The Postgraduate induction video guides you through the McClay Library building which includes the physical collections, study spaces and services available to you.
I’m Norma, your Subject Librarian. Most PhD students will meet their subject librarian early in their PhD programme to discuss their research and familiarise themselves with all the relevant resources. This meeting also allows me to be aware of your research topic when I'm acquiring resources for the Library. Feel free to contact me via email (n.menabney@qub.ac.uk) for assistance anytime during your studies.
In academia, scholarly sources include a variety of materials like books, peer reviewed journal articles, statistics and datasets, theses, conference proceedings, working papers, official publications and reference works. These resources provide valuable information for researchers and students, helping to ensure the reliability and credibility of academic work. Each type of scholarly source has its own purpose, and the appropriate source will depend on the research topic and methodology being used.
An academic journal database is an online resource that provides access to peer reviewed journal articles, research papers, and other academic publications. They can be multidisciplinary or subject specific and effectively they index articles from hundreds of journals that publish original research, reviews, and discussions in a particular field of study. They are used by students, researchers, and academics to find peer-reviewed literature on specific topics.
Academic journal databases typically allow users to search for articles based on various criteria such as: keywords, author, title, publication date, journal name.
The academic journal databases used by Queen's Business School are listed on the Key Databases page. ABI Inform and Business Source Complete are particularly useful across all disciplines within the School. However, you'll also notice that there are subject specific databases too, such as EconLit which is an additional resource indexing journal specific to the discipline of economics. The A-Z list is an index of all the databases we subscribe to.
These databases often offer tools for citation management, saving search results, and will usually provide links to full-text versions of articles.
As the databases offer high quality content and functionality, they are acquired through library subscriptions and as such are only accessible to QUB staff and students. The secure access requires your student credentials which ensures you can use them on and off campus but you can only link to them using the appropriate secure links via the Key Databases page, the A-Z Database list or Library Search (searching for the name of the database).
The Eresources page provides assistance should you encounter access issues or problems.
NOTE: Database name v platform name - The database name refers to a specific resource holding content (e.g., ABI Inform, Business Source Complete), while a database platform is the software or system that hosts and manages multiple databases (e.g., ProQuest or EBSCOhost).
You will avoid too many, too few and / or irrelevant result by devising a search strategy. It will also save your time.
NOTE: Publishers websites / platforms / databases - While publisher provide access to their journal offerings via their websites, it's worth noting that we only have access to their journal titles which QUB subscribes to. It's also important to remember that searching single publisher platforms can result in bias. The aggregator databases which offer searchable content from multiple publishers are listed under Key Journal Databases.
What about Google Scholar?
It’s important to understand that Google Scholar is not the same nor is it an alternative to the high quality resources that the Library subscribes to. For clarity, here are some limitations of Google Scholar:
Tracking Citations: Google Scholar tracks citations of individual papers. As it doesn’t work on real time data it won’t be current but provides a sense of citation counts and related articles and who is citing a particular.
Accessing Free Versions of Papers: While Google Scholar sometimes links to free versions of papers (e.g., preprints or open-access versions), The Library also provides access to the Open Access repositories that hold most of this material. Many of these resources are available to search on this page and much is available via Library Search. You can select and search these via Open Access to Research
When doing in-depth, high-level research, university databases remain the gold standard for quality, accuracy, reliability, relevance, peer-reviewed content and depth of research, helping students produce stronger academic work.
In addition to books and academic journals and articles, there are several other types of scholarly sources. The specific databases within this category and most relevant to the School are listed under Other Scholarly Sources.
If you prefer to consider them by type of resources, you can link to them via the following:
The list shows links to those available to all students and for which I can provide assistance. Those noted as only available to students in Queen's Business School are supported by the School.
This guide provides an overview of how you can utilize Generative Artificial Intelligence (AI) to enhance your use of library resources. It also provides links to the University's AI-Hub for comprehensive guidance on the use of AI, within and for your research.
Generative AI can help expedite some elements of traditional library research. Most library databases are indeed using AI code to make searching more effective, but Gen AI should not be used as an alternative resource for finding peer-reviewed, academic sources which are behind paywalls (which the Library subscribes for you). Always validate information using the Library's academic databases and its wider range of resources.
This is the designated software supported by The Library that manages your software. The guide explains how to download the software to your device and sync to the cloud. It also explains how to use the service but if you need additional support, please do get in touch (Norma Menabney).
If you are undertaking a systematic or similar reporting type review, this guide provides a step by step approach to the searching process. Please feel free to get in touch if you need support with this formal searching process (Norma Menabney).
Many of the databases offer alerting services. When you sign up for these, please be mindful not to use your QUB password credentials. It's advisable to create a new password as the details reside with an external commercial source. It's normally fine to use your QUB email address.
NOTE: It's worth giving thought to aligned subject areas which will have their own range of resources and browsing other guides that you might find helpful, for example, Open Research and Research Data Management.
Don't hesitate to get in touch with any queries at any time during your studies at Queens.