The Library exists to support research in all disciplines.
This guide is intended to give useful general information for all researchers.
For information in your subject area, see Research Support for your Subject.
For the latest news for researchers, see the Library's Research Blog
Resources
- Research and Impact at Ulster University
-
Getting Started with Library Resources
Library Subject Teams organise induction sessions and 'Effective Use of the Library' workshops for new doctoral students, as well as other useful courses throughout the year. If you miss the sessions at the beginning of the academic year, or need a refresher, we can arrange a session for you.
Please contact your Subject Librarian for more information.
The Student Portal is the gateway to the range of library resources, including the library catalogue, electronic databases, electronic journals and subject guides.To login you will require your Student ID and Network Password. Library electronic resources can be found on the Library & ICT tab.
You can also access Library resources from the Library Home Page.
Access most of our electronic resources from anywhere at any time via OpenAthens authentication. Find out more about accessing electronic resources with our Passwords Guide.
-
Getting Started - Useful Books on Research
- Blaxter, L., Tight, M. and Hughes, C. (2010) How to research. 4th ed. ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill/Open University Press. (view eBook on How to Research)
- Murray, R. (2017) How to write a thesis. 4th ed. ed. Maidenhead: Open University Press.
- Neville, C. (2016) The complete guide to referencing and avoiding plagiarism. 3rd ed. ed. London: Open University Press.
- Petre, M. and Rugg, G. (2010) The unwritten rules of PhD research. 2nd ed. ed. Maidenhead: Open University/McGraw-Hill. (view eBook on The unwritten rules of PhD research)
- Phillips, E. and Pugh, D.S. (2010) How to get a PhD: a handbook for students and their supervisors. 5th ed. rev. and updated. ed. Maidenhead: McGraw-Hill Open University Press. (view eBook on How to get a PhD).
-
Research Support for your Subject
- Arts and Humanities and Social Sciences
- Built Environment
- Computing & Engineering
- Life & Health Sciences
- Ulster University Business School
-
Research Methods
Find out more about planning your research, finding and managing information, and much more at our Researchers at Ulster Guide
-
Document Delivery
Requests should be made online using the Document Delivery Request form where you will be prompted to login with your University ID and network password (this is the same as your Portal / Blackboard Learn login details).
Please note, books must be collected from the Library and journal article requests are sent to the requestor via Secure Electronic Delivery (SED) to their institutional email address.
If you have fines or overdue Library material your request may not be processed.
A 'Completing the Online Document Delivery form' guide is available.
For more information on the Document Delivery service, including receiving your journal article requests electronically using Secure Electronic Delivery (SED) and British Library's EThOS (Electronic Theses Online Service) please see the main Document Delivery page.
-
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 have access to and borrow material from other libraries.
For further information please click on SCONUL Access.
Access relationships
Check our Borrowing and Access Schemes page for information about all of our access relationships.
The 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.
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 Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences Subject 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 you must be in good standing with Ulster University Library and have no overdue books or outstanding fines.
Other Library Catalogues
The COPAC library catalogue gives free access to the merged online catalogues of many major University, Specialist and National libraries in the UK and Ireland.
-
Managing Information
RefWorks is an information management tool that enables you to
- Import and organise your references
- Link to Word to automatically format your paper and bibliography
Introductory classes on RefWorks will be given on each campus. Check the Library homepage for details of the latest classes. Visit the RefWorks Library Guide for further help.
Referencing
A useful guide to referencing is Pears, R. and Shields, G.J. (2016) Cite them right: the essential referencing guide. 10th ed. revised and expanded. ed. Basingstoke, Hampshire: Palgrave Macmillan
-
Library Travel Fund
The Library Travel Fund is open to both undergraduate and postgraduate students to receive financial support to visit other libraries, archives and information centres.
The award is intended to cover the cost of the cheapest form of transport between Ulster University and the location being visited. 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 these funds.
For further information and application forms for both funds, 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.- Ulster University Copyright Guidance and Reference
- Guidelines for Fair Dealing in an Electronic Environment
- CLA: the Copyright Licensing Agency
- Ulster University Intellectual Property Guide
Plagiarism
Plagiarism is an issue taken very seriously by all academic institutions. There is much information on plagiarism and how to avoid it. Check the Turnitin UK website for more information.
-
Current Awareness
Below is a list of suggestions on how you can keep up to date in your area of interest.
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.
Many databases provide an email alerting service.
To find the best databases for your subject and how to set up their alerting services check your subject in the Library Subject Guides. Scopus and Web of Science provide excellent alerting services, as well as an opportunity to save and re-run searches.
Journal Alerting Services
Zetoc Alert 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.
JournalTOCS is a journal alerting service from JISC
Cited Reference Searching
Identify articles which cite an original piece of published research.
Keep up-to-date with cited referencing in Scopus and Web of Science.
Conferences
There is a Conference Alerts service which includes a searchable database of forthcoming academic conferences and a free alerting service.
For details see the CONAL Conference Alerts site.
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.
- JISCMAIL is the major electronic mailing list for the UK higher education community. The search headings include people and subjects.
- CataList is a catalogue of LISTSERV internet discussion lists with access to over 47,000 lists.
Theses
Use the Index to Theses to search for theses published in the UK and Ireland.
EThOS is a British Library service whereby theses are made available in digital form. Downloading full text theses directly from EThOS requires free registration.
Limit your search to full text theses by ticking the 'Limit search to items available for immediate download' box on the search screen.
Books
Many publishers will send you regular emails or RSS feeds to alert you to new books.
Some 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.
-
Useful Websites For 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.
- DirectGov A-Z of Central Government 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.
Research Organisations
- British Academy
- Higher Education Academy
- Research Councils UK
- CORDIS: information on European Research and development
- European Research Area (ERA): research involving a transnational perspective
- National Science Foundation: funding agency for research in the USA
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.
Check our Google Scholar guide for more information.
Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis
Subject Librarians will be able to help you obtain information on journal metrics, where to publish, how to improve citations, and how to manage your research profile.
See the Library guide for Bibliometrics and Citation Analysis for more information.