Business Information Systems

New students might like to take a Virtual Tour of the Library.

For the briefest of introductions, see this slide set.

For an introduction to these Subject Pages see this video.

.

"Ask the librarian for research help and she will guide you to some amazing resources you would never have found on your own.  These extra discoveries make the difference between an average paper and one that shines.  As an added bonus, this exercise also shaves hours from your research time."

Cal Newport - Monday Master Class: The Most Important Paper Research Advice You’ve Never Heard [1].

Your Faculty Librarian - see contact details right - can't be available 24/7 but these pages offer some of the best advice and resources available.  However, feel free to get in touch to make a face-to-face or virtual appointment if you think that would be helpful.

• Using Generative AI in coursework or research

(pdf file 127 kb)

A short guide on how might legitimately use generative AI such as Chat GPT in your coursework, dissertations or research.

Always start with suggested readings in your Moodle modules. Your lecturers spend time deciding which resources to recommend:

1. Look for linked Perlego content (available to all business students)
2. Check the Reading List tab for additional resources

Perlego Student Video Tutorial

Getting the most from your reading list

To find print books:

• Search the Library Catalogue (second search box on the page)
• For each book, note the floor, number and author code: FIRST FLOOR 658.00721 BRY 
• Technology books can be found in many places in the Library, use the Locate a Book search tool (at the bottom of this page) with the shelfmark for the book which you can find on the catalogue.
• This web page gives information on borrowing from the Library.

To find ebooks:

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

More about using the Library Catalogue

More about ebooks

Advanced users may wish to look at some of these scholarly ebook collections:

Scholarly or academic journals contain lots of individual articles on specific topics, written by different authors.  

They 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).

The best quality journal articles are peer-reviewed which means they have been reviewed by an expert before publication.

Which are the best journals?

Peer-reviewed journal articles are the best place to start.

Advanced users may wish to find out which journals are the highest ranked in a subject area:

• cABS Academic Journal Guide (see Searching specific ABS journals below for more information)
• ABDC Journal Quality List
• FT Research Rank - 50 journals
• Scopus - click on sources and choose your subject area
• Journal Citation Reports

For general searches, use the EBSCO Discovery Service:

• Watch my Using the EBSCO Discovery Service video (7 mins) 
• 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
• Here is some additional guidance for EBSCO login screens

Sometimes Discovery turns up too many results that are not business-related!

For specific business searches use:

• Business Source Complete fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

  Academic peer-reviewed journal articles, professional publications and more across all business topics.

  Advanced options in Business Source Complete video

Sometimes you might want to search in a recommended journal rather than search across all publications for articles on a topic.

Your lecturers will recommend journals you can use and it's always a good idea to reference some articles from these in your assignments.

You can search eJournals to find out which journals we subscribe to and to search titles individually.

Below are some separate journal subscriptions you may wish to explore:

Google Scholar searches for academic content online. It's a useful additional resource when looking for books, journal articles and other papers.

But you may be asked to pay for access to some resources and it does not have full search controls or filters like Discovery/Business Source Complete.

To save time, set Scholar to show which results you can access via your University of Portsmouth's library subscriptions:

• In Scholar, click on the three line icon in the top left corner
• Select 'Settings' and 'Library Links'.
• Enter 'Portsmouth' in the search box and select 'University of Portsmouth Library - Full-text@Portsmouth' and Save.
• Any results available via the University Library will now show a Full-Text@Portsmouth link on the right hand side.
• Scholar also offers an alerting service, a referencing option and a times cited count.

Using Google Scholar guide

Use these powerful tools to find out which articles are citing other articles, to follow up references and to see which are the most highly cited articles:

Try these resources for information on markets, industries and larger companies - includes market research, statistics, industry profiles and more:

Keep up-to-date and develop your awareness of the business world by using these services:

• Plagiarism - why do we care? (file for download)

  This file is restricted to University members. You must login to download it.

• Referencing - a few common hazards and sources of help (file for download)

  This file is restricted to University members. You must login to download it.