Are your literature searches run mainly in keyword-based platforms such as Google Scholar, Scopus or Web of Science?
Have you been told that you need to diversify your search, or maybe use a new database such as Medline, Embase or PsycInfo through the Ovid searching platform? Did someone mention that Medline’s MeSH terms could improve your search?
If you do not know what those terms mean or where to start, you are in the right place.
The following video will explain to you what controlled vocabularies are, why they are a powerful tool for retrieving relevant papers and it will demonstrate how to use Medical Subject Headings (MeSH) in Medline via Ovid.
Since the previous video focuses on Medline, you might wonder what other databases you should be using. If you are unsure how to find the most relevant databases for your course, you can watch a video that will show you how to identify them.
Finally, please remember that this is general advice and it might not cover your particular area of interest. If you have any specific questions, please do not hesitate to contact us on Library Help, where you can email us or speak to us through the Live Chat feature.
As a globally recognised market analyst, Mintel produces hundreds of reports into UK-specific consumer markets every year. Each report provides a unique overview of a market’s dynamics and prospects, giving you the knowledge to devise informed and profitable marketing strategy. Mintel is also one of the many Business specialist databases that we subscribe to here at Newcastle University, which you can access via Library Search, or along with many other of our resources via our Business Subject Guide.
Recently Mintel has been providing ongoing insight and analysis across a range of industries to help you understand how and why consumer sentiment and behaviour are changing during the pandemic.
To find these resources, you need to go to Mintel (via Library Search) and there’s tab dedicated to Covid-19 analysis:
With over 200 results, there’s plenty to help any research project looking at consumer behaviour during this time.
Let us know if you have any questions or queries about this resource: lib-socsci@ncl.ac.uk
Thanks to everyone who came along to our Referencing drop-in session. Here you can find links to the key resources we highlighted, so you have them all in one handy place, whether you were able to participate in the sessions or not. You can also find a copy of our slides and a link to other useful referencing/managing information blog posts at end of this post.
Our Managing Information Guide and the slides from the session give you the context of why it is import to reference and why you should be managing your information. It’s easy to become overwhelmed by the amount of information out there (and that’s before you start your dissertation/project!), so getting into good habits it essential not only academically, but also for your wellbeing.
Why is referencing important?
It acknowledges the ideas and contributions of
others that you have drawn upon in your work, ensuring that you avoid
plagiarism
It highlights the range of reading you’ve done
for your assignment and makes your own contribution clear, showing how you’ve
taken ideas from others and built upon them
It enables the person reading your work to
follow up on your references so they can learn more about the ideas you’ve
discussed in your work or check any facts and figures.
How does referencing work?
Once you understand the why, you can get onto the nuts and bolts of referencing – the how:
Are there any tools that can help?
Yes! There are lots of referencing tools that can help you manage and format your citations and references correctly. Here are some examples:
A very useful online tool that lists all the information you need to include in a reference and provides examples of how a reference will look as an in-text citation and in a reference list. See our ‘Level Up Your Referencing: Cite Them Right’ blog for more information.
Citation Buttons
Keep an eye out for this symbol on Library
Search and Google Scholar. Clicking the
button will provide the option for you to copy a reference in a particular
style and paste it directly into your reference list. You might need to tidy it up a little bit but
it will save you time over writing them manually.
Reference building tools help you
to create a bibliography using the correct referencing style. You can input information manually or use
import functions to pull information through from other webpages or documents. As with the citation button above, reference
building tools can save you time but you may still need to check the references
are accurate.
Reference Management Software: e.g. EndNote
If you are writing a detailed essay, dissertation or thesis, you may like to use a reference management tool such as EndNote, Mendeley or Zotero to help keep all of your references organised. This software allows you to manually add references or import them from Library Search, Google Scholar or Subject Databases; sort references into groups; attach pdf documents or add notes. You can then use the reference management software while you write to add in-text citations and format your reference list.
The University has a subscription for EndNote which is available in all University clusters and can be downloaded to your own personal device. You’ll find information about how to get started with EndNote on our EndNote Guide.
Remember: whatever tool you use, it’s always a good idea to get to know the conventions of the referencing style your school or lecturer would like you to use.
Need more help?
If you feel you need to work on your referencing a bit more, and still a bit unsure about it all, we recommend that you complete Cite them Right’s Referencing and Plagiarism tutorial – You’ll need to log in then select the tutorial button on the top right of the homepage.
Slides
Here’s a copy of our slides from our referencing drop-in session:
Thanks to everyone who booked on our two Be Connected sessions to support your dissertation or project. We’re posting below links to the key resources we highlighted, so you’ve got them all handy in one place, whether you were able to participate in the sessions or not.
Getting a head start
If you’re at the early stages of planning your project or dissertation, or perhaps thinking ahead to next year, then you can get ahead of the game with our dissertation toolkit.
Search planner
This interactive toolkit includes a proposal planner, to help you refine your initial thinking as you develop your proposal, and a search planner, which takes you step-by-step through each stage of the process to create your own personalised literature search strategy. It will help you develop your search terms, identify different types of information resource, evaluate what you have found, and formulate a plan for keeping up to date and managing your references.
Our toolkit will help you translate vague thoughts into a firm plan of action!
Nearing completion: final checks
If you’re well into your dissertation or project, you may well have some last minute aspects you need to check.
Are you sure you haven’t missed any recent research in your area? Find out about 360 degree searching and make sure you check key resources for your subject area on your subject guide. Are there particular types of information missing from your search: for example: data, news, reports, images? Visit our resource guides for inspiration.
Resources guides
How is your bibliography shaping up: are all the references accurate and correctly formatted? Visit our managing information guide for all the answers, including a link to the Cite Them Right ebook for specific queries relating to a type of resource or referencing style.
Need more help?
You can book a one-to-one appointment with a member of the Library liaison team, and/or email us your draft search plan using our search planner.
Special Collections and Archives
Virtual Reading Room
Depending on your subject area, you might want to make use of some of the Library’s fabulous Special Collections and Archives in your research, or find out more about the possibilities of using archives elsewhere.
Start with the Special Collections home page: all the links you need for how to find and use our collections, including digital and virtual services while the Reading Room is still closed.
Need inspiration? Not sure where to start? Anxious about archives? Try the practical Special Collections guide for friendly, expert advice about using our collections in your research or finding collections elsewhere. Or why not see where your ideas take you with our great new Primary Sources Research Planner?
Strong information skills are not only important for improving your work in assessments, they’re also useful life-long skills that are increasingly important in our digital society. Strengthening these skills will help you to find and engage critically with information both for your assignments and in your future beyond University.
During Enrichment Week we ran a session looking at how you can reflect on your current information skills and discover resources, tools and advice that can help you take your capabilities further. If you missed the session and want to learn more, this blog summarises the steps you’ll need to take to improve your own information and digital skills. You’ll also find slides from the session at the end.
Reflect
Reflection is an important part of the learning process as it allows you to identify your current practises, see your areas of strength and what works for you, and think about how you can adapt, change or develop your skills going forward to meet new challenges.
The ASK webpage below goes into more detail about reflective practice, while our quizzes will help you reflect on your current information skills:
The next step is to consider what you want to put into practice, change, use or try based on your reflections. You need to give yourself a goal, target or action plan to work toward – this should be SMART:
Specific
Measurable
Achievable
Relevant
Time bound
So for example, you might want to improve your referencing for your next assignment or focus on searching three new subject databases for information to help you write your literature review. Alternatively, you may want to use your skills in a different way, by researching employers before you write your CV.
The frameworks below can be useful both for reflection and for selecting goals as they highlight the kinds of skills you should be developing as a University Student. You might also get ideas for goals from feedback from your assignments, from the kind of skills you’ll need in your future career, or simply by just selecting a topic you find interesting.
The Library is here to help you every step of the way and have created a host of useful tools and guides to help you develop your information skills. Once you’ve set your goal, take some time to explore the support that is available to you.
Tools:
Subject Guides – useful for finding subject-specific resources that can help you locate reliable information for your assignments.
Resource Guides – help you access a range of different information types, from newspapers to maps to company information.
Skills Guides – helpful advice and tools to aid you in finding, managing and evaluating information.
Search Planner – a great tool for helping you prepare for your dissertation literature review
ASK website – designed to support you in developing your wider academic skills, includes a host of helpful tools, guides, videos and resources.
One-to One appointment – chat to your Liaison Librarian about your information skills, we can help you find information, think critically about resources and manage your references.
Practise
As with any skill, the only way to improve your chosen information skill is to practise it, so look out for chances to do this. These opportunities may pop up in your modules with formative assessments or quizzes, or you may need to set aside some time to practise independently. For example, you could try some of the tutorials or workbooks below that were designed to help you practise some key skills:
Reflection is an iterative process. Once you’ve had time to explore, practise and apply your chosen skill and feel that you’ve achieved your goal, repeat the reflective process to see how far you’ve come and think about where you might go next!
We are currently running a trial to IBISWorld which is a platform offering industry market research and industry risk ratings. This includes statistics, analysis and forecasts. For more information please click to download a summary below.
To start using IBISWorld, enter your keywords in the search box and then from the results list use the left hand options to narrow your search. e.g narrowing down by geography/country.
Once you selected a report to view; again use the left hand option to navigate to specific sections e.g. chapters on the industry, key statistics, major companies etc.
You can also navigate by choosing the Country and then the sector.
Look for the download icons so you can export reports and tables in different formats e.g. Word, PDF, PowerPoint and Excel.
We hope you’ll find the layout and navigate straightforward, if not click on the ? icon in the top right within IBISWorld for additional help.
This trial includes access to: Australia • Industry Reports (ANZSIC) • Specialized Industry Reports China • Industry Reports Global • Global Industry Reports United Kingdom • Industry Reports (UK SIC) • Specialized Industry Reports United States • Industry Reports (NAICS) • Specialized Industry Reports Canada • Industry Reports (NAICS) Germany • Industry Reports (DE-WZ) Ireland • Industry Reports (NACE) New Zealand • Industry Reports (ANZSIC)
You can now download reports, charts, graphs, data tables and more in a variety of formats including Word, PDF, PowerPoint and Excel.
You’ll find some useful information for completing SWOT, PESTLE and Porters Five Forces together with industry information.
As always, your feedback will be very welcome: you can either email it, or leave a comment on this blogpost.
We are currently running a trial of the Marketline database.
Marketline is a world leading provider of commercial intelligence. The interactive subscribers-only platform, provides anytime access to a unique & exclusive mix of global company, industry, country, city and financial data.
During the trial you will be able to access:
360 degree perspective of companies, industries, countries, and cities
Real-time news, analyst opinion, and financial deals
Powerful analytics
You’ll find some useful information for completing SWOT, PESTLE and Porters Five Forces together with industry information.
Marketline platform
As always, your feedback will be very welcome: you can either email it, or leave a comment on this blogpost.
We have trial access to an additional product from EDINA Digimap – Geomni, available until 1st April 2021. Trial login details available on request.
Geomni offers remote sensing and machine learning sourced geographic and spatially referenced data relevant to many sectors and disciplines. Create, view and annotate Geomni data online or download for further manipulation within GIS or CAD packages.
Geomni includes the following datasets:
UKMap 1:1,000-scale topographic mapping, UKMap accurately locates topographic detail and includes rich attribution detailing land and building use and land-cover. In addition, it comprises addresses, retail names, detailed shopping centre data, building heights, a wide range of points of interest, aerial photography, together with Digital Terrain and Surface Models.
UKLand A maintained, national land information database providing a detailed consistent breakdown of the use of land across the UK. With 30 different land use classes from agriculture and woodland to business parks, transport and urban centres. Available as both a land-use and telecoms clutter database, UKLand is used by planners, consultancies, telecoms and other utilities and local and regional government organizations, to help plan and deliver major projects.
UKBuildings A unique database created and maintained by Geomni to help you understand the age, structure, characteristics and use of commercial, public and residential buildings across the UK. UKBuildings is used in the insurance, finance, land and property sectors and by government, telecoms and utility organisations. The UKBuildings database contains the location and footprint of all buildings across the UK with a full classification within urban areas (towns above 10,000 population).
Contact your Liaison team for the trial login details and with any queries. Please send us any comments as to how this data product supports your teaching or research.
Westlaw is one of our much-valued legal databases and can be accessed via our Law Subject Guide and Library Search, logging in with your Newcastle University Campus ID & password. One of the lesser-used aspects of Westlaw is its Books collection and it’s a resource that should not be overlooked.
Westlaw Books gives access to invaluable titles such as the White Book and Archbold, alongside comprehensive and authoritative coverage of common law through titles from the Common Law Library series, including Charlesworth & Percy on Negligence, Chitty on Contracts, and Benjamin’s Sale of Goods. While these are titles you will use more regularly in practice, all Newcastle Law School students are encouraged to become familiar with them during your time at University.
We also have academically-based books available in the Sweet & Maxwell Academic Collection to support your studies. These include Winfield & Jolowicz on Tort, Treitel on the Law of Contract, Megarry & Wade on the Law of Real Property, and Elliott & Wood’s Cases and Materials on Criminal Law (the latter being written and edited by former academics of Newcastle Law School).
To access this content, log into Westlaw and click on Westlaw Books in the menu at the top of the page.
You can browse through the 350+ titles included in the Library’s subscription plan, but if you know the book you are looking for, search by a title keyword, e.g. criminal.
If you want to browse those student-focused books, use the filters on the left-hand side of the screen. Scroll down and select ‘Sweet & Maxwell Academic’ in the Publisher/Series filter section.
This short Thomson Reuters video (1:56 mins) gives tips on using Westlaw Books effectively in locating bibliographic information (essential for referencing these titles in your work), searching the materials using keywords, saving your favourite titles for repeated use, and how to email, print, download, save into a Westlaw folder or simply view the material on the screen (in reading-mode too).
If you’re not a fan of videos and want a handy guide to download or print, then this Westlaw Books PDF will help.
If you have any comments or questions about Westlaw Books, or any other library resource, please contact libraryhelp@ncl.ac.uk or leave your comments here.
Containing over 520 volumes of Latin and Greek poetry, drama, oratory, history, philosophy and more, the Loeb Classical Library is a key resource for those studying the ancient Greek and Roman world. The side-by-side layout of the ancient text and English translation makes the literature accessible to readers and can be especially helpful to those new to the study of ancient Greek or Latin.
The online Library presents tools that allow readers to explore the texts at various levels, via browsing, searching, annotating, and sharing content. The online works include the same content, page, and volume numbers as their print counterparts so you can easily switch between the two or share ideas related to certain passages or pages.
Loeb volumes
For each volume in the Library, you’ll find an introductory page containing useful information on the author, some details of the Loeb edition, a bibliographic reference for the text as well as a table of contents that you can use to navigate through the online work. You can access this page at any time by clicking on the LCL number located above the right hand page.
In the text itself, the left (verso) page contains the original Greek/Latin language, while the right (recto) presents the English translation. Tools along the bottom of the page allow you to hide either the left or right pages as needed. The tool bar also includes options for searching within the work or printing sections of the text. Further options to bookmark pages, highlight and annotate text, and organise or share your annotations with others, are also available in the toolbar but require you to create a free My Loeb account.
Browsing the Library
The browse option allows you to scan the Loeb Library by author name, Greek or Latin works, and Loeb volume number.
When browsing Greek or Latin works, you’re given further filter options so you can narrow your search by author, form (poetry or prose), time period, and genre/subject. These options can be particularly useful if you are interested in certain themes presented in the ancient world across specific time periods.
Searching the Library
The search box at the top right of the page allows you to do a quick search for titles, authors, keywords or phrases.
Alternatively, advanced search allows you to be more specific, searching for terms within introductions, bibliographies, or indexes. You can also limit your search to verso or recto to focus on the Greek/Latin text or the English translations. All search boxes provide you with a Greek keyboard to simplify searching for keywords in the original language.
As within browse, the search results allow you to filter records further by language, author, period, or genre. If you’ve searched for a specific keyword, clicking on ‘Show results within’ allows you to browse instances of the word appearing within a text from the results page.
Find out more
For more help, visit the Using the Library link at the top right of the Loeb Library page. Here you’ll find further advice on using tools within My Loeb, how to search and how to cite volumes from the Library.
You can find out more about key features and take a quick visual tour of the digital Library via the Loeb Classical Library website.
