Sports

Literature Searching

By The End Of The Session You Will Be Able To:

• Plan for a systematic and comprehensive search

• Understand and use the electronic databases to find out what sports literature has been published in the academic journals

• Identify and access the available journals

What is a Database?

Most databases provide bibliographic details of data published in professional journals including.…

- The Author and Title of an article

- The Journal in which it is printed

- The Volume, Part and Page Numbers of the article

- The Abstract, a brief summary of the article

- Subject KeywordsIn some cases there will be a link providing access to the full text and/or information regarding the Library’s print holdings

When you find an article

This is what the “citation” looks like

The “complete reference”

The “full text”

Evaluation

It is very important to evaluate your search results for relevance and quality

Is it what you need and is it trustworthy?

Do NOT trust information if you have not considered the following criteria:

• Currency (How old is this information? When was it last updated?)

• Authority (Who is the author, site creator, organisation etc?)

• Intent (What is the purpose of the website / information? e.g. financial gain etc)

• Relevance (Is this what I need? Will it answer my question?)

• Objectivity (Balanced view? Opposing views represented? etc)

Evaluation

Peer Review

• Peer review is a core part of academic research.  It is a formal procedure for checking the quality of research before it is published.  

• If a publication is peer reviewed it means it has been read, checked and authenticated (reviewed) by independent, third party academics (peers).

• Peer review has been the quality-control system of academic publishing for hundreds of years.

Useful Databases For Full Text Journal Articles

• Science Direct

• OVID Journals

• PubMed Central

Plan Your Database Search

1. Define your question

2. Break it down into concepts (databases work best if you break your question down into single subjects)

3. List the words or phrases that you could use for each concept (alternative terms, truncation using * etc)

Plan Your Database Search

The following resources should help with this process:

- Examples of high quality systematic literature reviews (Cochrane Library) http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/content.php?pid=40637&sid=360597

- An example of a search strategy and a worksheet to create your own http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/content.php?pid=40637&sid=499097

Accessing The Databases

• Go to the Library’s SES Subject Guide http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/sport

• Select Journals

• Click on Finding Journal Articles / Using Databases

• Choose a database (e.g. SPORTDiscus)

A Quick Search Demonstration

Searching Science Direct, OVID Journals and PubMed Central for peer reviewed journal articles on:

‘The benefits of plyometric training for football players’

But it’s not in the library

• Don’t worry…fill out an Inter-Library Loan Form (http://www.lr.mdx.ac.uk/lib/services/docs/illform.pdf) with the bibliographic details of the article you want

• A photocopy of the article will be ordered for you from the British Library

• This can take approximately a week (sent to your home address)

• There is a charge of £3 for this service

Other Libraries

• Sconul Access Scheme http://www.sconul.ac.uk/using_other_libraries/access/

• British Library http://www.bl.uk/

Referencing

• It is vital that your work is properly referenced and you have full bibliographic details of all resources used

• For details of how to reference your work go to www.lr.mdx.ac.uk

• Click on Guides & Helpsheets (in the left hand column)

• Then click on Study Skills

• Then click on the blue link to Referencing and Citation Style – Health and Social Sciences (http://www.lr.mdx.ac.uk/helpsheets/study_skills/hss.pdf)

Useful Links

• Learning Resources Webpages http://www.lr.mdx.ac.uk

• Sport and Exercise Library Subject Guide

http://libguides.mdx.ac.uk/sport

Please ask us at the Library Enquiry Desk (or ‘Ask A Librarian’ on the Library Subject Guides) if you need any help!