Dissertation skills. Patrick Overy

Transcription

1 Dissertation skills Patrick Overy

2 Finding Information: Web Site 15 October,

3 Library Home Page General library information Library catalogue and access to other libraries Bibliographical databases Electronic journals and full text Specialist databases Internet resources 15 October,

4 Doing a literature search For initial research to get an overview of the subject and decide on a precise topic Use Library catalogue to find relevant titles of books and journals Find out which online resources you will need to use from the Electronic Library 15 October,

5 Why use online resources? To supplement references from reading list & bibliographies To find the most recent research To find authoritative research especially from academic (peer reviewed) journals 15 October,

6 How to use online resources Prepare your search strategy to make full use of sophisticated databases you need to know how to construct detailed searches Use Library web pages for: Information skills tutorials Essentials guides 15 October,

7 Search strategy Define your topic e.g. an examination of ethical business practice in the UK Decide on main keywords - ethics, business, UK avoid general terms like practice, examination 15 October,

8 Search strategy Think of alternative terms - e.g. morals, organisations, companies, United Kingdom, Great Britain Decide on relationship between terms ethics OR morals, UK OR United Kingdom 15 October,

9 Search strategy Use special features like Truncation to find related words (ethic* to find ethics, ethical, ethically, etc.) Wildcards to substitute for one or more letters (organi?ation to find organisation, organization 15 October,

10 Library catalogue Use keyword to find words in title or subtitle of books and journals Use Encore as quick search box Use Research Pro to cross-search several databases at once, including electronic journals Use COPAC to search UK research libraries 15 October,

11 Accessing the electronic library 15 October,

12 The Electronic Library 15 October,

13 Bibliographical databases EconLit indexes articles and working papers on economics. Part of FirstSearch ISI Web of Science/Knowledge Bibliographic details of articles from thousands of academic journals and abstracts are available for many articles. International Bibliography of the Social Sciences (IBSS) indexes over 2600 journals Tables of contents - ZETOC (British Library Electronic Table of Contents) and TIC-TOCs (Journals Tables of Contents Service) register for alerts based on specific journal titles or search criteria 15 October,

14 Electronic journals To find a particular title use the Library catalogue - links are provided to online version To search for articles by subject or to browse for relevant journals log to one service, like EBSCO or Business Source Complete 15 October,

15 Full-text databases Business Source Complete full text for over 2,800 journals and is updated daily. Subjects covered include: accounting, economics, finance, marketing and management. Nexis UK is a comprehensive news, business and industry information service which is updated daily. As well as full text newspapers, including the Financial Times, it has a range of trade journals and magazines, such as Accountacy Age, Investors Chronicle and Management Today, and company information. 15 October,

16 Business databases Business Insights provides market analysis reports across a range of industries: healthcare; food, drink & retail; energy; finance and technology. Hemscott Company Guru provides indepth analysis and financial data for over 300,000 of the UK's top companies. MarketLine Business Information Center (MBIC) provides company, industry and country profiles. Passport GMID Euromonitor reports 15 October,

17 Statistical databases ESDS is a research library of key social and economic data. 4 specialist data services: Government, International, Longitudinal and Qualidata Eurostat (the Statistical Office of the European Communities) collects and publishes statistics from the member states and from other countries and international agencies for the information of EU institutions. The database includes online publications, datasets and data by sector Wharton Research Data Services (WRDS) provides data in finance, accounting, banking, economics, management, marketing and public policy. 15 October,

18 Subject searching Use Intute to find major free access sources worldwide and Intute Virtual Training Suite for help in research Economics Network has reading lists, research links, etc. 15 October,

19 Current awareness Official sources government, international organisations, think tanks Press releases BBC and news agencies Newspapers via Nexis UK Reuters 15 October,

20 Subject research guides Library webpages Getting Help>Business Information skills>references and bibliographies Using the internet>evaluating websites & Business sources 15 October,