The Library purchases subscriptions to high-quality online resources for our students and staff to support your assignments, projects and dissertations.
Download the University VPN system to access these resources anytime, anywhere!
Getting started
Sometimes it can be difficult to get started with your research as there are so many sources and so much you could read.
- Check your reading lists in Moodle, these are the best starting points, and then explore our Library resources.
- Think about what you need to find, which keywords to use, and where you are going to search.
- Consider the kind of information you need. For example you may want to start by finding definitions or background information. Alternatively you may be seeking statistics or research articles. You can use the Ocean of Information to help you to understand the value of different sources.
- Check the planning your assignment section on our information literacy pages to learn more.
Can I use AI?
Check the University's student guidance on the use of Generative AI, such as ChatGPT.
- Using AI in academic work is a new and fast-changing area.
- Examples of usage that might be considered appropriate are planning an assignment, generating ideas for further investigation, or helping find additional search terms or keywords.
- Be aware that sometimes the information generated in AI tools is not correct! Treat AI-generated content with as much caution as materials from Google or Wikipedia and ensure you reference it correctly.
To find print books:
- Search the Library Catalogue (second search box on the page)
- Filter your search on the left hand side to 'print books'
- For each book, note the floor, number and author code eg FIRST FLOOR 507.2/MAR
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, and then 'Online access' to view.
Getting more help:
More about using the Library Catalogue
Video on finding books in the Library
Information about our click and collect service and postal loans for UK based Distance Learners
Breaking your topic into concepts
It can be tempting to put your whole assignment title into a database when you are searching for information, but if you do that the database will not give you focused results, and you may end up with a large number of irrelevant results.
To improve your search start by taking your topic title and pulling out your key terms, or concepts.
Considering alternative keywords
When you have broken your topic down into concepts, you can start thinking more carefully about the vocabulary.
- Including alternative keywords will help you to broaden your search if you are not finding very much information on your topic.
- Changing your keywords to specialised terminology will help you to narrow your search and make it more subject specific if you are finding too much information.
The Alternative keywords video explains the process in more detail.
Applying search techniques
When you have selected the alternative keywords for your search strategy, it is time to apply some search techniques to those keywords. The Applying Search Techniques video explains more about using “phrase searching” and truncation.
Running your search
These techniques can be used across different databases. Our biggest database is the Ebsco Discovery Service. You can find further information on using the limiters and filters to narrow your search results in the Discovery Service here: Using the Discovery Service | Library | University of Portsmouth
Explore our study skills resources below or contact the Science and Health Learning Support tutors for help on developing your study skills via their webpage Student Support Teams | Faculty of Science and Health
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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.
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Online learning and training courses covering business and employability, as well as creative and technical skills.
Ebook collections
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Ebook Central
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)Access around 200,000 ebooks across all subject areas.
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Ebsco eBook collection
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)Access to the Sports Medicine, Physical Therapy & Education 2012 e-book collection.
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A collection of psychology ebooks from Wiley available on the Kortext platform.
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Credo Reference
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)Explore Credo for trusted reference sources like dictionaries - a great alternative to Wikipedia!
Watch these short videos to get started:
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Key features include: Over 2,400 entries in total; extensive cross referencing for easy navigation; mini biographies of key psychologists; common abbreviations and a list of key reference works.
Databases and websites
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CINAHL
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)CINAHL (the Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature) contains journal article abstracts with links to the full-text where available. Locate articles from the nursing and allied health subjects
This database is available to search on its own from the link above, plus you will find CINAHL results when searching Discovery
Help pages available
Using CINAHL/MeSH Subject Headings
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Criminal Justice Abstracts
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)A major criminology abstracting service.
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A variant of Google that searches for academic literature. Provides access to articles, books, conference papers and preprints. Links to Full-text @ Portsmouth on campus or when using the VPN.
A Library Guide to this resource is available
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Medline
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)Locate articles from a large range of medical journals. Subjects covered include medicine, pharmacy, allied health, and pre-clinical sciences. Plus life sciences, including some aspects of biology, marine biology, plant and animal science as well as biophysics and chemistry. Contains journal article abstracts with links to the full-text where available.
This database is available to search on its own from the link above, plus you will find Medline results when searching Discovery.
How to search using MeSH (Medical Subject Headings)
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PsycArticles
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)Full text articles from over 100 APA journals covering subjects including addiction, applied psychology, clinical psychology, cognition and memory developmental, experimental psychology, gender and sexual orientation, health psychology, psychopharmacology, social psychology, and violence and trauma.
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PsycInfo
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)Abstracts of articles covering subjects including psychology, health, business, education, law, linguistics, medicine, neuroscience, pharmacology, social work, sociology and sport.
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PubMed comprises millions of citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher websites
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Science Direct
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)Access 1000s of Elsvier articles and book chapters from our subscribed content on scientific, technical, and medical research.
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Large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature covering all subject areas.
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SocINDEX
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)A key source for tracking down articles across the social sciences. This database is available on the EBSCO platform allowing you to search this database alongside others within Discovery.
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Part of Web of Knowledge, includes records for thousands of scholarly publications. Search across three main citation databases (Science/Social Science/Arts & Humanities).
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A database of digitised UK doctoral theses offering free online access to theses of participating Higher Education institutions.
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The British Psychological Society is the representative body for psychology and psychologists in the UK. The website provides access to news, job and careers information, publications and events
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Access to more than a million statistics from many different sources. Useful for finding industrial, economic and consumer market statistical trends.
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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.
Please note that our access to Nexis Uni ends in October 2025. Access to our replacement international news source, Global Newsstream, is live from 1st August 2025 so we recommend migrating across.
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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.
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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.
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A unique collections of films including award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases on every topic imaginable. Content can be searched or browsed.
Referencing
The library Referencing webpage provides lots of useful help and support on all referencing styles.
The Reference Management Tools library webpage is useful if you would like to find links for Mendeley, Endnote and other reference management software. The page links to help and support including step-by-step guides.