STIA 434: Non-Proliferation Strategies and Artificial Intelligence

This guide collects recommendations for resources and research help to support you as you explore issues surrounding the topic of your semester paper (e.g., sources of bias, ethical dilemmas, industry structure, entry costs, legal and regulatory approaches).

Use the tabs at left to find specific resources relevant to the named topic.

You can direct questions about this course guide to science librarian Clarissa Ihssen.

If you have questions regarding the research process on this or any other research assignment in the sciences, Jill is available for one-on-one research consultations. For non-science-related aspects of your research, she might refer you to another librarian who specializes in that topic.

See the excellent Start Your Research guide for tips on getting the most out of background sources (e.g., specialized encyclopedias), source evaluation, doing primary source research, using books, and writing a literature review. 

SEARCH FOR A SPECIFIC KNOWN ARTICLE BY CITATION

To find an article when you have a citation (e.g., from a bibliography), you can search for the journal title in Journal Finder or search for the article title or its DOI in HoyaSearch or Google Scholar. 

SEARCH FOR ARTICLES BY KEYWORD

Start by writing down your research topic or question, and then identify all the important concepts it contains. Develop keywords based on those important concepts (e.g., various aspects of AI such as sources of bias, ethical dilemmas, and entry costs). The following document can help you develop strong keywords. It focuses on biology, but the ideas apply to your topics too:

ACCESS FULL TEXT OF ARTICLES

You have access to the full text of most (but not all) articles indexed in the library's databases. When you find an article of interest, look for links to the full text in PDF or HTML formats. Frequently these links will look like buttons similar to the ones below:

If you cannot access the full text, it may be because Georgetown does not subscribe to the journal. If we do not have a subscription, you can request a scanned copy of the article through InterLibrary Loan (ILL).

GENERAL DATABASE-SEARCHING TIPS

Use Advanced Search mode when available.

See the Help options for ninja search tips (e.g., truncating words to get all variations; proximity searching [finding words within a certain number of words away from one another]; combining keywords with AND, OR, NOT). Look for "Search Tips," "?" or "Help" at the top of each database.

N.B.:  Add (non-proliferation OR nonproliferation) to your searches to ensure you find both variants in your search results. 

Use the database's "controlled vocabulary," thesaurus, or tags used officially to describe subject content. For example, IEEE Xplore (a computer database) uses face recognition, not facial recognition.

Change your settings to make sure Google recognizes you as a Georgetown student. This can help you find the full text of relevant articles more easily. Click on Settings (gear icon). Next, click on Library Links on the left. Type Georgetown and then check the appropriate boxes. Click Save.

Note: Google Scholar doesn't provide a list of the journals it includes, so one is never clear as to what is being searched. But the ranking function is great and may get you what you need. The articles that have been cited most often in the bibliographies of other articles come up first.  This can be helpful in identifying key articles on a topic, but note the year of publication. Older articles have had more time to garner citations and may come up first.