2. What we will cover today
• Trustworthy sources
• Finding resources – Library Search, Google Scholar
• Databases
• Referencing
• Where you can get help
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3. Information Flow
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• Primary literature is where new research or theories
are first revealed, and includes journals and
conferences – original material
• Secondary literature provides a more digested
overview of a subject e.g. books – interpretation of
other sources
• Tertiary literature records facts and brief descriptions
of key information, as in reference material e.g.
encyclopaedias and dictionaries
9. Evaluation task – The real thing!
Imagine you have been asked to write and essay on self-esteem
In your groups evaluate the 5 resources you have been given
• Discuss whether these sources are useful, or not and why
• Think about which has the most academic authority
• Which items might have bias?
• Which is the most current, does it matter?
10. Where can you find quality information?
• Library Search
• Google Scholar
• Choose your specialist database
• PEP-web
• Psychotherapy.net
• PsychInfo
16. Good Google….
Presentation title
Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search
for scholarly literature. From one place, you can search
across many disciplines and sources: articles, theses,
books, abstracts and court opinions, from academic
publishers, professional societies, online repositories,
universities and other web sites
20. Have a go……..
• Use library search and Google scholar to search for
resources
• Save your searches
• Email a resource to yourself
• Check the reference for your article
21. Databases
• A database is a collection of data or information that is specifically
organised for rapid search and retrieval by a computer
• They can be free or commercial
• They can cover one subject or many subjects
• Remember that you are the brains in this relationship! The computer
will only respond to your keywords so think about those before you
begin your searches.
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22. Databases available via Middlesex University
• PsycInfo
• PsycTests
• PsycArticles
• PEP-web
• Psychotherapy.net
• PubMed
• Medline
• Cinahl
• Web of Science
• And don’t forget Library Search!
Presentation title
27. Boolean Operators
• AND = Less: You are combining search terms NARROWER
• OR = MORE: You are asking for either of the search terms WIDER
• * = Truncation – You enter the beginning of a key word e.g.
Psych* will find all search terms beginning with these 5 letters
• “ “ = Phrase searching – You want the words to be next to each other in your
search e.g. “substance abuse”
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36. Have a go
• Pick a database
• TRY
• advanced searches
• boolean operators and tools – “phrases”,
truncation *
• Open and save pdf articles
• Try emailing results and/or individual articles to
yourself
39. Why Reference?
• Give credit to the original author/creator
• Demonstrate that you have read widely on the subject and
have considered and evaluated the writings of others
• Show the evidence of your research by quoting,
paraphrasing or summarising from the original text
• Establish the credibility and authority of your ideas and
arguments by highlighting and backing-up relevant points
• Enable the reader to locate the original material you used
• Distinguish between your own ideas and opinions and
those of others
• Achieve a better mark or grade
• Avoid plagiarism.
Presentation title
43. Presentation title
Collecting and managing your references
• Refworks collects, manages and organizes references
• Save your references on the go:.
• From Library Search and Google Scholar
• From the database you are using
• Only Refworks is supported by Middlesex University library
• You will need to set up a Refworks account using your
Middlesex email address
46. It’s not in the Library!
• Inter Library Loans:
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/interlibraryloan/interlibraryloans
• Other libraries:
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/psych/otherlibs
• Sconul Access
https://www.sconul.ac.uk/sconul-access
You’ve found material can you use it? How do you decide?
Using the resources MDX has to offer – starting with library search and specialist databases
Referencing
Help!
Information Sources are typically categorised into three broad categories
Your finished piece of work is just the tip of the iceberg.
Below it is should be loads of research ie. looking at theory and facts, being inspired, getting ideas, stimulating your imagination etc.
Research at Uni of Huddersfield shows that students who use library resources get better degrees.
Don’t forget to evaluate your resources
Currency – how old is the information? Has it been revised or updated? - You will probably require more recent information in your work
Authority – Is the information supported by evidence e.g. data, references. Has the information been reviewed or refereed. Is there contact information about the author, where do they work, are they being sponsored?
Relevance – Does the information relate to your topic? Is it at the right academic level. Have you looked at a variety of sources before deciding to use this source? Sometimes students get so excited at finding information they forget to assess if it is actually relevant to their topic
Purpose – What is the purpose of the information? Is it to inform, teach, sell, entertain or persuade. Do the authors make their intentions clear, Is it objective and impartial?
Think about the 5Ws when thinking about your information
What, when, why, who, where
Possibly if group v large 3 A3 posters for Trustworthy, Risky, Be suspicious and have 3 volunteers to stand holding the posters then we hand out the cards randomly and get student to read out their card, discuss and go up and give their card to the person holding the poster
Or use one set of cards per group and feedback
Sources game
Magazine (A regular publication aimed at a profession, business or interest....trade/popular)
Good: Latest news: events, jobs, products etc, concise info, easy to obtain
Bad: lacks detail, can be bias, old issues hard to come by
Standards (An agreed, often legally binding level of quality or way of doing something....regional, Nat, Internat, profession/sector)
Good: Created by experts, confidence
Company/market research report (Well researched overview of a company or product market. Could contain future trends, financial data, competitors and SWOT analysis)
Good: Up-to-date: latest research/data, Insider information: information not freely available elsewhere, objective, accurate
Bad: Hard to locate
Webpage
Good: All subjects covered, easy to use, mobile
Bad: accuracy, no editorial control, anyone can add information, provenance
Newspapers
Good: Daily information ie. up-to-date, edited, current issues accessible
Bad: Sensationalist, biased (unbalanced), harder to get back issues
Conference proceedings (Collof aca papers distributed after a conference, cont the contributions made by researchers, academics etc)
Good: Up-to-date: latest research, ideas, thinking on a subject, focussed/specialist, stringent quality control
Bad: Too specific
Journals
Good: Up-to-date, Focussed: specialist subject areas, quality
Bad: Too specific
Books
Good: overview, background knowledge, edited/quality
Bad: Currency, detailed/specific information
Always use MyUniHub – MyStudy - MyLibrary
Where you will find access to key library resources eg Library Search, Library guides, databases and e-journals
Also a useful link to Referencing and Interlibrary loans
Sign in
Remind them about refining eg date
Citation, Refworks, Pin
What is Google Scholar?
Google Scholar allows users to search for digital or physical copies of articles, whether online or in libraries. It indexes "full-text journal articles, technical reports, preprints, theses, books, and other documents, including selected Web pages that are deemed to be 'scholarly.'“
Because many of Google Scholar's search results link to commercial journal articles, most people will be able to access only an abstract and the citation details of an article, and have to pay a fee to access the entire article.
The most relevant results for the searched keywords will be listed first, in order of the author's ranking, the number of references that are linked to it and their relevance to other scholarly literature, and the ranking of the publication that the journal appears in.
Features of Google Scholar
Search all scholarly literature from one convenient place
Explore related works, citations, authors, and publications
Locate the complete document through your library or on the web
Keep up with recent developments in any area of research
Check who's citing your publications, create a public author profile
Limitations
Google Scholar does not publish a list of journals crawled or publishers included, and the frequency of its updates is uncertain.
Google Scholar puts high weight on citation counts in its ranking system and is criticized for strengthening the citation cycle as highly cited papers appear in top positions they gain more citations while new papers hardly appear in top positions and therefore get less attention by the users of Google Scholar and hence fewer citations
Google is also vulnerable to spam and some scholars have created fake articles to show its vulnerability
Locate the full-text document through your library or on the web: Change settings etc to link to MDX resources. You only need to do this once on your own laptop/device, but need to be logged on to MyUniHub.
Star = save
“ = create reference
Mention number of citations
Related articles
Link to full text at Middlesex
Decide if you want to be systematic in your searching and use the same key words and combinations in all your searches before you start entering random search terms
PsycInfo – Psychology
PEPweb – Psychotherapy
Remember that these are commercial databases which we pay to subscribe to so we won’t have everything!
This is the page on the Psychology library guide about journals and databases
Mention ppt on accessing journal databases
Remember to go in through MyUnihub so you are signed in to get full online access
Access via subject heading or by name of database if known
Remember to go in through MyUnihub so you are signed in to get full online access
Mention you can search Cinahl, PsycInfo, Medline, PsycArticles and PsycTests in one go as all provided by same host company EBSCO
Do you remember Boolean operators??
Searched for Trump on the first row AND mental health on the second row OR mental disorders on the third row
Click on the + sign to add extra search rows
Use limiters to narrow your search e.g. Scholarly peer reviewed journals, publication date etc.
Note the number of results for this search…..
Limiters include – Full text, publication year, language, peer reviewed, publication type….
All familiar with the term peer reviewed?
Remember to see how many other authors have cited the article
Usually more citations the better
Also check the references at the end of an article for further sources
Also look at the Related articles if there are any
PEPWeb is a full text database of both recent and historical psychoanalytical research journals and ebooks including the standard edition of the complete psychological works of Sigmund Freud
The style is a bit old fashioned but a useful resource
Searched for Psychoanaly* - truncation
Asked it to show matches in text
Can search by author, title, year
All sources has a drop down list
Click on search tips for more help
Standard search operators
You can type part of the word you're looking for, then an asterisk (*), to find anything starting with those letters, e.g., psycho*
To find a phrase (words in order), surround the phrase in quotes, e.g., "primal fear"
You can combine multiple terms, requiring both or either to be present (AND and OR respectively.), e.g., fear or loathing
Scroll down to the bottom of the article to see the citation reference for this article
A specifically chosen collection of 50 videos showing therapists in action, demonstrating clinical techniques and discussing their work
Let students use either or both databases
Most people feel like this when I mention referencing…
I’d like you to feel like this
Demonstrate that you have read widely on the subject and considered and evaluated the writings of others
Show your tutor the evidence of your research and thereby appreciate your contribution to the topic
Establish the credibility and authority of your ideas and arguments
Enable the reader to locate the original material you used
Give credit to the original author/creator
Enable the reader to form their own views on the value of your sources and how you have interpreted them
Distinguish between your own ideas and opinions and those of others
Highlight and back-up relevant points by quoting, paraphrasing or summarising from the original text
Achieve a better mark or grade
Avoid plagiarism.
Library guide on referencing and plagiarism
Explanation of what referencing is
Link to Cite them right online and video tutorial
Cite them right covers a comprehensive range of resource types alongside detailed advice on referencing, citations and their importance in academic work
Do you know the difference between a citation and a reference
How about a reference list and a bibliography
Recommend that they read the basics section
Mention information types across the top
Select referencing style
Learn more about APA
Citation order
Examples of In-text citation and Reference list – check they know the difference. In-text citation is the “signpost” to the full reference at the end of the assignment
Box you can type in your own reference then copy it into your reference list
RefWorks is a web-based commercial reference software package.
Users' reference databases are stored online, allowing them to be accessed and updated from any computer with an internet connection. Institutional licenses allow universities to subscribe to RefWorks on behalf of all their students. So create your Refworks account through Middlesex University
Only RefWorks is supported by MDX – other systems are available e.g. Endnote and Mendeley
Separate PPT presentation on Refworks as it has changed slightly
BPS research digest blog
MDX Psychology Blog
Zetoc for Journal content alerts - Provides access to the British Library’s electronic table of contents of around 20,000 current journals and around 16,000 conference proceedings. It includes an email alerting service to enable you to keep up to date with relevant new articles and papers.
Inter Library Loan service: request copies of books and journals not held by MDX. £3 charge. More info on our website.
SCONUL Access http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/ The SCONUL Access Scheme provides reciprocal access and borrowing rights for staff and students to approximately 170 member institutions in the UK. Apply online.
Other libraries (specialist, catalogues etc):
British Library http://www.bl.uk/
COPAC http://copac.ac.uk/ COPAC is a union catalogue that gives access to the merged online catalogues of members of the Consortium of University Research Libraries (CURL). Twenty major university libraries currently contribute to COPAC.
Search25 http://www.search25.ac.uk/: helps you discover library resources across London and the South East. You can also see where the libraries are and find out how to visit them.
SUNCAT http://www.suncat.ac.uk/ SUNCAT, a union catalogue of serials (periodicals) for the UK, is a tool for locating serials held in UK libraries.
