Tag: Earth Sciences and Geosciences

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New modules added to our SAGE Research Methods collection

Following a successful trial of the resources in 2022-23, we have added two additional modules to our SAGE Research Methods collection. Through the Library you now have access to a host of guidance, worked examples, teaching resources and practice materials from SAGE Research Methods, SAGE Research Methods Video, SAGE Research Methods Datasets and SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation.

Datasets

SAGE Research Methods Datasets is a collection of hundreds of teaching datasets and instructional guides that give you the chance to learn data analysis through hands-on practice.

This new resource is a bank of topical, practice datasets, indexed by method and data type. For academic staff, the datasets have been optimised for use in your teaching and can be used for in person teaching or within Canvas materials. This will save you the time of sourcing and cleaning data for use by you and your students.

The decisions researchers make when analysing data can be a mystery to students embarking on research for the first time. Through practicing analysis using real data from SAGE Research Methods Datasets, you can see how analytic decisions are made, helping you become confident researchers.

  • Quantitative datasets are taken from surveys and experiments and come with instructions to analyze the data in SPSS or R.
  • Qualitative datasets are taken from academic research projects, providing bite-size examples from interviews, focus groups, documentary sources, and more, plus advice on how to approach analysis.

You will find lots of guidance on how to get the most out of the datasets module on the SAGE Research Methods LibGuide.

Data Visualisation

SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation will help all researchers, from beginners to more advanced practitioners develop the fundamentals of data and design necessary to create impactful visualisations. Through a series of practical video tutorials, text guides and practice datasets, the resources will help you identify the chart types that best fit your specific data story.

Researchers increasingly grapple with complex or big data and need to present their data in an understandable, easy to interpret, and informative way to disseminate their research successfully. Mastering the skills and techniques of data visualisation is, therefore, key for any researcher. This new resource will help you and your students to communicate data with impact so that audiences can grasp difficult concepts or identify new patterns and relationships easily.

You are able to search and browse by data and chart type to find how to guides and explainer videos, explore a directory of data visualisation software and access datasets to help you practice communicating data.

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New Resources for Faculty of Science, Agriculture and Engineering

Laptop on a desk in front of a window

During the summer months we have acquired access to a range of electronic resources for the SAgE Faculty to help support teaching and research activity. All of these great resources are available from Library Search. Here is a snapshot of some of the other new and updated collections.

E-book collections

We have invested in updates to our perpetual access e-book collections from a range of society, professional and academic publishers. Individual e-book titles will be returned in a basic search by author, title or keyword. Collections include:

Evidence Based Acquisition e-books

We also have collections activated in Library Search for evidence based acquisition (EBA). This approach enables access to a lot of academic content to which we wouldn’t normally be available to us. Through EBA, publishers open up their e-book collections on receipt of a deposit paid by the Library for a 12 month period. Once the access period is up, we select the most used titles up to the value of the deposit to form a collection of perpetual access e‐books.

The EBA collections of most relevance for SAgE for 2023-4 include:

Sage Research Methods

We have acquired access to two additional modules within the SAGE Research Methods platform to complement the existing book and video resources.

Datasets

Students and researchers exploring new statistical techniques often find that hands-on practice is essential to the learning process. Master new methods with sample datasets before applying them to your own data. The datasets included in SAGE Research Methods Datasets are taken from government sources and academic research and demonstrate both qualitative and quantitative methods. Each dataset is presented with an easy-to-follow, step-by-step guide to best demonstrate how the method is applied.

Data visualisation

SAGE Research Methods Data Visualisation will help all researchers, from beginners to more advanced practitioners develop the fundamentals of data and design necessary to create impactful visualisations. Through a series of practical video tutorials, text guides and practice datasets, the resources will help you identify the chart types that best fit your specific data story.

Find out more on our resource blog
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Spotlighting Scopus and ScienceDirect: new features from Elsevier.

Scopus

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.

Scopus webinar booking

ScienceDirect

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.

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Guest Post: A 3rd year’s hints and tips, all things law and non-law

About me

My name is Lia, and I am a 3rd year undergraduate law student. The modules I am doing this year are Employment, Careers, Company, Mediation, Evidence and Commercial. I am originally from Peterborough but love Newcastle so much that I want to stay here after I’ve finished studying! My career aspirations are hopefully to become a commercial solicitor in Newcastle.

What do I know now that I wish I knew when I first started?

My 1st year was very different to the norm as I was the Covid year, which made my 2nd year even harder having to learn to adapt to in-person teaching. My advice would be to work 9-5 during the week and give yourself as much time off in the evenings so that you can go out, hang out with your friends, and do extracurricular societies and sports clubs.

1st year and 2nd year are all about making mistakes and learning from them, so never be too hard on yourself. It is more important to always get feedback from coursework and exams, knowing that whatever questions you have other students, the librarians and lecturers will all be able to help.

Seminars are also everyone’s saviours as they literally ask you to prepare the exam questions. I think you should prepare these to your best ability and try do some follow up work on the seminar after you have had everyone’s input.

Client Interviewing

In my 2nd year I entered the client interviewing competition with my friend, Daisy. This was highly rewarding as we learnt how to conduct ourselves when meeting clients and eventually won the competition overall.

The best part of our prize was that we got free work experience at Ward Hadaway, a regional law firm in Newcastle. I completed seats in Real Estate and Commercial litigation whilst I was there.

Text reads: To the winners Daisy and Lia, Newcastle University Law Society Client Interviewing Competition 2022. Two photographs show each winner smiling.
Image from Newcastle Uni Law Society Instagram @nulawsociety

Now, in my 3rd year, I am one of the client interviewing officers this year for the law society. This year Daisy and I are hoping to make the competition better than ever and help participants develop their skills by offering more training sessions than previous years and more competitions. I really advise any 1st or 2nd years to do this as an extra-curricular as it doesn’t take up too much time, looks great on your CV and is judged by Ward Hadaway solicitors who offer money and work experience as a prize!

Favourite Places…

To Study

To Eat Out

For Drinks

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EDI Summer Reading Challenge

Abstract colourful shapes. Text reads: Summer Reading Challenge, libguides.ncl.ac.uk/edi.

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:

I read; I travel; I become.

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We’re here to help (even when we’re not)

Christmas scene with dining table

The University may be closed for the Christmas period but if you are studying, writing assignments or revising, library resources and help are always available. We may not be in the building, but the library team can help you with your semester 2 preparation.

Use your Library Subject Guide

If you are not sure which resources are best to use for your subject or what you can access off-campus, visit your Subject Guide . The guides bring together links and help for the specialist information sources in your discipline.

Visit the Library over the vacation

The Philip Robinson Library building will be open for the majority of the Winter break (Friday 24th December 2021 – Monday 3rd January 2022) but is closed on Christmas Day (Saturday 25th December) and New Year’s Day (Saturday 1st January). All other library buildings will be closed for the entire Winter break.  If you need access to books and journals, or a quiet place to study, all you will need is to book your study space online and to bring your University smartcard to enter the building. Visit the website for the Library vacation opening hours. Please remember that it is currently mandatory to wear a face covering when moving around indoors in all university buildings (free masks are available at the Library Welcome Desk).

Have a question? Check the FAQs

We have an extensive database of frequently asked questions available on the Library website. You can search by keyword or browse by topic area and find answers to the most common questions. So whether you want to know how to access newspapers from the Library, how to book study space or get help with EndNote, check the FAQs to see if we have already answered your question.

Contact Library Help

If you need help or have a question, use Library Help to get in touch with us. You can live chat with a librarian outside of the University to get immediate answers, or send us a message and we will get back to you when the University reopens.

So remember, you can access all of our online resources, journals and e-books from the Library website and we will be back in the Library on Tuesday 4th January 2022. Enjoy the festive season!

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Hot topics: where to find out more

If you are looking for information on cutting edge research and development to aid your studies there are a range of online resources available via Library Search.

Nature Communications is an open access, multidisciplinary journal dedicated to publishing high-quality research in all areas of the biological, health, physical, chemical, and Earth sciences. When exploring the content of Nature Communications you will find current research articles, reviews, and analysis, together with news, comments, FAQs, and editorials. Hot topics are brought together in collections like ‘Research in support of COP26’ and ‘Clean Air’ which can be extremely useful when thinking about literature and systematic reviews.

CAB Abstracts is a bibliographic database that covers significant research and development literature in the fields of agriculture, forestry, human health, nutrition, animal health, and the management and conservation of natural resources. Using targeted searching and filtering in CAB Abstracts will enable you to find information on current hot topics like climate change and Covid-19. It’s not all just about journal articles either, you will find access to videos, letters, conference proceedings, books, and reports. Collating this information and adding it to your reference management library will also help to broaden the scope of your research into a topic.

So, next time you see a hot topic related to your research appear on your social media feed, or in your favourite newspaper, head over to Library Search and use these resources to help you find out more about the current academic research and discussion.

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E-book acquisitions

The library has prioritised the acquisition of e-books and electronic resources during the Covid-19 pandemic with a myriad of titles now available via Library Search. The number of individual e-books purchased in 2020/21 was 4,640 and the number of e-books in collections purchased in 2020/21 was 383,771. In total, the number of e-books purchased in 2020/21 stands at 388,411.

E-book collections from Cambridge University Press, De Gruyter, and IGI Global are all accessible via Library Search where you can casually browse specific subject areas to see what is available. However, by being more specific and using author, title, and/or ISBN details within these collections you will be able to quickly navigate to the e-books that you need for your research and study.

A number of SAgE specific electronic collections are available. These include Packt Publishing, which offers a range of computing and IT related resources on cloud, data, programming, and web development, and the Royal Society of Chemistry e-book collection where you can download PDF chapters, or read online, from key chemistry and chemistry related texts.

There is also substantial access to a range of SpringerLink electronic publications covering a variety of SAgE disciplines. This includes valuable 2021 collections specific to biomedical and life sciences, computer science, earth and environmental science, engineering, and intelligent technologies and robotics. Furthermore, e-books from the SpringerLink Lecture Notes Series covering mathematics, statistics, and physics, can be found and filtered using Library Search.

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Try the new Web of Science

Web of Science homepage with advanced search

Over the summer we moved to the newly revitalised Web of Science platform and the consensus amongst the Liaison Team is that it’s great! When asked the difference between Scopus and Web of Science and why you would use one database rather than the other, it is largely a question of personal preference and you when engaged in more advanced research you may need to use both databases.

If you are new to Web of Science the name may imply it is a science database, however it provides access to current and retrospective multidisciplinary information from approximately 21,000 peer-reviewed, high-quality scholarly journals published worldwide (including Open Access journals); over 205,000 conference proceedings; and over 104,000 editorially selected books within their Social Sciences Citation Index®, and Arts & Humanities Citation Index™ collections. 

Web of Science also allows cited reference searching where you can navigate forward, backward, and through the literature, searching all disciplines and time spans to uncover all the information relevant to your studies.

Where to find Web of Science

You can access Web of Science from Library Search. This will help you to access the database successfully as you will be prompted to log in with your University username and password. Simply search for it by name from the Library website.

You will also find a link to on the Journals and Databases page of your Subject Guide, which provides a list and links to the recommended databases in your discipline.

Web of Science content

As we alluded to above, Web of Science includes much more than ‘science’ information, including:

  • life sciences, biomedical sciences
  • social sciences, arts & humanities.
  • strongest coverage of natural sciences, health sciences, engineering, computer science, materials sciences.

What’s new about Web of Science?

Start with this quick introduction to the new Web of Science to find out about the improved user interface and search functionality.

Get started with Web of Science with these advanced search tips tutorial and find out how you can be use the techniques most effectively in Web of Science. 

Help with Web of Science

As the platform is new you may find that the database automatically begins with a guided tour, taking you through the main features as you begin your search. This is a great way to get to know Web of Science. There are also lots of tip sheets, videos and training resources to explore.

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Black History Month: Proud to be

Our book carousel on the EDI guide

October is Black History Month, with the theme Proud to be: “inviting black and brown people of all ages throughout the UK to share what they are proud to be.”

On the Library’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) guide, we’ve highlighted books and other resources from our collections which focus on black British people and themes across many fields, such as politics, law, music, art, business and literature.

Please take a look, and if you would like to suggest books which you think we should add to our collection, we’d love to hear from you: just fill in our suggestion form.

We’ve also compiled a Black History Month themed playlist on Box of Broadcasts, with a great collection of films and documentaries.

Don’t forget to explore the other sections of our EDI guide too: it aims to curate and highlight information resources of all kinds, relating to different EDI themes. You’ll find books, films, social media, digital and physical archives and more. We’d love to get your recommendations for anything we’ve missed, and you can still catch up on our summer reading challenge if you’d like to be inspired, or inspire others.

You can read about Newcastle University’s events to mark Black History Month here.

And watch out for a really interesting Black History Month feature from our colleagues in Special Collections and Archives, coming up later this month….