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Library and Information Services

Literature searching and databases

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Library webpages and guides

• Sport subject page• Sport journals

• Search tips• How to plan a search strategy

• SPORTDiscus tutorial

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Search strategy – six steps

• Step one – Spend some time thinking about your topic to clarify your research question

• Step two – Think about the search words which you could use

• Step three – Linking your search words together• Step four – Choosing your database- what type/s

of literature do they cover?• Step five – Searching and modifying your search

online• Step six – Relevant results retrieved! Next steps

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Step one

• Spend some time thinking about your topic

• Clarify and define your research question

• Break down research topic into sections

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Step two

Think about your search words• Generic words can be omitted eg: discuss,

assess, importance• Consider alternative terms eg: social

integration or social interaction• Word endings, plurals eg: athlete, athletes,

athletics, disabled, disabilities• Truncate using asterisks eg: athlet*, disab*

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Step three

Linking search words together• AND search – combining two different subjects

together eg: participation and sport

• OR search – alternative or similar words eg: football or soccer

• Words as a phrase eg: “Olympic games” although NB: in SPORTDiscus, 2 words next to each other are searched for as a phrase by default.

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Step four

Choosing your database / websiteConsider subject area and types of literature

– SPORTDiscus – primary database for this topic

– Literature indexed includes• Journal articles – can be limited to peer reviewed only• Books (monographs on SportDiscus)• Book chapters (known as book analytic on SportDiscus)• Government documents• Theses

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SPORTDiscus- the advanced search screen

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Step four - databases

Choosing your database• Consider subject area

– Academic OneFile – broad subject coverage in full text journals. Includes both scholarly journals and magazines– mainly American perspective

– Infotrac custom newspaper database – full text of daily newspapers such as Times, Guardian etc. Source of current information but obviously not peer-reviewed or scholarly publications.

– British education index – journal articles and some full text documents – PE & sports for children

– ERIC – similar to BEI, but more international coverage

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Step four - websites

• Websites of official bodies can be a useful source for full text reports and documents:– www.sportdevelopment.info– www.sportengland.org– www.culture.gov.uk– www.uksport.gov.uk

• List of sports websites available from library pages> My subject>Sport

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Step five

Searching and modifying online• Different databases might use different search

terms to describe same subject• Experiment with different search words• Limit to searching within different indexes

eg: subject, title, author• Limit to years of publication• Limit to type of document eg: books, book

chapters, journal articles, conference papers, reports, government documents.

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Step six

Relevant results retrieved!• Be aware of the type of publication you have retrieved

eg: Journal article, book chapter etc.

• Is the item full text? – go direct to article, by linking via e-journal finder

• Is it available in print in the library? –some references are for book chapters so you must search for the book’s title on the library catalogue

• If not available here, articles and books can be requested on interlibrary-loan.

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Sport as a tool for social good in British culture

• In what ways could sport be a social good?

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SPORTDiscus database: search example

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Some overall searching tips

• Allow yourself enough time

• The searching process is part of the work

• Make sure you know what type of document you’ve found on a database: journal article, book chapter, report etc.

• Note down or save your references in full when you find them

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Interlibrary loans

• 20 free requests for books and journal articles over years 2 and 3

• Webpage about inter-library loans

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Further help

• For one-to-one appointments for help with your research topic either this year or next contact j.munks@yorksj.ac.uk

• Come and see us at the Information and Help Desk on first floor