Preparing to Research

Preparing to Research for Technical Articles and Other Resources

Basic Steps

Considerable time can be saved in doing library research if a few simple preliminary steps are carried out before you actually plunge into the research resources. All of these steps are not always necessary -- and they probably won't be necessary for your fuzzy sets applications research report -- but it doesn't hurt to mention these things.

First, identify what you would consider to be the title of an ideal journal article or an ideal book title. Do you know if such a document exists? Have you seen it? If not, use these ideal titles to generate a list of keywords.

Second, write up a list of keywords associated with your problem definition. Don't hesitate to list concepts and broad subject-areas that are implicated. List professional jargon associated with your problem definition. Next, write a brief description of your project that could be understood by a layperson with little or no knowledge of your topic. Use this description to generate additional keywords, if possible.

Third, be sure to learn about the library databases that are available to you. Before searching them, quickly scan descriptions in order to assure that you are searching the appropriate resource. Quickly scan any help documentation. Library databases are not search engines. To effectively retrieve results, databases should be searched in compliance with their individual search languages. Understand the concept of controlled vocabulary versus keyword searching. Whenever possible, use controlled vocabulary in a true database. The START Tutorial offers an excellent summary of these concepts.

In fact, a good place to begin is with the START Tutorial. START stands for "Student Academic Research Tutorial&quot. It was created, prepared, and written by Technical Communications students in TC 332 (Advanced Technical Writing).

START provides lessons and steps on:

Choosing a research topic
Developing and implementing a research strategy
Evaluating information sources
Preparing a proper bibliography and doing proper documentation for your paper

START specifically provides information on searching online databases, including "The Four Steps of Expert Database Searching". Important concepts are reviewed, such as Boolean searching, and important techniques are summarized, such as truncation methods and the use of database fields. All of these things tend to vary from database to database!

Fourth, quickly identify any professional associations, organizations, or groups that may be related to your project topic. Many of these organizations produce standards, sponsor important research, and have unique libraries and information centers. Start to find organizations by using the following three resources:

Look up organizations in the Encyclopedia of Associations. This is a multi-volume print set. It is available in the library. Its call number is: REF AS 22 .E5 1999.
Look up organizations on the Internet. Use a search engine, or try the following two sites:
- Associations on the World Wide Web
- Associations on the Net

Fifth, quickly follow a basic strategy for locating information. Stay focused. Use this tutorial as a map. Search for books first, then articles, then technical information, and then web resources. Study results to obtain new ideas for searching and new search terms. Contact a librarian if you get stuck.

Journals That Publish Articles on Fuzzy Sets, Fuzzy Systems, and Fuzzy Logic

When doing library research, it's a good idea to search for articles in scholarly and professional journals. Articles in these journals are often refereed. In addition, many of these articles feature lengthy bibliographies and reference lists. This is a quick and easy method of building up a bibliography.

Another effective way of searching for good articles is to follow the citation network. This can be fairly easy to do in today's networked environment. To follow the citation network, do the following: when you locate an article that you like or that interests you, search to see who else cites the article. Chances are that articles which cite the original article will also be of interest to you.

You can also search by author. Once again, when you locate an article that interests you, search on the author's name. The author may be an expert, and may have written additional articles on the subject.

Below are scholarly and professional journals that publish articles on fuzzy sets, fuzzy systems, fuzzy logic and fuzzy applications.

Ai Expert

MSOE Library (1986-1995)
Marquette University Science Library
UWM

Complexity International

UW-Madison Memorial Library

Fuzzy Sets and Systems

UW-Madison Wendt Engineering Library

IEEE Transactions on Fuzzy Systems

MSOE Library

IEEE Transactions on System, Man, and Cybernetics

MSOE Library (1971-1996)

Industrial Computing

Milwaukee Public Library

International Journal of Approximate Reasoning

Not held in state -- obtain articles via Interlibrary Loan

International Journal of Artificial Intelligence Tools

UW-Madison Wendt Engineering Library

Insternational Journal of Uncertainty, Fuzziness and Knowledge Based Systems

Not held in state -- obtain articles via Interlibrary Loan