How about some free journal articles to help with your dissertation?

It seems cruel to mention this on a lovely August day, but while most of you are enjoying the summer vacation and taking a break from your studies, we know there are quite a few of you who are busy planning and writing your dissertation. One of the key elements of your dissertation, once you’ve decided on the topic, is to decide on appropriate research methods to use. You might find it useful to take a look at the free, peer-reviewed articles from Sage on that very subject. They are part of Sage’s open access content, which is a collection of scholarly journal articles that have been made freely available for you to access. There’s no need to pay, and no need to login with your university ID!

Remember, we’ve also got lots of books and journal articles to help you in the library. As a student or member of staff, they’re free for you to access too! Try looking for books to help with your dissertation on our Catalogue and journal articles about research methods on our Digital Library. We wish you all the best if you are currently slogging your way through your dissertation. It’s definitely worth it in the end! Please get in touch if you need any assistance in finding resources to help.

More freebies from Emerald!

You may remember our blog post earlier this month which told you about Emerald’s Journals of the Week which gives you free access to articles from two journals each week. (If you missed it, find out more here.) Well, it seems as though Emerald likes a freebie nearly as much as we do! For a limited time, you can also download articles from three new journals: International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, Journal for Entrepreneurship and Public Policy and Journal of Agribusiness in Developing and Emerging Economies. Articles from these journals will be available until the 1^st December from the Emerald website. An early Christmas present for us all!

Freebie journal articles from Emerald

Everyone loves a freebie and with Emerald you get two per week! Emerald is a company which publishes academic books and journals covering a whole host of subjects. Each week, they choose two ‘Journals of the Week’ and offer free access to articles from recent issues. There’s no catch, so it’s well worth a look! Current and upcoming journals of the week are:-

5/11/12           EuroMed Journal of Business

                        Journal of Entrepreneurship and Public Policy

12/11/12         Higher Education, Skills and Work-based Learning

                        Journal of Organizational Ethnography

19/11/12         Quality in Ageing and Older Adults

                        Journal of Children’s Services

26/11/12        Sustainability Accounting, Management and Policy Journal

                        Management Research

3/12/12          Smart and Sustainable Built Environment

                        British Journal of Forensic Practice

10/12/12        International Journal of Emerging Markets

                        Critical Perspectives on International Business

17/12/12        Social Care and Neurodisability

                        Safer Communities

Something for nearly everyone! You can find out more from Emerald’s Journal of the Week web page.  These journals will only be available for a week each, so be quick if you want to take a look at any articles! Remember, though, some of these titles are available to you anyway as part of the library’s database subscriptions. To check, just search our catalogue for the journal title you’re interested in.

Would you like online access to thousands of UK newspaper articles, old and new?

No problem! The Newsbank database, freely accessible via the SMU library website, offers access to articles from over 350 local and national UK newspapers. All the major national newspapers are indexed from The Guardian to The Sun and you can search through decades’ worth of editons. So, if you’d like to know what Libby Purves had to say about the Boat Race protestor in The Times yesterday, or if you’d like to search the archive for newspaper articles which mention Swansea Metropolitan University (1,419 of them when I checked: the latest from yesterday’s Western Mail, and the oldest also from the Western Mail in 2007!), then Newsbank is the database for you.

And that’s not all! Newsbank also compiles Special Reports, a collection of articles, websites, videos and images based around different topics. Special Reports available this month include Earth Day, Poetry Around the World and Financial Literacy Month, so you can see that there is quite a variety of topics on offer!

We’d definitely recommend giving Newsbank a go. If you’d like some more information or have any questions about this or our other resources, please ask a librarian.

Change to 'Art Full Text' database

If you use our 'Art Full Text' database, you will now see a change to how it looks! The resource has been taken over by EBSCO Publishing, and is now running from their platform.

On a practical note, SMU staff and students can still access the database both on and off-campus via the 'Art Full Text' link on the library webpages. Plus you still have access to the same breadth of Art & Design e-journals as before.

However, if you do need help navigating your way around the new screens, please don't hesitate to contact myself or one of the other SMU Librarians for assistance!

Databases get a makeover

Spring is in the air: birds are singing, flowers are blooming, and to top it all off, Proquest, one of our largest database providers, has a new look!

Now with an improved interface, it's much easier to access to a broad range of authoritative resources, content and services through the library web pages. Databases which have adopted the new interface are:-

• ABI/Inform: full-text business database


• ANTE: Abstracts in New Technologies and Engineering


• British Periodicals: full-text access to hundreds of periodicals from late 17th Century to early 20th Century


• PILOTS: index to literature on post traumatic stress disorder

You can find more with a single search across multiple resources. With just a few clicks, you can get to relevant content more quickly, work with results more effectively, and share results with friends and colleagues via social networking.

Go to the library web pages, choose any of the above databases and try it out! If you have any questions, please ask a librarian.

Need a journal article at 2am? No problem!

You can access thousands of journals from the Library website at any time of the day or night. Use the e-Journal Quick Search on the Library homepage (www.smu.ac.uk/library) to check if we have online access to the journal you need. Just type the journal title into the search box and follow the links to the issue you need. You can read articles on screen or print them out if you’d rather.

New read aloud feature on some databases

Our EBSCO databases – Business Source Premier, CINAHL Plus, Education Research Complete, GreenFILE, PsycARTICLES and SPORTDiscus – have a brand new look and some exciting features ready for the new academic year. One development means that you’ll be able to listen to some journal articles being read aloud through your computer. You’ll even have the option to choose the accent you hear – British, American or Australian! A similar feature is available on Art Full Text.

To listen to an article on any of these databases, simply look for one that is available in HTML Full-Text. Click on the HTML option and look for the Listen option at the top of the article. You’ll need headphones to use this feature in the Library. You can bring your own, or buy them at the Library counter. As ever, if you have any trouble, please ask a librarian for help.

Calling all sports fans!

Were you doing a victory dance or crying into your beer after watching Manchester United’s 3-0 victory over Newcastle this week? Whatever your reaction, as a keen sports fan you’ll always want to be kept up-to-date with the latest news and information about your favourite team or sport...and your library can help!

· Why not try Sport Discus, one of our full-text Journal databases?
· Look for all the latest regional, national and international sporting news on Newsbank.
· Visit one of our recommended websites, such as London 2012 or the Department for Culture Media & Sport.
· Browse our extensive collection of sport related e-books.

All this information and much more is available online now via the library website (www.smu.ac.uk/library).