Introduction to resources for MSc programmes, London Sport Institute, Middlesex University

1. Introduction to resources
Useful things to make your
(academic) life easier

2. Housekeeping
• How’s it going?
• Can you find the books
on your reading lists?
• Can you renew and
reserve books?
• Do you know who to
contact for help?
• Library Subject Guides?

3. Getting started
By tableatny (BXP135671) [CC-BY-2.0
(http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.
0)], via Wikimedia Commons

4. Access from myUniHub > My Study page > My Library > Library Subject
Guides
Hover your mouse over Resources to see pages on specific topics, e.g.
Finding Journal Articles

5. Starting your search

6. Summon
Searches journals,
books and more
Good starting point
for a basic search
NOT specific to sport!
Doesn’t do specific or
complex searching

7. Refine, refine, refine
 Full text
online
Scholarly &
peer review
 Journal
Articles only
 Discipline,
e.g. recreation
& sports
 Date range

8. Levels of searching
• Summon alone is not enough!
• How deep / broad / careful do you need to be?

9. Keywords
• Really worth a 5 minute brainstorm before you
search – it will save you time later!
• Searching one word for your concept will not bring
you all the results! And sometimes none.
Not everyone uses the same terminology for one
idea
• Can use the library worksheet if you like (also helps
you organise how to combine the terms with ‘AND’
or ‘OR’)
• Examples follow
9

10. Planning your search - keywords
Boring but WORTH IT!
1. Pick out your concepts and separate them
– Concentration, performance, tennis etc
2. Think of other words that are similar to your
key words but represent the same concepts
– Attention control, focus, attentional
strategies etc
10

11. Planning your search - keywords
3. BE PREPARED
Think of narrower words that fit into your terms and wider
concepts that your terms fit into.
You will often need to:
A. widen your search by using larger terms or concepts to
produce more results
OR
B. OR narrow your search if you produce too many results,
by using narrower terms that fit into your concept
• NOTE: if you narrow or widen ALL your concepts you will
make your life too hard – choose one or two
11

12. concentration
What research has
been conducted on
improving
concentration and
performance in
tennis players?
•
•
•
•
Concentrat*
Attention
Focus
“Attention control
training”
• “Attentional strategies”
Performance
Specific
egs
• Ways of measuring
performance
• Perform*
• Specific groups of athletes
tennis
• Racquet sports
•Age?
• Type of competition
•Gender?
•Level – elite etc?

13. Over to you...
• Using the worksheet
• Briefly summarise your topic in the first box
• Narrow it down to some key words
• Swap with your neighbour – add some they
haven’t thought of

14. AND / OR.....WHY?

15. ...won’t find everything!

16. Estimated size of Google’s index

17. http://wallpapers5.com/wallpaper/Tipof-the-Iceberg/

18. Google
searches
this bit...
http://wallpapers5.com/wallpaper/Tipof-the-Iceberg/

19. The DEEP web
http://wallpapers5.com/wallpaper
/Tip-of-the-Iceberg/

20. The DEEP web
•Intranets (internal
internet sites)
•Academic databases
•Unlinked sites which
haven’t told Google
they exist, or have
asked to remain unlisted
•Basically, anything that
needs a password
http://wallpapers5.com/wallpaper
/Tip-of-the-Iceberg/

21. Avoid the filter bubble – sign out of
Google when you search
More about the filter bubble

22. ...is free and full of stuff!

23. Personalising Google Scholar
• Did you know you can set up Google Scholar to link
to everything you have paid access to through the
University?
• Please follow along and personalise your GS
• Google Scholar > Settings

24. Personalising Google Scholar…
• Click on Library
Links on left hand
side
• Search for and
select Middlesex
University, then
Save

25. Searching Google Scholar

26. Key databases for Sport
• Sport Discus
• Medline
• PsycInfo
• Science Citation Index

27. And more...
• Science Direct
• Ovid Journals
• (includes the main S&C journals)

28. Sport Discus
• After a short demo...
• Try searching for some articles on your topic
• Use the ‘check for full text’ links

29. Getting Full text of journal articles
• Troubleshooting guide can be found here
– http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/accessingelectronicresources
• If you’re not lucky! REMEMBER – it won’t always be directly
available to you – especially at MSc level
– Double check the library catalogue by copying journal name into the
‘journal search’. If we have it there’ll be a record and a link with the
dates we have access to.
– Go to Google Scholar and look for PDF signs
– Go to Author’s website/institution’s repository, often they have
uploaded a pre publication version
– Order a copy via the inter-library loan service (£3.00) (usually you’ll be
emailed with a link to a PDF)
http://unihub.mdx.ac.uk/study/library/resources/ill/index.aspx
29

30. Citation indexes
•
•
•
•
Which articles have cited an earlier article
Find articles on similar/related subject
How many times an article has been cited
Best journals in your field

31. Science Citation Index

32. Google Scholar citations

33. Staying up to date in your area
• Most of the databases have an option to set
up an account, so you can save searches and
set up alerts or RSS feeds for new articles

34. Staying up to date in your area

35. Staying up to date – citation alerts
• In Science Citation Index
• For articles significant to your work/dissertation – get
an alert when it is cited in new research

36. Zetoc alerts service – get info as it’s
published
• Access through myUniHub > Databases

37. Create an alert and name it

38. Add searches or journals that you want to be
alerted about

39. • You can build a list of searches – by keywords or
author
• You can also add searches by journal and be
emailed every time a new issue is published

40. Exercise - Zetoc
• Access through MyUniHub > Databases
• Set up some alerts and add searches relevant
to your modules / topics
• Remember you can add multiple searches for
all of the synonyms to each alert

41. Attribution
41

42. Referencing tools
• Cite Them Right
• RefWorks
• Mendeley

43. Shows you how to reference just
about any source using Harvard
referencing style
Other referencing styles e.g. APA are
available for the main resource types
Access via MyUniHub / Subject guides

44. Online site to manage references,
subscribed to by the University
Access through the Databases list on
MyUniHub
Generate your references in many
different styles – including journals
Help available on Subject Guides

45. Freely available software
Online and desktop
versions
Store and annotate PDF
files
Available to you after
you’ve left MDX
Share references and notes
with groups

46. Need help?
• Librarians in the Specialist Zone (1st floor of Sheppard
Library) during core hours Mon-Fri
• Ask a Librarian http://askalibrarian.mdx.ac.uk/
• SES Library Subject Guide – Jo’s contact details and
presentations/helpsheets
http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/sport