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Finding Sources: Where to look (news, statistics and more)

An introduction to finding evidence to support your assignments

Finding (archived) news sources

Many news sources are only available to all on the day in question. 

Previous content is often archived though and available on a subscription basis.  One example is Gale OneFile News

Adding in Statistics

Statistics are gathered and published by many organisations.  Some, e.g. Registrar General for Scotland, have a legal responsibility to enable a national social and economic record.  Others offer more specialist or subject-specific collections.

Your Academic Librarian will be able to recommend subject specific collections.

General interest sources are listed below.   

Looking for music or other sounds?

Preferably conference papers/ proceedings?

Conference papers are made available from multiple sources.  Many are indexed by relevant bibliographic databases.

Some databases offer a filter option to limit your search to conference papers.

Sources include:

Looking for standards or patents?

Standards are collated and apply at national level.

Patents are registered nationally but collated and applied on a worldwide basis.

Sources include:

Searching for theses and dissertations

Honours and Masters dissertations

Your lecturers may refer you to specific dissertations held by your School. Selected examples of dissertations are also passed to UWS Library and these are listed in OneSearch.

 

PhD theses

You can search for theses from UK institutions in the British Library's Ethos collection.

 

Selected theses from international institutions can be searched in the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations.

Literature reviews or systematic reviews

Literature reviews

Literature reviews - comments on the availability and quality or context of journal articles, research studies, texts and policy documents published on a topic - are a specific type of journal article.

Search for these in the usual way, possibly using 'literature review' as a search term.

 

Systematic reviews

A systematic review is a specific type of journal article or research study.  This collates all the research available on a topic and presents a comprehensive analysis.  Systematic reviews often appear as journal articles.

Search for these in the usual way, and possibly also include resources specialising in medical-oriented systematic reviews, e.g. Cochrane Library.