Search and discovery tools

LibrarySearch is more than the Library catalogue. It searches records for Abertay’s print and electronic collections alongside a large multidisciplinary index of scholarly content from publishers, aggregators and repositories, including open-access research.

It is particularly useful when you want to:

• search for books, ebooks, book chapters, journal articles, theses and conference material in one place
• find a particular source by title, author or DOI
• explore an unfamiliar topic across different types of academic material
• check whether a print item is held at Abertay
• connect to full text available through Abertay or openly online
• save results, set alerts or export references to RefWorks

LibrarySearch does not cover every specialist database or research need. Depending on your subject and task, you may need to use it alongside other tools.

Learn more about using LibrarySearch.

You might use a general AI assistant to get an initial explanation of a topic, identify questions to investigate or suggest search terms. Examples include ChatGPT, Claude, Gemini and Microsoft Copilot Chat, which is Abertay’s supported assistant for students. Depending on the feature, an assistant may also search the web or work with material you supply.

These tools do not automatically search LibrarySearch or Abertay’s subscribed resources. An answer may miss relevant material, and a link or citation does not show that the source supports the claim being made. Check your assessment brief before using AI. Follow useful leads into LibrarySearch or an appropriate specialist database, then read and evaluate the original sources yourself. See AI for researching a topic for the fuller guidance.

Specialist databases focus on particular subjects or types of information and often provide more precise search options. Some need to be searched directly because their content cannot be searched through LibrarySearch.

Some Abertay resources that need to be searched directly include:

• BSI Knowledge for Abertay’s collection of British Standards
• CINAHL Plus for nursing and allied health literature
• Construction Information Service for construction regulations, standards, technical guidance and industry information
• Lexis+ UK and Westlaw UK for legislation, case law, legal commentary and legal journals
• Statista for statistics, market and industry data and reports

Academic search engines search scholarly material from many organisations and websites. They use different indexes and ranking methods from LibrarySearch and are not integrated in the same way with Abertay’s holdings and access routes. 

Google Scholar

Google Scholar searches scholarly material across disciplines, including articles, theses, books, conference papers and repository copies. It can be particularly useful for:

• following citations to find earlier or more recent research
• finding openly available copies of publications
• identifying material from repositories and academic websites
• searching for a particular paper or author

Its results do not automatically show what Abertay provides access to, and not everything it finds will be suitable for academic work.

Learn when and how to use Google Scholar.

Semantic Scholar

Semantic Scholar is an AI-supported academic search and discovery service. It can match papers by meaning, suggest related research and help you explore papers, authors and citation connections. Some records also include generated summaries and other AI-supported features.

Its coverage varies across subjects and source types, and it does not connect directly to Abertay’s subscriptions. Use LibrarySearch to check whether Abertay provides access to a paper you find.

Learn when and how to use Semantic Scholar.

Abertay subscribes to Scopus and Web of Science. These multidisciplinary citation indexes are particularly useful for dissertations, literature reviews and other independent research when you want to:

• carry out a structured search across academic research
• find later publications that have cited a particular paper
• follow references and citations to discover related research
• explore authors, journals and research trends

They mainly provide publication details, abstracts and citation information rather than hosting the full text. Follow any available Abertay Links or full-text options, or search for the article title in LibrarySearch, to check whether you can access it.

• Search Scopus
• Search Web of Science
• Scopus help and tutorials
• Web of Science help and training

Literature mapping tools help you explore relationships between research papers. They normally start with one or more useful papers and then use citations, similarity or authorship data to suggest connected research.

They can be useful for an honours project, dissertation or postgraduate research when you want to:

• follow a research trail from a useful paper
• identify related, earlier or later work
• explore authors or clusters of research
• monitor developments in an area

The results depend on the papers you start with and the information indexed by the service. A map cannot show that you have found everything relevant or establish by itself that a genuine research gap exists.

These are optional tools. You will not normally be expected to know or use one unless your tutor or supervisor tells you otherwise.

Compare literature mapping tools.

Generative AI research assistants are designed to work with academic literature. Depending on the service, they may use a research question to find possible papers, generate summaries, compare studies or extract information into a table.

They are different from literature mapping tools because their main purpose is to generate answers or structured information rather than show relationships between papers.

These services are most likely to be useful during extended independent research, including honours projects, master’s dissertations and postgraduate research. They are optional and do not replace LibrarySearch, specialist databases, systematic search methods or reading the original publications.

Their coverage may be incomplete, and generated answers or summaries may be inaccurate, unsupported or based only on abstracts. Always find and read the original source before relying on it.

Before using an AI service, check that your proposed use is permitted and follow Abertay’s guidance on privacy, assessment and acknowledging AI use.

Learn about generative AI research assistants or see AI for researching a topic for guidance on using AI within a sound research process.

Finding a record does not always mean that you can immediately read the full publication.

If you find something through an external search engine, database or discovery tool:

• search for the title in LibrarySearch to check Abertay access
• use LibKey Nomad to look for an Abertay subscription or open-access copy
• follow any available Abertay Links or full-text options
• request the item through the inter-library loan service if it is not available

See Get the full text of an article for the complete access process.

The Skills Hub provides guidance that applies whichever search tool you use:

• Search Skills: Finding Information Effectively explains how to plan, carry out and improve a search
• Evaluate information helps you decide whether a source is appropriate and credible
• AI for researching a topic explains how to check sources, claims and AI-generated syntheses
• Evaluating AI outputs explains how to check different kinds of generated content