SAGE Research Methods

After a recent trial we are delighted we have managed to secure access to SAGE Research Methods. This is an invaluable resources for anyone undertaking an independent research project or dissertation.

The platform contains thousands of resources, dedicated to the subject area of Research Methods.  It supports all stages of the research process from: 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 their first projects to research associates. Within the resource students will be able to access dictionary and encyclopaedia entries, book chapters, full books, journal articles, case studies, some datasets and streaming video from SAGE Research Methods Video. It includes online access to the complete Quantitative Applications in the Social Sciences (QASS) series, aka the “The Little Green Books,” as well as the Qualitative Research Methods Series (QRMS), or “The Little Blue Books”

SAGE Research Methods includes a wealth of teacher resources and reusable materials for academics and module leaders to draw on and are licensed for educational use, allowing you to reuse materials and show videos within your teaching free of Copyright concerns. We think the platform will work well in conjunction with textbooks on research methods as well as some of the resources we have on our ASK website.

The Methods Map can be used to navigate methods, concepts and techniques via breakout diagrams. Whereas the Project Planner Tool is a step-by-step guide to starting, developing and completing a research project.  The methods sections provide information on all aspects of the research cycle – including the formulation of research questions, research design, project management and data collection.

Coming soon, SAGE Research Methods will be embedded in Canvas as an LTI, allowing you to easily embed videos, learning materials, case studies and videos into your Canvas courses.

Access the SAGE Research Methods User Guide for an overview of the resource an use the tabs below to access videos and training materials to get started.

Sustainable development goals online

This platform from Taylor and Francis is directly mapped onto the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals.

The Sustainable Development Goals Online collection contains more than 12,000 of the most important book chapters and journal articles published under Routledge and CRC Press.

We like the variety of content on the platform from essays, presentations, videos, articles and chapters.

From a teaching point of view, academics will want to check out the teaching and learning resources, teaching guides and lesson plans.

The collection was brought together to help governments, NGOs and organisation respond to the UN call to action and we think it will be of benefit to both teaching and research at the University.

Additional information can be found on the Sustainable Goals website or watch the short video below

New resource now available: Mass Observation 1980s and 1990s

We’re delighted to announce that the Library has now bought the latest instalment of the Mass Observation Online collection, covering the 1980s and 1990s.

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 late twentieth century Britain. It complements our existing access to the original Mass Observation project archive, which covers 1937-1967.

1981-1999 collection

The 1980s and 1990s modules include hundreds of directive (survey) responses from observers on a wide range of issues, covering major political and social themes of the period from Thatcher to Blair, as well as everyday life. There are also photographs, leaflets, and other ephemeral materials, as well as contextual essays and timelines to help you interpret the collection.

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 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.

Reading Lists and supporting your students

Teaching is just around the corner and the students are starting to prepare for studying through 2021/22. So, which resources are you going to recommend to your students to support your teaching? How will you ensure the Library can offer access to what you need?

We’re promoting the Reading Lists service to our students. It’s easy to use, accessible and is a good starting point when approaching a new subject area.

Surprisingly, even in 2021, not every book is available online. You can use Reading Lists to check to see if we, as an institution, can gain access to those essential, recommended and background reading materials for you and your students. 

How can you do this? Well, you can self-enrol on the Reading Lists Training for Staff course which is available via Canvas. It will explain each stage of creating and editing your lists ready for your students to use for guidance and to prioritise their reading.

An image of the Reading Lists Training for Staff Canvas course home page.

If you don’t have time to do this now, you can produce a list of books, book chapters, journal articles and other resources and submit this to our dedicated Library Reading Lists team to create the online version to be accessed via Canvas for you. If you are doing this, the team need to know:

  • Module Leader or Coordinator’s name.
  • School.
  • Reading list/Module title.
  • Module code.
  • Anticipated student numbers on module (if known).
  • When it is running, e.g. Semester One and/or Two.

You should think about how the list should be organised: by topic, lecture, seminar, etc.

Finally, each item should be classified as essential, recommended or background reading so the Library is aware of the potential demand on the materials.

If you have any questions about availability of online materials or the Reading Lists service, contact your Liaison Team.

Books added to the Library by students in GPS (Semester Two 2020/21)

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-1.png

Our Recommend a Book service for students allows you to tell us about the books you need for your studies. If we don’t have the books you need, simply complete the web form and we’ll see if we can buy them. For books we already have in stock, if they are out on loan please make a reservation/hold request using Library Search.

Further information about Recommend a book.

In Semester Two, academic year 2020/2021 we received 104 requests from students (53 PGR, 23 PGT and 28 UGT) in the GPS. This is what we bought :

TitleResource type
A Companion to the Ancient Near EastBook – Electronic
Aesthetic Nervousness: Disability and the Crisis of RepresentationBook – Electronic
After Genocide: Transitional Justice, Post-Conflict Reconstruction and Reconciliation in Rwanda and BeyondBook – Physical
America & the World The Double BindBook – Electronic
America in Afghanistan: Foreign Policy and Decision Making From Bush to Obama to TrumpBook – Electronic
Atlas of the Aegean flora / 2 volume setBook – Physical
Beyond Spaceship Earth: Environmental ethics and the solar systemBook – Physical
Bodies for sale : ethics and exploitation in the human body tradeBook – Electronic
British Football and Social ExclusionBook – Electronic
Challenging Immigration Detention: Academics, Activists and Policy-MakersBook – Electronic
China Watching Perspectives from Europe, Japan and the United StatesBook – Electronic
China’s citizenship challenge Labour NGOs and the struggle for migrant workers’ rightsBook – Electronic
Class and Its OthersBook – Electronic
Clearly Invisible: Racial Passing and the Color of Cultural IdentityBook – Electronic
Contentious Cities Design and the Gendered Production of SpaceBook – Electronic
Convincing Ground: Learning to Fall in Love with your CountryBook – Electronic
Cuba and Africa, 1959-1994Book – Electronic
Cultural region : North East England 1945-2000Book – Physical
Culture and the senses: Bodily ways of knowing in an African communityBook – Electronic
Democracy in the fifty statesBook – Physical
Developmental Politics in Transition: The Neoliberal Era and BeyondBook – Electronic
Discursive Illusions in Public Discourse: Theory and PracticeBook – Electronic
Drone Warfare: War and Conflict in the Modern WorldBook – Electronic
Economic Geography: A Critical IntroductionBook – Electronic
Embodied Practices Feminist Perspectives on the BodyBook – Physical
Energy and Society: A Critical PerspectiveBook – Electronic
Ethical Research with Children Untold Narratives and TaboosBook – Electronic
Ethnographies of Home and Mobility: Shifting RoofsBook – Electronic
EU Development Policy in a Changing World: Challenges for the 21st CenturyBook – Electronic
Family Practices in MigrationBook – Electronic
Feminist perspective on the bodyBook – Electronic
Football in neo-liberal times. A Marxist perspective on the European football industryBook – Electronic
From Wealth to Power: The Unusual Origins of America\’s World RoleBook – Electronic
Gaming Globally Production, Play, and PlaceBook – Electronic
Geopolitics, Geography and Strategic HistoryBook – Electronic
Global Capital, Local Culture: Transnational Media Corporations in ChinaBook – Physical
Global Health GovernanceBook – Electronic
Great Power Politics in the Fourth Industrial Revolution: The Geoeconomics of Technological SovereigntyBook – Electronic
Handbook on Austerity, Populism and the Welfare StateBook – Physical
Handbook on the geographies of regions and territoriesBook – Electronic
Handbook on Think Tanks in Public PolicyBook – Electronic
Human Rights Approaches to Environmental ProtectionBook – Physical
Imagining the Peoples of Europe Populist discourses across the political spectrumBook – Electronic
Inter/nationalismBook – Electronic
Issue Salience in International PoliticsBook – Electronic
Killing AnimalsBook – Physical
Korea’s Online Gaming EmpireBook – Electronic
Lived experiences of ableism in academia: strategies for inclusion in higher educationBook – Electronic
Made in Hong Kong Studies in Popular MusicBook – Electronic
Making the Cut: How Cosmetic Surgery is Transforming Our LivesBook – Electronic
Mapping Exile and Return: Palestinian Dispossession and a Political Theology for a Shared FutureBook – Electronic
Maritime Asia vs. Continental Asia: National Strategies in a Region of ChangeBook – Electronic
Migration and the Search for Home Mapping Domestic Space in Migrants’ Everyday LivesBook – Electronic
Military Strategy as Public Discourse: America’s War in AfghanistanBook – Electronic
Moving the Goalposts : Football’s ExploitationBook – Physical
Museveni’s Uganda: Paradoxes of Power in a Hybrid RegimeBook – Electronic
Nature in Literary and Cultural Studies: Transatlantic Conversations on EcocriticismBook – Electronic
Near Abroad: Putin, the West and the Contest over Ukraine and the CaucasusBook – Electronic
New Directions in the Study of China’s Foreign PolicyBook – Physical
Nitrates in GroundwaterBook – Electronic
Nitrates in GroundwaterBook – Electronic
Ordinary ConsumptionBook – Electronic
Outdoor Learning, Past and PresentBook – Electronic
Politics and the Media in BritainBook – Electronic
Politics: Critical Essays in Human GeographyBook – Electronic
Racism and English Football: For Club and CountryBook – Electronic
Rain without thunderBook – Electronic
Realism and social scienceBook – Electronic
Remote Sensing of the CryosphereBook – Electronic
Researching Amongst Elites: Challenges and Opportunities in Studying UpBook – Electronic
Responsibility Beyond Growth A Case for Responsible StagnationBook – Electronic
Routledge Handbook of NGOs and International RelationsBook – Electronic
Seeing White: An Introduction to White Privilege and RaceBook – Electronic
Seeking Palestine: New Palestinian Writing on Exile and HomeBook – Electronic
Snow and Ice-Related Hazards, Risks, and Disasters / 2ndBook – Electronic
Sociology beyond societies : mobilities for the twenty-first centuryBook – Electronic
Stakes and Kidneys: Why Markets in Human Body Parts are Morally ImperativeBook – Electronic
Structure and Agency in the Neoliberal UniversityBook – Electronic
The Animal Rights Debate: Abolition or Regulation?Book – Electronic
The Bowhead Whale Balaena mysticetu: Biology and Human InteractionsBook – Electronic
The Corona Crash: How the Pandemic will Change CapitalismBook – Electronic
The End of Stigma: Changes in the Social Experience of Long-Term IllnessBook – Electronic
The first Department : a history of the Department of AgricultureBook – Physical
The Handbook of Diverse EconomiesBook – Electronic
The Hundred Years’ War on PalestineBook – Electronic
The Middle Voice of Ecological Conscience A Chiasmic Reading of Responsibility in the Neighborhood of Levinas, Heidegger and OthersBook – Physical
The New Silk Road: China Meets Europe in the Baltic Sea Region: A Business PerspectiveBook – Electronic
The Palgrave Handbook of Society, Culture and Outer SpaceBook – Physical
The Power of Ideas: The Rising Influence of Thinkers and Think Tanks in ChinaBook – Electronic
The Provocation of Levinas: Rethinking the OtherBook – Electronic
The Rise of Think Tanks in ChinaBook – Electronic
The rural housing question: Community and planning in Britain’s countrysidesBook – Electronic
The SAGE Handbook of Transport StudiesBook – Electronic
The SAGE Handbook of Visual Research Methods /2ndBook – Physical
The Trump, Bush, and Obama Doctrines: A Comparative AnalysisBook – Electronic
The World Food Programme in Global PoliticsBook – Electronic
Theorizing Native StudiesBook – Electronic
Theorizing Native StudiesBook – Electronic
Thucydides on Choice and Decision Making Why War Is Not InevitableBook – Electronic
Transforming Industrial Policy for the Digital Age: Production, Territories and Structural ChangeBook – Electronic
Why the garden club couldn’t save Youngstown: the transformation of the Rust BeltBook – Electronic
Women Political Leaders and the MediaBook – Electronic
Women, Gender, and PoliticsBook – Electronic
Young Dark Emu: A Truer HistoryBook – Electronic

New e-book collection: Oxford World’s Classics

OWC logo

We’re pleased to announce that the Library has bought the new Oxford World’s Classics e-book collection, following a well-received trial earlier this year.

This provides access to 301 novels and other works from the 18th and 19th centuries from around the world, including novels by writers such as Jane Austen, Charles Dickens, Emile Zola and Fyodor Dostoevsky, as well as works such as Charles Darwin’s On The Origin of Species and John Stuart Mill’s On Liberty.

OWC authors

Each work is accompanied by extensive hyperlinked notes, introductions, bibliographies and commentaries. You can browse or search the entire collection in various ways (for example: by author, subject, keyword or time period). Every book in the collection is also individually catalogued on Library Search (here is an example).

When reading a book, you can highlight text and make and save annotations (you’ll need to create a Personal Profile first).

Text highlight and annotation

Get the latest news and features on this platform from Twitter or via the Oxford World’s Classics blog.

Resource in Focus: The Listener Archive

The Library has access to The Listener Historical Archive for its entire run from 1929-1991.

The Listener was a weekly magazine established by the BBC in 1929 under its director-general, Lord Reith. It was initially developed as the medium for reproducing broadcast talks on the radio, but in later years, television as well, and was the intellectual counterpart to the BBC listings magazine, Radio Times. It is one of the few records and means of accessing the content of many early broadcasts, and also regularly reviewed new books.

The Listener developed a reputation for outstanding writing, with contributions from the major writers, artists, commentators and thinkers of the twentieth century, including E.M. Forster, George Orwell and Virginia Woolf. It’s an invaluable resource for those researching the critical reception of culture in the twentieth century, and the response of the public.

You can browse The Listener by date to find a specific issue, or search in various ways (choose Advanced Search to see all options, including searching by section of the magazine, author or date.)

Additional search features on the home page include Term Frequency, to trace how often a word, phrase or person has featured in The Listener over the years, and Topic Finder, to explore and visualise connections between topics.

As the Listener archive is published by the company Gale, you can cross-search it with any of the other Gale archives to which we have access, via Gale Primary Sources.

Resource in Focus: Punch Historical Archive, 1841-1992

The Library has access to the entire digitised archive of Punch from 1841-1992.

Punch was a famous satirical magazine which played a central role in the formation of British identity, and how the rest of the world saw Britain. This archive covers all volumes of Punch between 1841-1992, including special numbers, prefaces, epilogues, indexes, images and other specially produced material from the bound volumes. It’s an excellent resource for researching nineteenth and twentieth century political and social history, through provocative and entertaining satirical commentary.

To find out more about Punch, click Research Tools to read a selection of essays about different periods of its history.

Menu screenshot

You can browse Punch by date to find a specific issue, or search in various ways (choose Advanced Search to see all options, including searching by section of the magazine, illustration type or date.)

Additional search features on the home page include Term Frequency, to trace how often a word, phrase or person has featured in Punch over the years, and Topic Finder, to explore and visualise connections between topics.

As the Punch archive is published by the company Gale, you can cross-search it with any of the other Gale archives to which we have access, via Gale Primary Sources.

Resource in Focus: Picture Post Historical Archive 1938-1957

We have access to the complete digitised archive of Picture Post from 1938-1957. Picture Post was a British magazine (seen as the British equivalent of Life magazine) which was renowned for its use of photojournalism, in an era before television. It covered social and political issues, as well as providing a visual record of everyday life in Britain during and after World War Two.

You can browse the full colour archive by date to find a specific issue, or search in various ways (choose Advanced Search to see all options, including searching by section of the magazine, illustration type, or by date.)

Additional search features on the home page include Term Frequency, to trace how often a word, phrase or person featured in Picture Post over the years, and Topic Finder, to explore and visualise connections between topics.

As the Picture Post archive is published by the company Gale, you can cross-search it with any of the other Gale archives to which we have access, via Gale Primary Sources.

Be Connected: EndNote

What is EndNote?

The official blurb on EndNote is that it is “…the industry standard software tool for publishing and managing bibliographies, citations and references.”

EndNote takes a little getting used to and we recommend you familiarise yourself with it at the start of your research process. EndNote isn’t for everyone, but EndNote can save you a lot of time in terms organising and managing your references for assignments, dissertations or big research projects.

You can use EndNote to create and organise a personal library of resources relevant to your research. You can import references from Library Search, and a huge range of databases such as Scopus, Web of Science, IEEE Xplore and Business Source Complete. Did you know you can instruct Google Scholar to import references into EndNote too? Give it a go.

You can also ask EndNote to locate full-text PDFs for references and annotate the documents within EndNote. Finally, if you already have PDFs stored in your home folder (H:\) then you can attach them to a manually-created reference within EndNote, bringing all your research together in one place.

In addition to organising your references (and this is the clever bit) you can then get EndNote to ‘talk’ to Microsoft Word, and insert the citations into your work for you in your chosen referencing style, e.g. Harvard at Newcastle, Vancouver, APA or MLA. If you don’t want to do that, then EndNote will also allow you to create an independent bibliography of your references, saving you an awful lot of typing.

EndNote help

  • Enrol onto our Teach Yourself EndNote module on Canvas to become proficient in using EndNote.
  • Take a look at our EndNote Guide which contains all the introductory information you need, step-by-step workbooks to train yourself on the use of EndNote (the Desktop and Online versions), videos, and useful FAQs.
  • Finally, Newcastle University provides support for EndNote but it is not compulsory to use. Take some time to explore alternative referencing management tools such as MendeleyZoteroRefWorks which might suit you better.
  • If you can’t find the answer, email Library Help and someone will get back to you, or you can fill in the form on the FAQ box.

Help and training from Clarivate

For further training, you might want to have a look at Clarivate’s training calendar.  They also have really useful Question and Answer sessions where you can ask them anything regarding EndNote. You can register for any of the training via their training calendar.

They also have an excellent suite of training resources which includes video tutorials, self-guided learning, PDF reference guides, live training and online guides for: