Part Time PhD

Accessing Information

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Introduction

This session is divided into two sectionsPart A will enable you to:• Understand your entitlement to support• Know which University services are

most likely to be providedPart B focuses on:• How you can make best use of your

Library for research support

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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

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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 supportLooking at this list, what do you understand of

their roles and when might you contact them?

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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

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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!

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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?

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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

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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

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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

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Search Resources

• Google– advanced search– Google scholar

• Databases, – subject e.g. EconLit– format e.g. WOS conference proceedings

• Repositories– institutional– subject

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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?

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Key words

General

Specific

Truncation & boolean logic

Abbreviations?, *

Spelling

misspelling

‘AND’, ‘OR’

Related terms

ATM

American Alternative terms

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Selecting what to read

• consider:– content

• bias• accuracy

– who wrote it– where it was published– currency

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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

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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

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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

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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!

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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 catalogue Forthcoming conferences

Specialist information

e.g. patents, government documents

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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

• http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/default.stm

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Tracking feeds

• Paste feed URL into your readerExamples:– TechXtra : http://www.techxtra.ac.uk/news/latest-news.rss – Intute Internet gateway: http://

www.intute.ac.uk/artsandhumanities/latest.html– Library RSS feeds: http://

www.lboro.ac.uk/library/resources/RSS.html – BBC News (Selection of feeds):

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/help/rss/3223484.stm

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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