Handy hints for accessing the databases.

I f you have your pop-up blocker turned on this will prevent the SFX window from opening.
Open Internet Explorer - Tools - Pop-up blocker - turn (off).
Firefox - tools - options - web features - un-tick block pop-up windows.

Nortons Internet Security might need to be disabled. Right mouse click on the Nortons icon on your taskbar and disable (it will ask you for how long eg: 30 minutes - it will automatically turn itself back on). CSU has firewalls and students are secure while using these facilities.

Forward and Backward Citation Checks

One of the most useful ways of locating relevant references when researching a topic area has always been to get a handfull of very good highly relevant papers and chase the key references in their reference lists. The problem with this approach is that you gradually go further and further back in time. A really useful additional strategy is to look for more recent papers by the same author or more recent papers that have cited this paper. This of course takes you forward again in time. One of the best databases for doing this is Scopus, which allows sorting of search results in order of the number of times cited, and provides lists of all papers citing a particular paper, as well as all references in each paper. In many cases abstracts are also provided. You can sometimes get a really good initial idea of the research that has gone on in a particular area just by jumping backwards and forwards through the reference lists and citation lists and reading the abstracts of the key (highly cited) papers found.