Resources
for Research in the University of Ulster Libraries
This guide has been designed
to help students and staff who are doing research in the University
of Ulster. The guide is intended to give useful general information for all researchers. Each Faculty has its own
Research Support guide which will give subject focused information
and the contact details of the Subject Librarians.
Click on the links to go to the resource.
You can check the resources
of the University libraries by going to the homepage at http://library.ulster.ac.uk/
A guide on how to use the catalogue and all our other services
is available at http://library.ulster.ac.uk/info/
A guide on how researchers can make the best use of our resources is available at http://library.ulster.ac.uk/research/researchersguide.pdf.
Getting started
- useful books on research
Blaxter, Loraine, 1945-. - How to research / Loraine Blaxter,
Christina Hughes and Malcolm Tight. - 3rd ed. - Buckingham
: Open University Press, 2006.
Murray, Rowena. - How to write a thesis / Rowena Murray. -
Buckingham : Open University Press, 2002. - 0335207197
Neville, Colin. - The complete guide to referencing and
plagiarism / Colin Neville. - Maidenhead : Open University
Press, 2007. - 0335220902
Rugg, Gordon, 1932-. - The unwritten rules of PhD research
/ Gordon Rugg and Marian Petre. - Maidenhead : Open University
Press, 2004. - 0335213456
Rumsey,
Sally. - How to find information : a guide for researchers
/ Sally Rumsey. - Maidenhead : Open University Press, 2004.
- 0335214290
Access
to other libraries
SCONUL Access
SCONUL Access is a co-operative venture between most of the higher
education libraries of the UK and Ireland. It enables staff and
eligible students to borrow material from other libraries. For further
information please click on the SCONUL Access link
above.
British
Library
The British Library allows access to their London Reading
Rooms for researchers. The Library's collection of over 160
million items includes books, maps, patents, manuscripts and
newspapers. To gain access to the Reading Rooms it is necessary
to apply for a Readers Pass. Details of how to apply for a
Pass are available at http://www.bl.uk/services/reading/admissions.html
Letter of Introduction
Many colleges and universities have external membership
schemes for students who have no connection with that particular
institution. If an institution has collections of particular
interest to your research it is worth contacting them to find
out their admissions criteria. The Customer
Support Librarian can provide you with a letter
of introduction to support your request for admittance
to other university libraries, though we cannot guarantee
that this will be granted. To obtain a letter of introduction from the library you must be in good standing with the library
and have no overdue books or outstanding fines.
Other
Library Catalogues
The above link will take you to a comprehensive list other
library catalogues and resources.
Library
Travel Fund
The Library Travel Fund is available to help students travel
to other libraries or information centres for purposes of
research. Travel is normally restricted to within the United
Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland due to financial constraints.
Accommodation and subsistence costs are not met from this
fund.
For further information and application forms please click
on Library
Travel Fund.
Intellectual
Property Issues
Copyright
The Copyright Designs and Patents Act does allow copying
of copyright materials under certain circumstances.
The amount of a published work which may be photocopied
is generally interpreted as:
- no more than one chapter of a book
- no more than one article of a journal issue
- no more than one single case report from a law report
OR
- no more than 5% of a given work, whichever is greater
Copying must be for the purposes of non-commercial research
or private study, which is why, if we make or obtain a photocopy
for you, we ask you to sign a copyright declaration that you
require the copy for this purpose.
Below are useful Web sites on copyright should you require
further information.
Guidelines for Fair Dealing in an Electronic Environment
CLA: the Copyright Licensing
Agency
Intellectual Property (UK Government)
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an issue taken very seriously by all academic
institutions. There is much information on plagiarism and
how to avoid it. One of the best sites is JISC
Plagiarism Advisory Service which covers all aspects of
plagiarism. This includes an excellent document by Dr. H.S.
Pyper, University of Leeds "Avoiding
plagiarism, advice for students".
Research
Discussion Lists
Electronic discussion lists are a valuable way
for researchers and academics to share information and ideas
by e-mail or via the Web.
Below is a selection of some of the most popular discussion
lists.
BUBL
Mail includes mailing lists run by BUBL an Internet-based
information service for the UK higher education community.
It also includes links to general mailing lists and archives.
CataList is a catalogue of LISTSERV internet discussion lists with
access to over 47,000 lists.
JISCMAIL is the
major electronic mailing list for the UK higher education
community. The search headings include people and subjects.
Current
Awareness
Below is a list of suggestions on how you can keep
up to date in your area of interest.
Books
Many online booksellers provide an alerting service which
emails you details of new books in a specified field.
Amazon offers a free a "notification
preference" though
you will need to register. For details go to http://www.amazon.co.uk/
Book News "for the latest books in science,
technology and medicine" is at http://www.booknews.co.uk/
Journals
One of the most effective ways to keep up to date in journal
literature is to save and re-run searches on the most relevant
databases for your subject.
To find the best databases for your subject and how
to set up their alerting services go to your Faculty Subject
Guide (see above).
ZETOC Alert
This is a table of contents alerting service which will
email you the contents pages of your chosen journals every
time a new issue is loaded into the database. It is updated
daily so you may be emailed within 72 hours of publication.
Conferences
There is a Conference Alerts service which includes a
searchable database of forthcoming academic conferences and
a free alerting service. For details go to http://wwww.conferencealerts.com
Web sites
ChangeDetection monitors URLs for change and alerts you
by email when a change occurs. For details go to http://www.changedetection.com/monitor.html
Useful
Websites For Research
Academic web sites
Many Universities and academic institutions produce their
own guides to research methods.
BUBL Link Research methods
Dissertation doctor
University of York: Research methods and resources
Subject gateways
A good way of searching the internet to find evaluated,
quality web sites.
intute - access to the very best Web resources for
education and research.
Government web sites
A very valuable source
of information. All government departments have web sites
and many give access to official publications, guidelines
and statistics. Many
official publications are only available online.
Directory of UK Government Websites will take to a complete listing of all UK government websites.
Directory of Irish Government Websites is a complete listing of all Irish government websites.
UK National Statistics site for official UK statistics.
Central Statistics
Office Ireland links to official Irish government statistics.
Search engines
Google
Scholar Google Scholar enables you to search specifically
for scholarly literature, including peer-reviewed papers,
theses, books, preprints, abstracts and technical reports
from all broad areas of research. Use Google Scholar to find
articles from a wide variety of academic publishers, professional
societies, preprint repositories and universities, as well
as scholarly articles available across the web.
Last updated: 01/12/08
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