Part Time PhD Accessing Information

2 Introduction This session is divided into two sections Part A will enable you to: Understand your entitlement to support Know which University services are most likely to be provided Part B focuses on: How you can make best use of your Library for research support

3 Sources of help Universities have centrally organised support services. Make a list of the people and services at your University that might be approached for help by a postgraduate researcher Then compare your list with others

4 Typical sources of help(1) Supervisory team –Supervisor(s) –Head of Department –Director of Research –Faculty Research Coordinator Departmental office and admin team Graduate School/Research Office Research training and study skills support Looking at this list, what do you understand of their roles and when might you contact them?

5 Typical sources of help(2) The University is also likely to provide: –Accommodation Services –Careers Centre –Computing Services –Counselling Service –Disabilities and Mental Health Support –Employment Exchange –Student Welfare Services –Harassment Advice –Medical Centre –Religious and spiritual matters Student Union welfare and support

6 Accessing Help As a P-T researcher you are entitled to access these services TASK: –Tomorrow, spend some time investigating your Universities web- site –What support services do they have? –If in need contact immediately!

7 Activity In groups: –Do any of you have experience of contacting any of the support services? –What else could be done by them to help you as a P-T researcher?

8 Library Where you can get help –your subject librarian –courses –one-to-one advice Don’t waste time - for specific help make advance appointments Order theses etc. that you need to view in advance

9 5 Key steps to finding information 1.choosing where to search 2.choosing & combining keywords & other search criteria e.g. date 3.selecting what to read 4.locating information 5.avoiding plagiarism

10 How do you find research information? In pairs: discuss how you currently find research information note any differences & similarities be prepared to give feedback to rest of group

11 Search Resources Google –advanced search –Google scholar Databases, –subject e.g. EconLit –format e.g. WOS conference proceedings Repositories –institutional –subject

12 Activity in groups of five: 1.brainstorm how to search Google for…… –what key words would you use? –what search strategies would you use? 2.nominate one / two persons to demonstrate to whole class how to search Google 3.remainder of group: analyse other groups search strategies –what worked well / what did not work well –why? –what would you differently for a database?

13 Key words General Specific Truncation & boolean logic Abbreviations ?, * Spelling misspelling ‘AND’, ‘OR’ Related terms ATM American Alternative terms

14 Selecting what to read consider: –content bias accuracy –who wrote it –where it was published –currency

15 Locating the material DO NOT just rely on electronic full text library catalogue inter library loan –electronic document delivery visiting other libraries –catalogues on web –SCONUL access scheme

16 Avoiding being a plagiarist record complete references –mark records and –import into a bibliographic software system. E.g.: Refworks Endnote acknowledge in text create a bibliography

17 Why keep up-to-date? How do you keep up-to-date? In pairs brainstorm: why it is important to keep-up-to date how you keep up-to-date give examples of services you use

18 Reasons to keep up-to-date: to keep up with the pace of change and prevent information overload –particularly important in science and technology, but also true of other subject areas to identify new developments relevant to your research to identify new researchers working in your field of study to ensure nobody-else has published on your chosen research title or proposed patent!

19 Where to find alerting services Databases Internet e.g.publishers pages E-journal collections e.g Science Direct, Emerald New books Journal articles Journal contents pages Library catalogueForthcoming conferences Specialist information e.g. patents, government documents

20 Using RSS Rich Site Summary / Really Simple Syndication = automatic notification of latest changes news / latest journal issue / latest blog post need a ‘feed reader’ / ‘news aggregator’ to read the updated information

21 Tracking feeds Paste feed URL into your reader Examples: –TechXtra : –Intute Internet gateway: html html –Library RSS feeds: –BBC News (Selection of feeds):

22 Summary Be aware of the support which you are entitled to Ask for help if it is needed Make the best use of your library Follow the 5 Key Steps to finding information Keep research up-to -date