The Library is currently running a short trial to MediaPlus, a digital media resource offered by Alexander Street Press (ProQuest).
MediaPlusconsists of more than 100,000 videos, images, and sound recordings. The resource is ideal for students and researchers interested in 20th century British social, political and cultural history from a range of disciplines (particularly History, Media, and Politics).
You can also browse by Title, Subject, and Sub-collection from the MediaPlus homepage, where you can then further refine results by date, publisher, or subject.
Content is drawn from a number of sources (Sub-collections):
Associated Press Archive (6,010 items)
Channel 4 News (6,508)
Gaumont British News (2,476)
Gaumont Graphic Newsreel (8,087)
Getty Moving images (8,163)
Getty Still images (11,732)
ITN (6,300)
ITV news (27,519)
Imperial War Museum – images (4,165)
Photographic Youth Music Culture Archive – PYMCA (6,421)
Reuters News (3,248)
Royal Geographical Society (6,448)
Royal Mail Film Classics (66)
The North Highland College – Johnston Collection (10,037)
The trial access to the resource is available until 15th November 2024. As the purpose of a trial is provide short term institutional access to establish whether the resource is of interest for future sustained access, unfortunately we are not able to extend or repeat trials.
Please note that MediaPlus content cannot be downloaded, and any embedded content or permalinks will not work after the trial ends.
We are keen to hear any feedback on this resource – please contact us by commenting below or by emailing your Liaison Librarian (libliaison@newcastle.ac.uk).
When it comes to research methods or research methodologies, there can be a lot of unfamiliar terms and concepts to get to grips with. One question we’re often asked by masters business students is how to find empirical and methodological research articles. It’s a good question as it can be quite tricky to locate articles on these topics, so here’s some advice on how you can go about searching for them in Library Search and the databases that we subscribe to.
What is the difference between empirical and methodological research?
Let’s start by defining our key terms, so we know what to look out for:
Empirical research
Empirical research is based on observed and measured phenomena and derives knowledge from actual experience rather than from theory or belief.
How do you know if a study is empirical? Read the subheadings within the article, book, or report and look for a description of the research methodology. Ask yourself: Could I recreate this study and test these results?
Key characteristics to look for:
Specific research questions to be answered
Definition of the population, behaviour, or phenomena being studied
Description of the process used to study this population or phenomena, including selection criteria, controls, and testing instruments (such as surveys)
Another hint: some scholarly journals use a specific layout, called the “IMRaD” format, to communicate empirical research findings. Such articles typically have 4 components:
Introduction: sometimes called “literature review” — what is currently known about the topic — usually includes a theoretical framework and/or discussion of previous studies
Methodology: sometimes called “research design” — how to recreate the study — usually describes the population, research process, and analytical tools
Results: sometimes called “findings” — what was learned through the study — usually appears as statistical data or as substantial quotations from research participants
Discussion: sometimes called “conclusion” or “implications” — why the study is important — usually describes how the research results influence professional practices or future studies
According to Mbaugbaw et al., a methodological study will:
“…evaluate the design, analysis or reporting of other research-related reports […] They help to highlight issues in the conduct of research with the aim of improving […] research methodology, and ultimately reducing research waste (2020, p.1).
In simple terms, it’s research on research!
Key characteristics to look for:
Will have the term ‘methodological research’ or ‘methodological study’ in the title or abstract.
Has more of a focus on the method(s) employed to do the research (e.g. interviews, questionnaires) rather than the findings of the research.
Evaluates how research was done and how the methodology could be improved.
How to find empirical and methodological research articles in Library Search and databases
Finding these research articles isn’t always easy, but it can be done! While they are indexed in most databases, it can sometimes be tricky to find them because of the wide variety of names used for these type of studies (methodological research can also be known as research-on-research, meta-research, meta-epidemiological studies etc.).
First, watch this short video that goes through how to find empirical and methodological research articles:
Here’s our top tips for finding empirical and methodological research articles:
Searching via journal titles
The easiest way to find these journal articles is to target journals that are focused on research methods, then search or browse within those titles.
Here’s some examples of such journal titles to help you find methodological studies:
I recommend that you search for these titles in Library Search under ‘Everything except articles’ filter:
Within these titles I recommend searching for “methodological study” in the abstract:
To find empirical research articles, you would go to top, peer-reviewed, research journals in your field of study (the list is endless!) and search within these using relevant keywords.
Here are some key journal titles in the field of business:
You then need to search within these journal titles, ideally within the abstract, for keywords relating to the research design / method ( i.e. how the researcher collected their empirical research) So you might search for terms such as interview*, survey*, questionnaire* or “focus group*” :
Searching via keyword in Library Search and databases
If you aren’t finding enough when searching within journal titles, broaden your search by looking within Library Search and other suitable databases.
The Advanced Search within Library Search is a good place to start. Again, try to search for keywords such as “methodological study”, or by method, e.g., interview*, survey*, questionnaire* or “focus group*”, along with your subject topic. Remember to use the filters if you need to find research within a particular time frame, such as the last 10 years and to change the drop down to search “everything”.
If you are looking within Scopus or subject specialist databases, such as Business Source Complete, the process is exactly the same. If your search isn’t working, try different keywords, but persevere as the research is there, it just might be hiding:
Searching with controlled vocabulary / subject headings
Some of our databases use controlled vocabulary (a thesaurus), this allows you to identify the preferred terms used in a particular database for your topic of interest, making it easier to find relevant articles. Here is a worked example using controlled vocabulary in Business Source Complete:
I tried a search for “empirical research”, and found it is a preferred term within this database:
Clicking on this preferred term allows you to explore any related or narrower terms, which you can choose to add to your search to improve the quality of your results:
I decided to add Empirical research and the related term Quantitative research to my search, clicking add to include them in my search string:
I can then add subject related terms to my search:
Many of the social sciences databases have a thesaurus that you can search within.
SAGE Research Methods
For further help on topic of research methods and methodologies, check out SAGE Research Methods. This is a database containing thousands of resources, dedicated to the subject area of Research Methods. It supports all stages of the research process including: writing a research question, conducting a literature review, choosing the best research methods, analysing data, to writing up your results and thinking about publication. It contains information suited to all levels of researchers, from undergraduates starting your first project to research associates. Within the resource, you can access dictionary and encyclopaedia entries, book chapters, full books, journal articles, case studies, some datasets and video. There are many uses for the resources you will find in SAGE Research Methods:
get a quick explanation of a term or concept in a dictionary or encyclopaedia entry
access a full overview of a qualitative and quantitative methods, theory or approach in a specialist book
use an e-book chapter that covers a specific method in more detail for your methodology chapter or when choosing how to approach your research
access a journal article that illustrates the real world application of the methods in research
Access the SAGE Research Methods User Guide for an overview of the resource, and use the tabs below to access videos and training materials to get started.
visit the the journals and databases section of your Subject Guide
I hope you have found this useful. I’m sorry there isn’t an easy way for finding such articles, however, a thorough and systematic search within journal titles, Library Search and databases will allow you to find some relevant and good quality articles that you can use in your research.
If you need further help with this topic or something similar, please make an appointment with your Liaison Librarian.
References
Mbuagbaw, L., Lawson, D. O., Puljak, L., Allison, D. B. and Thabane, L. (2020) ‘A tutorial on methodological studies: the what, when, how and why’, BMC Medical Research Methodology, 20(1). Available at: https://bmcmedresmethodol.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12874-020-01107-7 (Accessed: 15 June 2022).
OUP Law Trove has become part of Newcastle Law School life. For any new students joining us this year, what is it? Well, it’s a collection of e-books you will need to support your learning in the core modules of your degree programme.
This Oxford University Press e-book resource contains most of the essential, recommended and background reading titles you will find listed in your Newcastle Law School module handbooks. You can also find these on the Law Library shelves, and having these books available online too can be really convenient to you as a student.
If you’re asking yourself if you need to buy your course texts for 2023/24 then we can’t answer that question for you. The answer really depends on you. Ask yourself: can you work with e-books? Do you prefer to have your own copy of a book so you can fold pages, write notes in the margins or use a highlighter to annotate the text (*librarians across the world gasp in horror!*). Can the University Library provide a copy of the book you need to use? (We’ll answer that for you! We can’t provide a copy of every single book to every single student even if we wanted to.) We do advise you to try OUP Law Trove to see how easy it is to access, and how versatile it can be (including annotating the text!). It may just save you spending money on books where you don’t need to.
OUP Law Trove is mobile responsive, catering for those students with mobile devices. You can also use a Campus PC, or borrow a laptop from one of the libraries to access this resource.
Logging in You can access OUP Law Trove directly via Library Search (log in with your Campus ID & password), via your Reading Lists in your Canvas modules, and directly too. You can also go to OUP Law Trove and use the ‘Sign in via your Institution’ option in the left-hand login box on the homepage, and search for Newcastle University.
Further guidance on logging in is provided by OUP in this video (1:05 mins):
Searching From the OUP Law Trove home page you can immediately select to view those titles included in our subscription.
You can search OUP Law Trove by subject by using the browse option from the home page, or search by term for any author, title or keyword.
NB The results retrieved from either search will include all chapters and books related to your subject or search term, in alphabetical order.
Using the options in the left hand menu, you can narrow your choices by searching for a term within your results, by selecting the format of the results you want to see, or the availability (it makes sense to select those that are unlocked or free if you have not selected to view those titles included in our subscription) and updating your search.
Further guidance on accessing and navigating books within Law Trove is provided by OUP in these videos (2:28 mins and 2:41 mins):
Personalisation You can create a Personal Profile to experience the full functionality of OUP Law Trove, including bookmarking and annotating (without writing on your books!). Click the ‘Sign In or Create’ button on the top menu bar and follow the instructions to set up your profile.
Once active you can access your saved content, searches and annotations quickly and easily.
Further information on the benefits of creating and using the Personal Profiles feature is provided by OUP in this video (1:54 mins):
Reading Lists and Handouts You may find your module teaching staff are using the DOI: for a specific book or chapter from your Reading List or module handout. What’s a DOI? A Digital Object Identifier. It’s a ‘permalink’ (permanent link) to the specific materials you need to read and looks like a weblink (which it is, essentially). If it doesn’t directly link to OUP Law Trove then add https://dx.doi.org/ to create the full DOI link. You will still be asked to login using your Newcastle University Campus ID & password to gain access to the materials.
Tips Search OUP Law Trove directly for your resources if you can. Library Search and your module Reading Lists are linking to most of the books, and some of the chapters available, but not all. You may find more resources by performing a keyword search; the results could show a useful chapter in another book that you would never have thought to search in.
You have access to some great employability and study skills information in OUP Law Trove too. Whether you are wondering what academic writing actually is, how to write a case note, how to prepare for a moot or dealing with an exam, there are materials in Trove to assist you alongside the Academic Skills Kit made available to you by the University, the University Library and the Academic Skills Team.
Finally, scroll to the bottom of the contents page of a book to see if there are additional resources available:
Further information on the online resources, including multiple choice questions (MCQs), is provided by OUP in this video (1:47 mins):
We think you will find OUP Law Trove very useful in supporting your studies at Newcastle Law School. If you have any feedback or questions, please leave a comment or contact libraryhelp@ncl.ac.uk.
After a trial of several AM (Adam Matthews) Collections modules earlier in 2023, the Library has acquired two new resources – Empire Online, and Church Missionary Society Periodicals 1 & 2.
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Church Missionary Society Periodicals digitises publications from the CMS, South American Missionary Society and Church of England Zenana Missionary Society, encompassing issues from 1816-2009. Thousands of pages with detailed metadata enable new research opportunities in the fields of missiology and world Christianity, as well as a unique perspective on global history and cultural encounter.
The documents include reports on missionary work, serialised journals and letters, birth, marriage, and death announcements, fiscal reports and reflections on worship, making them an extremely rich source.
Empire Online is an interactive collection of primary source documents sourced from leading archives around the world. Material in the collection spans five centuries, charting the story of the rise and fall of empires; from the explorations of Columbus, Captain Cook, and others, right through to de-colonisation in the second half of the twentieth century and debates over American Imperialism.
The wealth of documents spans five centuries and includes manuscripts, rare printed materials, letterbooks, periodicals, diaries, photographs and more.
Material in Empire Online has been sourced from a wide range of reputable institutions, with a particularly strong core of documents and images from the British Library. However, the focus is not only on the British Empire; there are a number of documents and secondary resources which relate the story of the Empire from the French, Spanish, Portuguese, and German points of view, as well as that of indigenous peoples from Africa, India and North America.
For both databases, you could start by heading to the Introduction tab for an overview on the collection, a handy tour of the website and its key features, and information on copyright:
Empire Online Introduction
The Documents tab allows you to browse through the full range of documents available in the collections, and includes handy filters to narrow your results Document Type (Empire Online only), Library (Empire Online only), Title (CMS Periodicals only), and Issue Date (CMS Periodicals only).
Church Missionary Society Periodicals Documents
Additionally, the Advanced Search is available and allows researchers to build more complex searches:
Empire Online Advanced Search
Empire Online offers an option to view the sources in a chronological format, and the CMS Periodicals offers an option to view the sources on a map format:
CMS Periodicals MapsEmpire Online Chronology
Both databases offer extensive support, search tips and advice under the Help tab.
Please get in touch if you need any more support using the databases, but we hope that they will be of interest to your research!
In the library we love these short guides from OUP who provide a variety of great concise books on lots of different topics.
We’ve recently updated this collection so it includes to most recent publications from OUP published in 2022 and 2023.
This series offers concise introductions to a diverse range of subjects—from artificial intelligence to folk music to medical ethics—in 35,000 words or less.
Each one of these big little books provides intelligent and serious introductions written by experts who combine facts, analysis, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make even the most challenging topics highly readable.
On our catalogue, Library Search you can search by keywords like in the screenshot below so “very short introduction” and browse through or add in Oxford to add in results for that publisher. Re-sort your results to “newest” if you’d like to browse through the latest ones added to our collection.
Or visit the OUP Very Short Introductions website directly and then filter using the subject categories. OUP have arranged the titles under headings such as Medicine and Health, Arts and Humanities, Law, Social Sciences
if you are accessing off campus then once you’re on the OUP site please click “sign in” (on the left hand menu and select Newcastle University from the list to enter your Campus ID and password.)
Oxford University Press also have a podcast you can subscribe to about titles and topics in this collection.
We are delighted we now have access to Art and Architecture Archive (parts 1 and now 2 after a sucessful trial) from Proquest.
This is a full-text archive of consumer and trade magazines comprising of key research materials in subjects relating to art, architecture, architectural history, art history, cultural history, fine art, industrial design, photography, social history and visual arts.
Coverage is from the late-nineteenth century to the twenty-first. The issues are scanned as full colour images with each article indexed so you can quickly find the topic you are looking for.
We think these are an invaluable source, as a historical record of the art and architecture industries. Through reviews, advertisements, exhibition listings, and awards, you can investigate the careers of major artists and architects, as well as the history of the commercialization and marketing of art/architecture.
You can search across both collections looking for individuals, topics, movements, industry news items, interviews with major artists, or features about technological developments, as well as photographs / illustrations, architectural plans, statistics, and reviews.
You can search or browse the archive in various ways (use Advanced Search to see all search options), and retrieve many types of content.
You also might want to browse by publication so check out Building Design, Architects’ journal or The Architectural Review. Click on publications on the Proqest website and you’ll see an A-Z list.
Screenshot of front cover of Building DesignScreenshoot of front cover of The Architectural Review
The Scopus Search Results page has been redesigned, the following new and exciting features include: –
Search functionality on search result page itself
User-friendly filters/facets and customized different views on how the results are displayed
A new an intuitive page layout
Why not try the new version for yourself! Just perform a Scopus search then click on the ‘try the new version’link at the banner at the top of the page. If you want to know more just click on ‘take a tour’. You can easily return to old version by clicking on the link ‘return to old version’.
If you want to know what else Scopus have done in 2022, have a look on their website.
We are hosting a Scopus webinar on December 8, which is a great opportunity to come and find out more about getting the most from the database.
The Topics pages on ScienceDirect have been compiled into a new homepage, and offers a way to:-
Search all Topics pages
Search and browse within specific subject areas
Register to receive recommended articles based on your search activity.
The extracts provided on ScienceDirect Topics are written by experts and are drawn from foundational and reference materials. The source materials used include major reference works such as encyclopaedias, journal review articles, monographs, book series and handbooks.
For a list of ScienceDirect topics, have a look on their website.
We’re pleased to announce that we have now added the latest 2000s module to the very popular Mass Observation Online resource. We already had access to the 1980s and 1990s modules.
About Mass Observation
Mass Observation is a pioneering project which documents the social history of Britain by recruiting volunteers (‘observers’) to write about their lives, experiences and opinions. Still growing, it is one of the most important sources available for qualitative social data in the UK. This latest instalment is a great resource for anyone researching aspects of the early 21st century. It complements our existing access to the original Mass Observation project archive, which covers 1937-1967.
2000s collection
This module has a strong emphasis on technological advancements and the changing means of communication that came with the new Millennium. Highlights include the Millennium Diaries, the events of September 11th and environmental concerns, as well as detailing the everyday lives, thoughts, and opinions of respondents.
Searching and browsing
Filtering options
You can browse or search Mass Observation in various ways.
Browse by directive: browse the different directives (surveys), which are arranged chronologically and by topic.
Browse all documents: browse all the individual documents, and then further filter your search as required.
You can also use the Advanced search box at the top of the screen to search for specific topics.
Help
Research tools
We’d recommend you start by reading through the Introduction (top menu) which explains more about the project and the different document types. If you’re looking for ideas about how to make use of it, take a look at the Research Tools, which includes essays, videos, exhibitions and chronological timelines.
Note that as over half the materials in these collections (mainly the pre-2000s modules) are handwritten, the database enables Handwritten Text Recognition (HTR) to help you search. We would recommend you read about how HTR works, to help you get the best out of the database, in the Introduction section.
Summer is the perfect time to embark on a journey, broaden your horizons and soak up a different culture or perspective. So, the team behind our Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) library guide is delighted to re-launch a summer EDI reading challenge.
Since its launch in autumn 2020, we’ve been using the guide to curate and highlight print and online resources of all kinds, relating to EDI themes, such as those listed in the University’s EDI priorities. We’ve compiled themed sections and monthly highlights of books, films, social media, archives, podcasts and more, and encouraged suggestions from staff and students across the University to help us develop our collections.
So why not take up our Summer EDI Reading Challenge?
Recommend and Review
Look through our themed reading lists on our Recommended by You & Blog page and explore life through a new lens! We hope you’ll find some inspiration, but we’d also love to receive your recommendations too, and we’ll be highlighting them on the guide.
You’re welcome to use the online form on the lib guide. If you can give us a few words to explain your choice, that would be great! You can see what people recommended last year on our EDI in Literature page.
Social Media
We’ll be running a promotional campaign on social media throughout summer, using the hashtags #ReadingForPleasure and #EDIReadingChallenge. Please look out for these and retweet/repost wherever possible.
Have a great Summer everyone! We’ll leave you with the inspired words of the Poet, Derek Walcott:
Where can I find pictures relating to transport which I can use in my project? How do I find out what was broadcast on British television and radio on a particular day in the 1970s? Where are the best places to find examples of digital art? I need audio clips of scary sounds for my presentation – where to start? Are there any interesting oral histories in my subject area? How do I reference a podcast? I’ve found an ideal picture online, but I don’t know where it’s from – what can I do? Is there an authoritative list of famous music plagiarism cases anywhere, including audio clips?
We’ve updated and expanded our old images guide, and included new databases and resources for finding films and television programmes, plus audio content such as radio programmes, sound clips, podcasts and oral histories.
We’ve also updated the original still images section, which helps you find images of all genres and subjects, such as anatomy, archaeology, architecture…. and all other letters of the alphabet!
Need more help?
Keyword searching isn’t always the best way to search for audiovisual content, so if you want to find an image which looks like another one, search by colour, or find exactly what you want on Box of Broadcasts, visit our guide.
Finally, if you’re unsure whether you’re permitted to use an audiovisual resource in your assignment, and/or how to cite it, we can help with that too. Our guide contains plenty of helpful advice on using and citing audiovisual materials, and we’ve tried to include links to collections and databases which are licensed for educational use where possible (but please do check the terms and conditions in each case).
