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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The Human Kinetics Library is built around a mission to increase the knowledge, enhance the performance and improve the health and fitness of all people around the globe through authoritative information about physical activity and sport. The platform features a growing collection of cross-searchable ebooks and videos from the world’s leading educational publisher for fitness, exercise, coaching and sport.
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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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A comprehensive and easy-to-use reference source with a collection of fitness topics ranging from sports, body systems, the body's reaction to physical fitness, and exercise activities to diseases and conditions, treatments, fitness tests, and other health-related issues pertaining to exercise and fitness.
Databases and websites
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The Cochrane Library is a collection of databases that contain high-quality, independent evidence to inform healthcare decision-making and is the leading source to support evidence based practice. Locate systematic reviews, clinical trials and find abstracts of economic evaluations of health care interventions.
Help pages available
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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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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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SPORTDiscus
(Searchable in EBSCO Discovery)SPORTDiscus covers all aspects of sport including sport development, sport medicine, sport journalism.
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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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Website of the North American professional association representing sport and exercise psychologists. Provides information about the association and their activities, plus access to their newsletter
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General interest site useful for current awareness.
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The website of the professional organisation providing information on careers and training opportunities.
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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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The European College of Sport Science is an international non-profit organization. Its purpose is the promotion of science and research, with special attention to the interdisciplinary fields of sport science and sports medicine.
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Access to news from across Europe in the field of sport psychology plus FEPSAC conference proceedings
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A website providing access to research in a variety of sports science topic areas including sports nutrition, training and performance and athlete health and well-being.
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Website of the regulatory body for a number of health and care professions including practice psychologists. In addition to news and careers information this website provides access to professional documentation including practice notes, legislative guides and policy documents
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The International Society of Sport Psychology (ISSP) is an organization devoted to promoting research, practice, and development in the discipline of sport psychology throughout the world
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A peer reviewed journal and site for sport research sponsored by the School of Sport and Recreation at Aukland University of Technology.
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The UK’s largest independent producer of official statistics. Responsible for collecting and publishing statistics related to the economy, population and society at national, regional, and local levels.
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Analyse real data to understand what’s happening with activity levels in regions, cities, towns and villages across England.
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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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Statistics from the Department of Culture Media and Sport
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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.
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Visible Body is a 3D human body reference and study tool. Explore general anatomy, functional units, cross sections, muscle attachments, bony landmarks, muscle actions and more.
To access this resource:
- You must register for an account either on campus using a university PC or the University wifi, or if off campus register using the VPN.
- Sign up with your University email address.
- Once registered you can use your account to login off campus.
- You must login on campus or via VPN every 150 days to revalidate your account.
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.