Research Support

Library Services provides access to a wide range of electronic resources, including an extensive collection of e-journals and databases which can be accessed on and off-campus, from any device.  Most of these resources can be searched simultaneously via LibrarySearch.  Some of the more specialist databases such as Statista, Lexis+ UK, or Westlaw would need to be accessed directly via our Resources A-Z

Library Services can offer specialist support and advice about access to resources to support your research. For introductory information about the collections and resources available in your subject area, see our Subject Guides.

If you have any queries about resource provision or would like to request a 1:1 appointment, please email library@abertay.ac.uk 

If an item you require is not available at Abertay or another library locally, it may be possible to obtain it through our Inter-library Loans Service.

If there is a particular book that is needed for your research project you should contact us to request whether it it is possible to purchase it for addition to our holdings.  Please email full details to library@abertay.ac.uk  

If the book is very specific to your individual project, unaffordable, or not available from the Library contracted suppliers, it may not be possible for Library Services to fulfil your request.

In this situation, please speak to your research supervisor to check if funds are available from your school to purchase the title instead. This would require that the purchase is authorised by your supervisor.  You should then email library@abertay.ac.uk with the details of the item you wish to request. For each request, a fund code and email authorisation from the signatory of the fund that is to be used for the purchase will be required.  

When a book is ordered for you, either as a purchase for Library stock or for your individual project, you will receive email notification from the Library once it is available.

The SCONUL Access scheme allows many university library users access to other libraries that participate in the scheme.

Applications to join an external library must be made online via the  SCONUL Access application. If you have any queries regarding the SCONUL Access scheme or completing the application form, email sez@abertay.ac.uk.

Abertay's Research Portal  lists all Abertay PhD theses. You can search for theses on the portal by title, author or keywords. Many of the theses are freely available to read and download but some may be under a temporary embargo. If you have a query about a particular thesis on the research portal that you are unable to access, email repository@abertay.ac.uk.

Masters by Research (MbR) and Master of Philosophy (MPhil) theses published from 2016 onwards are also available on the research portal. Older MbR and MPhil theses are available in print in the Library and are discoverable using LibrarySearch. if you are unable to find a thesis email: library@abertay.ac.uk. 

Other UK PhD theses can be found by searching EThOS - the Electronic Thesis Online Service from the British Library. EThOS holds records for most UK PhD theses. For non-UK theses, there are several databases that you can search. Further information on finding non-UK theses are available from here. 

Published datasets can be a valuable resource to use and cite in your research. Datasets across many disciplines can be found in data centres and repositories, some of which are established by research funders and researcher communities. Advice on finding and reusing datasets can be found on the  Finding and reusing datasets support page.

Library staff can provide support for literature searching, including:

• Guidance on which resources are appropriate for your topic;
• Support for carrying out an initial literature search;
• Guidance on carrying out cited reference searching;
• Support for developing advanced search strategies to ensure comprehensive literature retrieval, including searching for systematic reviews.

For support from specialist library staff, contact library@abertay.ac.uk 

Reference management software helps you to keep track of your reading and references and makes it easier to find referencing information to cite material in your work.

Using reference management software will save you time compiling and locating your references and, if used correctly, will improve the consistency and accuracy of your citations and reference lists. However, no citation manager is a replacement for knowing how to reference correctly and consistently.  

Abertay Library has a subscription to RefWorks reference management software please see guidance here: RefWorks

We also provide subscription access to the comprehensive referencing platform Cite Them Right Online (CTRO) which provides video guides, support articles, and templates for most information sources, for many referencing styles.  Please see more details here: Cite Them Right Online (CTRO)

Please see full Referencing guidance here: Referencing

If you would like additional support using RefWorks, please email library@abertay.ac.uk 

Keeping up to date with new ideas and research is an essential part of the research process. The number of journal articles published each year can make this a daunting task but there are a number of techniques and resources that can help you keep up-to-date with newly published materials. Some popular methods are listed below.

• Journal TOCs  allows you to set up alerts you when new issues of any 'followed' journals are published..
• Browzine is a great way to browse your favourite journals, save articles and export the citations to your RefWorks account.
• Citation alerts and Saved searches . Most of the library databases offer a citation alert service so that you will be notified if a new article cites an article that you are interested in. They also allow you to save searches to run again at a later point. In most cases you will need to set up an account within the particular database. Look in the help section of each database to see what you can do or contact your academic librarian if you need assistance. 
• Cited reference searching. This allows you to find where key articles in your research area have been cited in more recent works. It is a useful way of finding out how ideas and research have developed over time. This service is offered by the library databases Scopus and Web of Science (both available from the Resources A-Z) and also Google Scholar. 
• Professional bodies and organisations. The websites of professional bodies and organisations can be useful sources of up-to-date information. Many now offer a news section, blog or Twitter account, which highlight new research.

The online Library resources can be accessed 24/7 from anywhere using your University credentials. The Off Campus Toolkit has tips and tools you can utilise to ensure you get quick, easy access to library content when you are not on campus. 

Library staff can offer advice on Copyright , including re-use of 3rd party copyright material in your publications as well as advice on licensing options, including Creative Commons licenses  and other licenses required for publishing your research.

The  information on both the Copyright Guide for Students and Copyright Guide for Research will be relevant. You can also email repository@abertay.ac.uk with any copyright queries.

If you are using text and data mining (TDM) to undertake automated analysis of your datasets, you need to address the copyright issues.

Text and data mining involves copying and normalising your data. If this is protected by copyright or database rights you will need to either have a licence from the copyright owner or determine that the TDM exception applies to your activity. This exception allows you to apply TDM to any copyright works for non-commercial research purposes, as long as you have lawful access.

The University of Cambridge has a comprehensive LibGuide on Text and Data Mining. 

Abertay regulations require the submission of an electronic copy of the final examined version of all research theses. The final version of the thesis should be deposited in Pure. A guide on how to submit your Postgraduate research (PGR) thesis in Pure is available from the Pure support pages.  A PGR Thesis Template is also available.

PGR theses should be made open access as soon as possible on the external Pure Portal. However, there will be occasions when theses need to be restricted (embargoed). For example, you may want to publish some papers from your thesis or your thesis contains sensitive or 3rd party copyright material that needs to be redacted. 

All theses submitted for publication on the Pure portal require the RD08-  Final Thesis and Data Embargo Request Form to be completed  This form is available from the research pages -  Forms and Links. 

Bibliometrics is the statistical analysis of books, articles or other publications. It uses citation data to provide insight into the impact of research outputs. Any single metric will not provide a rounded overview of research performance. Responsible use of metrics to evaluate research requires the use of a range of indicators. Consider the context in which the metrics are used and look at them alongside appropriate qualitative indicators such as peer review when assessing research quality. 

Abertay University is committed to the responsible use of metrics in research evaluation and is a signatory of the San Francisco Declaration on Research Assessment (DORA). 

Sources of journal information that enable publication and citation analysis include the library databases Scopus and Web of Science, which can be accessed via the Resources A-Z as well as free resources such as Google Scholar and Dimensions. Some bibliometrics commonly used by researchers include:

• Citation counts: the number of times a research output appears in the reference lists of other documents. Citation counts can be found in Scopus, Web of Science, Google Scholar and Dimensions. The citation counts displayed on the External Pure portal are Scopus citation counts.
• h-index: aims to measure an author's productivity and impact. It is the number of publications (h) that have h or more citations. H-index scores can be found in Scopus, Web of Science and Google Scholar. The h-index displayed on the external Pure portal is derived form Scopus citation data. 
• Journal impact factor (JIF). Journal Citation reports (JCR) from the Web of Science can be used to find the impact factors for journals. A JIF of 3.0 means that, on average, articles published in that journal one or two years ago have been cited three times. When comparing impact factors you should compare like with like as different disciplines and different types of articles e.g review or original research articles have different citation patterns. JCR also give  a 5-year Impact factor. Further information, guides and tutorials are available from Clarivate support.
• The SCImago Journal Rank (SJR) from Scopus is an alternative metric to the the Journal Impact factor. The SJR rates a citation depending on where it comes from, transferring prestige by citing another journal. The figure is derived by dividing the number of citations by the number of documents over the previous 3 year period. You may find the YouTube video -Searching the SCImago Journal Ranking Database useful. 
• Journal Quartiles: Both the JCR and SJR can be used to find what Quartile particular journals in each subject category are in. These Quartiles rank the journals from highest to lowest based on their impact factor or impact index. There are four Quartiles: Q1, Q2, Q3 and Q4, Q1 being the highest. 
• CiteScore is a relatively new measure of journal citation provided by Scopus. CiteScore is essentially the average citations per document that a title receives over a three-year period. A CiteScore value is available for most active titles in Scopus – journals, book series, conference proceedings and trade journals – that started publishing in 2015 or earlier.
• Some metrics are normalised. For example, Scopus will let you compare the Source Normalized Impact per Paper (SNIP). This measures the average citation impact of the publications of a journal. SNIP corrects for differences in citation patterns across different scientific disciplines so it can be useful useful if you need more accurate between-disciplines comparisons of citation impact.

Altmetrics are based on the number of times an article is shared, downloaded or mentioned on social media, blogs or in newspapers. Using altmetrics in addition to traditional bibliometrics can provide a wider picture of how a publication is being  discussed. Abertay's Pure Portal displays both the altmetric donut and PlumX metrics for research outputs. 

Open access maximises the impact of your research, and leads to increased citations. Information on open access publishing, including complying with Abertay's Open Access Publications' Policy  is available on our OA support pages. 

Our Research Data Management support pages offer information, how-to guides and support for managing your research data in compliance with Abertay's Research Data Management Policy, GDPR Research Policy and Data Classification and Handling Policy.

All postgraduate research students (PGRS) have a profile on Pure. Students should keep their profile up to date, deposit all research outputs in Pure as per Abertay's Open Access Publications' Policy and create a record of all published datasets in Pure as per the Research Data Management Policy.

All PGRS theses must be deposited in Pure before graduation. After graduation, all theses will be freely available on the Pure portal either immediately or after an embargo period. Further information is available from the Pure support pages. 

ORCID provides a persistent digital identifier that distinguishes you from every other researcher. ORCID integrates with research workflows such as manuscript and grant submission, supporting automated linkages between you and your professional activities ensuring that your work is recognised. Abertay has an institutional ORCID account allowing us to integrate Pure with ORCID. Further information is available from the ORCID support page.  

Guidance on publishing can be found on the Find the right journal to publish your research