For quick access to high quality information for your assignments, try the links on these pages.

Set up the University VPN system to access these resources any time, anywhere!

New - 1st May 2025: Changes happening to Ebook Central.

Reading Lists

  • School of Education, Languages and Linguistics

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Your lecturers spend a lot of time deciding which resources to recommend, so always look at your module reading lists first. The link above takes you to the lists for courses in SELL.

Key Starters for Essays, Projects and Dissertations

  • Think about what you need to find.
  • Look at your topic and identify keywords and phrases which will help you find relevant information.
  • Ask yourself whether other words are often used to describe parts of the topic e.g. teenagers, youths, adolescents and note these down for your search too.
  • Decide what type of information you need and where you are going to search. The details below and the other sections on this subject page will help you with this.

It is important to understand the type of information you need when researching for your assignment.  For example you may want to start by finding definitions or background information. You may have been asked to find journal articles. Alternatively you may be seeking professional information, statistics or research findings. Once you have decided what type of information you need, you can use the Ocean of Information to help you understand the value of different sources and how to access them. When using the Library's Discovery Service to search, you will find that you can get a list of sources to choose from by clicking Add filters under the search box, then moving down to Source Types in the column which pops out on the right.

Evaluating your sources is also crucial when writing a piece of academic work - the Evaluating information section on the library website will guide you through this process.

Books often provide an excellent overview of a topic and are a great resource when starting an assignment.

To find print books:

Search the Library Catalogue (second search box on the page)
For each book, note the floor, number and letter code: FIRST FLOOR 658.00721 BRY - save time by taking a photo!


To find ebooks:

Search the Library Catalogue (second search box on the page)
Filter your search on the left hand side to 'Electronic Books'.  
Click on the title of the ebook to load the full record, then use 'Online access' to view.

If you want to search within ebook packages, you will find those most relevant to you in the next section.

Research Methods

  • Sage Research Methods

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Access books and videos about quantitative and qualitative research methods and many more social science research topics. Use the Tools drop-down at the top centre of the screen to access a handy Project Planner which is full of FAQs about what you need to consider at each stage in a project/dissertation. Tools also contains a Methods Map which is ideal for quickly finding details about a particular research method.

Finding Articles

Scholarly, peer-reviewed journals are highly regarded as a source of academic information because they include expert opinions, research findings and references to follow up.

They are written by specialised professionals and academics (such as your lecturers) from around the world.

Finding, reading and referencing relevant journal articles will help you get the highest marks.

1) Use the EBSCO Discovery Service to search for journal articles on a topic:

  • Think about your keywords, where you want to search and how you will filter your results
  • The Peer-Reviewed Articles option returns the most academic content

VIDEO: Using Discovery for Business searches
Or watch this advanced features of Discovery video
If you are not using VPN: extra help with EBSCO login screens
 

2) If you are getting too many results that are not business-related, try this alternative resource:

Company, Marketing and Industry Resources

  • GlobalData Explorer

    Search for and compare companies, industries, sectors, economies and cities across the world. Includes macroeconomic data, industry and company reports and analysis, business news, product launches and ads, and job analytics. 

    Library Basics Video Guide (further support videos are available within the database)

  • IBISWorld

    Provides a comprehensive collection of industry reports on very specific sectors in the UK as well as further specialist reports. Also covers industries globally, in the US, China, Australia, Canada and New Zealand.

  • Mintel Reports and Mintel Trends

    Detailed market research reports on a range of UK sectors including: automotive; beauty and personal care; lifestyles; drink, food and foodservice; health and wellbeing; leisure; media; technology; and travel. Also includes access to Mintel Trends which provides evidence-backed insights on how today's consumer thinks, feels and acts.

    Video support:
    1. Using Mintel Reports
    2. Using the Interactive Databook

  • Statista: the portal for statistics

    Access to more than a million statistics from many different sources. Useful for finding industrial, economic and consumer market statistical trends.

  • WARC : World Advertising Research Center

    Specialist database with articles, research reports, interactive data and case studies covering advertising and more. Also includes some Euromonitor company profiles and strategy briefings.

    VIDEO tutorials on WARC's strategy, media and creative menus (please login above first to view these)

Newspapers and Magazines

  • The Economist

    Leading weekly magazine covering global political, economic and business news. Includes archive back to 1997. App also available. 

    A full archive from 1843-2015 is available via Gale Historical Archive

    To access:
    1. Enter your University email address
    2. Select University of Portsmouth
    3. Sign in with your University username and password.

  • Nexis Uni

    Full text articles from many news sources and trade journals both UK and international. Archives sometimes stretching back to the mid 1980s. For use in the UK only.

  • PressReader

    PressReader lets you access UK and international newspapers, plus a wide range of magazine content. Everything is full colour with archives varying in length depending on the publication.

    Login guidance

Training Videos, Films and TV

  • BoB: On demand TV and radio for education

    An archive of UK television and radio programmes from free to air channels (1998 onwards). For use in the UK only. Find some great tips about how to use BoB in these short videos.

  • Kanopy

    A unique collections of films including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases on every topic imaginable. Content can be searched or browsed.

  • Linkedin Learning

    Online learning and training courses covering business and employability, as well as creative and technical skills.

Referencing

Use Referencing@Portsmouth to find out how to reference all the sources you have used:

Everyone on courses including business communication and international trade uses APA 7th edition.
Use Search APA 7 inside Referencing@Portsmouth to locate specific referencing advice on chapters, articles, reports, as well as abbreviations, appendices, tables and more.

New to referencing? Watch this short APA basics video.

 

Can I use ChatGPT/AI to generate references? 

Be aware that ChatGPT and similar tools invent academic references (see the more button for why). Using such fabricated information in your work is considered academic misconduct so you should always double check any AI generated references. The University has guidance for students on the use of AI and the Library has produced guidance on citing and referencing generative AI.

ChatGPT is a large language model which has been trained on which words should appear and in what order - hence similar authors/titles/journals get linked with each other, producing very plausible sounding references that actually don't exist - the words simply have connections to each other within its training data. When prompted "How does ChatGPT predict which words come next?" ChatGPT stated that it "predicts which words come next based on the patterns it learns from the training data. When given a prompt or context, the model uses its knowledge of language patterns to generate likely sequences of words that would follow the input" ... "it predicts one word at a time, based on the previously generated words" ... " and then calculates the probability distribution of the next word in the sequence based on the patterns it has learned from the training data" (OpenAI, 2023).

Reference

OpenAI. (2023). ChatGPT (Mar 23 Version) [Large language model]. https://chat.openai.com/chat

All reference generators make errors! 

Ensure you check and edit your references before submitting your work.  Here are some common errors.

There are many different ways to generate APA citations:

  • Quick options:
    • Look for a "Cite" button in EBSCO databases like Discovery, or in Ebook Central, Statista, Google Scholar etc.
  • Advanced options:
    • See our referencing tools page. The humanities and social sciences librarian supports the use of EndNote Online.

We do not advise using the referencing tool in Word.