Researching for your project

MathematicsLevel 6

Databases Technical reports Wikis Past projects

Repositories Conference papers Standards Market

reports

Statistics Government papers Books Websites

Radio and Television Patents Newspapers Journals

Accessing individual databases from iCat

1. Sign in to access

electronic resources2. Select link to

database list

Database list

Before you start searching: develop a search strategy

Split topic into major areas

Choose keywords from your project title

Think about alternative words

Examples of alternative terms:

Synonym car insurance

motor insurance

Narrower car BMW

Broader car vehicle

Wildcards and Phrases Date

Regional differences

Boolean operators

AND Both terms need to be

presentNarrower search Fewer results

OR Either term needs to be

presentBroader search More results

NOT Used to exclude a subset you don’t want

Some relevant maths databases

ACM digital library

IEEE Xplore

Scopus

Web of Knowledge

Science Direct

…Business databases

What to do if Kingston doesn’t have what you need

• If Kingston does not have a paper copy or a full text electronic version you may need to try other sources

• For example– Interloans– Other libraries

Interloans

• If you have forgotten to sign in this screen won’t appear – but you will get a reminder about signing in.

Access to other useful libraries• Sconul Access

– Gives access for students to most Higher Ed Libraries– Check the website http://www.access.sconul.ac.uk/ for details of participating

libraries – Apply online for reference access

• British Library Reading Rooms (Central London)– Check what is available locally first– Check the British Library catalogue: www.bl.uk– Check the BL Website to find out what you need to take with you

• Specialist libraries– Many professional organisations or charities have their own specialist libraries– Some will allow access – you need to check and there may be a charge

Searching the internet…..

and……..evaluating your

internet searches

Why can’t I just use an internet search engine?

It is not wrong to use the internet, but……

………It is important to evaluate very carefully what you use

• You could use Google Scholar instead of Google

SOURCE FUNCTION

CONTENT - Scope & quality

PRESENTATION and ACCURACY

SOURCE

• Is there a named author? • Reputation of author – qualifications, other

work, organisational affiliation• Who “hosts” the web pages? Look at the

domain name in url

FUNCTION

• What is the purpose of the website?• Look for evidence of bias

CONTENT - Scope & quality

• Does the intellectual content match what is required by degree level students?

• Intended audience – academic or populist? • Is it country specific?

PRESENTATION and ACCURACY

• Are there spelling mistakes or grammatical errors?

• Is the text referenced properly?

Citation and referencing

• You should cite all the sources you use• You should list full details of everything you

have cited• Follow the guide to Harvard in Cite them Right• Link to this from MyKingston > Library >

Referencing

Keep a note of …….

……. all of the items you have used.

You can keep a manual recordRecord cardsNotebook

You can keep an electronic copyWord

Excel

Images from Microsoft Clip-art 2012

Refworks

• Refworks is one way of managing your references

• Available from the database list on iCat• You can store references• You can produce a list of references• You can cite from within Word