with an interdisciplinary interest such as Rebecca Saxe has, information-seeking can be complicated. She would have to be extra vigilant and pay attention to all the different conferences and publications that pass through the numerous subjects she focuses on. My scientist's research interests are interdisciplinary as well. I didn't take into account the difficulty he may be having with keeping abreast of all the current information. Perhaps that is why he relies on several specific conferences and journals: he knows they are reliable and can therefore spend less time doing random database searches and more time paying attention to the next journal publication or conference proceedings.
I think sciencesearch's comment on relying on known conferences and journals may by what my scientist does. From poking about ISI I was reacquainted with just how huge the computer science field is and just how many resources there are out there.
ReplyDeleteI can still imagine scientists leafing through the latest issue of "Science" or "Nature" (probably not reading all of the articles obviously but there will usually be at least one, I would think, that might strike an interest). Scientists are people too (they probably dislike being pigeonholed like anybody else) and have outside interests that might be scattered among the other disciplines that they like to stay up to date on. If nothing else, I can imagine a lot of my old science professors starting conversations over random "Science" articles at the watercooler and developing ideas (that may lead to deeper research in the library or databases), especially if the department has a subscription on hand (after all, a perk of being a member of a scientific society is that you often get a great discount to the society's journal).
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