Researching the literature
When researching the literature - or evidence - on a topic as part of an assignment, you will often be expected to compile a search strategy (keywords used, resources selected, criteria applied), apply this consistently then summarise these actions, with justifications, as a separate section of your submission.
The 'Literature Review' tab on the Dissertation Support guide provides questions to help you compile your search strategy.
- UWS Library - Dissertation SupportOur dedicated guide with help and support for each step of the dissertation process.
The Library also has textbooks which can advise further. For example:
Subject resources
- EBSCOhost Research Platform This link opens in a new windowEBSCOhost is an intuitive online research platform enabling simultaneous access to a range of databases from EBSCO, such as: AHFS Consumer Medication Information, CINAHL Complete, eBook Collection (EBSCOhost), Education Source, GreenFILE, Health Source: Nursing/Academic Edition, Library, Information Science & Technology Abstracts, MEDLINE, APA PsycArticles, APA PsycBooks, Psychology and Behavioral Sciences Collection, SocINDEX with Full Text and ERIC. It allows you to perform searches across more than one database at a time.
- arXiv.org This link opens in a new windowarXiv.org provides abstracts and access details for 1,793,930 scholarly articles in the fields of physics, mathematics, computer science, quantitative biology, quantitative finance, statistics, electrical engineering and systems science, and economics.
- Bioline International This link opens in a new windowBioline International provides open access to quality and peer-reviewd research journals published in developing countries (e.g. Bangladesh, Brazil, Chile, China, Colombia, Egypt, Ghana, India, Iran, Kenya, Malaysia, Nigeria, Tanzania, Turkey, Uganda and Venezuela). BI's goal supports a global understanding of health (tropical medicine, infectious diseases, epidemiology, emerging new diseases), biodiversity, the environment, conservation and international development.
- CABI Digital Library This link opens in a new windowResearch and learning in agriculture, the environment and the applied life sciences
- Global Index Medicus (GIM)The Global Index Medicus (GIM) provides worldwide access to biomedical and public health literature produced by and within low-middle income countries. The main objective is to increase the visibility and usability of this important set of resources. The material is collated and aggregated by WHO Regional Office Libraries on a central search platform allowing retrieval of bibliographical and full text information.
- Google Scholar This link opens in a new windowGoogle Scholar is a freely accessible web search engine (academic search engine) that indexes the full text or metadata of scholarly literature across an array of publishing formats and disciplines.
- Karger Journals This link opens in a new windowA full-text database of 130 medical and scientific journals published by Karger.
- The Knowledge Network This link opens in a new windowThe Knowledge Network is the national knowledge management platform for health and social care in Scotland. It is developed and maintained by the Knowledge Services group at NHS Education for Scotland. The Knowledge Network library search offers a single interface to search NHSScotland’s national collection of electronic resources (e-journals, articles and e-books) provided by NHS Education for Scotland, along with all the local NHSScotland library collections (primarily print books).
- PubMedPubMed is a search engine indexing citations from biomedical literature collated by the United States' National Library of Medicine. Some items are available open access from the integrated PubMed Central collection.
- SAGE Journals This link opens in a new windowSAGE Journals provides full text access to world-class research journals in health sciences, social sciences, humanities, materials sciences, engineering, life and biomedical sciences.
- Scopus This link opens in a new windowScopus is claimed to be the largest abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature. Also, it provides tools to track, analyse, and visualize research.
- Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new windowWiley Online Library provides full text access to eBooks and journals covering science, social science and humanities subjects.
Full text not available?
If the article, or book, is not available, see possible External and Open Access options.
Still no success?
Library staff may be able to obtain a copy for you - see our Inter Library Loan guide for details.
- UWS Library - Inter Library loans (ILLs)Our dedicated guide to help you make requests for access to books and journal articles held in the British Library or other (mainly UK) Library collections.
Open access and full text sources
- Open Access ButtonSearch engine enabling free access to the full text of scholarly articles in compliance with copyright restrictions.
- BMC This link opens in a new windowBMC (BioMedCentral) is a pioneer of open access publishing. The platform provides you with full text access to high quality peer-reviewed bio-medical journals etc.
- BMJ Journals This link opens in a new windowBMJ Journals is claimed to be one of the world’s leading general medical journals for researchers, educators, clinicians and policy-makers. The platforms provides full text access to many published articles.
Research Evidence sources
- Cochrane Library This link opens in a new windowThe Cochrane Library gives full access to systematic reviews prepared by Cochrane-registered researchers and lists brief details for ongoing clinical trials.
- TRIP Medical DatabaseTRIP is a clinical search engine designed to allow users to quickly and easily find and use high-quality research evidence to support their practice and/or care.
Research resources
- Understanding Health ResearchUnderstanding Health Research is an online tool designed to help patients, carers, students, policymakers and others to read, understand and interpret published health research, asking the right questions to inform decisions about the quality and relevance of research.
- SAGE Research Methods This link opens in a new windowSAGE Research Methods provides e-books, videos, case studies and data sets to enable familiarity and confidence with methods, procedures and data analysis comprising the research process
Research by your academics
Explore your lecturers' research publications on the university's research repository:
- The UWS Academic Portal This link opens in a new windowThe UWS academic portal features the research and enterprise activities within the University of the West of Scotland and highlights the particular teaching interests and skills of our academics and postgraduate research students.