This page will help you get more out of your Library resources for your assignments, projects and dissertations in Civil Engineering and Surveying.

Use the University VPN to access to these resources, any time, anywhere.

Getting Started

You may also wish to look at our Information Literacy pages which help guide you through the research process.  We have also created a suite of AI Literacy pages which may be of interest and a short Library Guide on using Generative AI in your work which you may find helpful.

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.

  • School of Civil Engineering and Surveying

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

Sometimes it can be difficult to get started with your research for an assignment, as there are so many sources and so much you could read!
Remember to check your reading lists in Moodle as the best starting points, and then explore our Library resources.

For general reference sources and for study help, try Credo.

Can I use ChatGPT?
See under Plagiarism below for comments on the use of generative AI such as ChatGPT.  See also our small suite of AI Literacy pages.

Google
You can of course start searching Google for a topic and you may well find useful information.  (Here are some short cheat sheets to some of their less well known search commands.)  However, it can be time consuming to sort the wheat from the chaff particularly if you're under pressure of deadlines.  Use Library resources detailed on these pages to quickly find good quality information.  Or use Google Scholar to begin to find academic information.

Searching
To get the best from any database search, watch these short videos: Improving search results with keywords part 1 and Improving search results with keywords part 2 to improve your results using keywords and advanced searching, or see this Library Guide on Choosing Keywords.

  • Credo Reference

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Explore Credo for trusted reference sources like dictionaries - a great alternative to Wikipedia! 

    Watch these short videos to get started:

    1. Search tips
    2. Using the automated mind map

  • Google Scholar

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    What

    • A variant of Google that searches for academic literature

    Why

    • Provides access to articles, books, conference papers and preprints
    • Links to Full-text @ Portsmouth where available when settings are applied

    How

    • Simple or advanced searching allowing refinement by date, author etc
    • A Library Guide to this resource is available

  • Accessing Electronic Resources

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    A short video on the three ways of logging into resources - or see the 'Accessing Electronic Resources' link on the left hand side of these pages.

  • Welcome to the Library

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    A short video introducing the University of Portsmouth Library.

University can demand more reading than previous study.  A two page Library Guide on Academic Reading may help you to make the best use of your time.  There is also a two-page Library Guide on Academic Reading - Journal Articles. 

If you want more in depth support on the subject, try the ebook below.

• Academic Reading 

Focuses on developing essential reading skills while showing students how to adapt them to specific academic disciplines and career fields.

Books

Books provide an excellent overview of a topic and are a great resource when starting an assignment.  Refer to any Reading Lists you may have been directed to or use the Library Catalogue to search for topics.

If we don't have a book you're interested in, we may be able to obtain it via Interlibrary Loan.

For a look at an ebook package (in this case Ebook Central) in a bit more detail, see this short video.

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:  (Note that we have other specialist subject collections under other Subject Pages.)

  • AccessEngineering

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    AccessEngineering is a collection of critical, regularly updated engineering reference information. It includes instructional videos, interactive tables and charts, as well as personalization tools.

  • Cambridge Core - Ebooks in petroleum sciences

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    A collection of 53 e-books relating specifically to petroleum engineering/science but of potential wider interest to earth and environmental sciences.

  • Credo Reference

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Explore Credo for trusted reference sources like dictionaries - a great alternative to Wikipedia! 

    Watch these short videos to get started:

    1. Search tips
    2. Using the automated mind map

  • Ebook Central

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Access around 200,000 ebooks across all subject areas.

  • Encyclopedia of information science and technology, 4th ed  / Mehdi Khosrow-Pour, editor.

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    This book is a 10-volume collection of hundreds of new previously unpublished authoritative research articles contributed by thousands of experts and researchers from around the globe covering a full range of perspectives, applications, and techniques. With critical perspectives on the impact of information management and new technologies in modern settings

  • Environmental impact assessment handbook

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Explaining the EIA process and legal procedures in a clear and straightforward way, the authors employ their extensive practical experience to cover each of the steps and associated studies needed to undertake an EIA and to produce a successful environmental statement.

  • Higher Education from Cambridge University Press

    Access over 1000 Cambridge e-textbooks across most subjects. Register for a free personal account to use features such as notes and bookmarking. Watch these short videos to learn more. 

  • Knovel

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Knovel enables you to manipulate engineering data from a wide range of sources. In addition to full-text ebook content it also provides access to equations, materials and substances data, and interactive charts and graphs. Its materials database covers everything from mechanical to chemical properties data, corrosion data and material properties. Knovel provides interactive engineering tools that enable data analysis, and specialized data search and taxonomies that make it easy to discover answers to technical questions.

    This is a video tutorial to get you started with Knovel. 

    https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14354/c/10545/supporthub/knovel/

    This LibGuide from Elsevier provides more help and support.  And this marketing page from Elsevier gives a good overview of the support for learning and teaching that Knovel and Engineering Village can offer to all "engineers of the future".

     

  • Routledge Handbooks Online

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Over 250 unlimited access in-depth guides to current and classic research across a range of subject areas. If you can't access something via this site, put the book title into our general Portsmouth catalogue as we have some titles via Ebook Central instead.

  • UCL Press - Research Methods

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Free online texts for Research Methods.

Civil engineering projects depend on estimates so that project managers can keep costs within reasonable limits. Price books, such as those listed, provide costs for any projects you are including in your assignments. For an assignment, you may not need the latest edition but check with your tutors what is acceptable.

You can find all of the following in the Library Catalogue (which you can also check for later editions), but they're also listed here for your convenience.

Note that some are print and some are electronic; we've tried to source the latter where at all possible.

 

Finding Articles

For some assignments, our Discovery Service will give you enough sources to work with.

Sometimes you may want to try specific databases or journals - perhaps your lecturer has recommended particular names as a good way of finding articles. An example might be Building magazine for a print title which you can find via the catalogue, or for electronic titles such as Building Design or Construction News check the Publications Search Page for which there is a link here.

Two journal titles are a little more tricky than others.  They require individual login/registration.  For both Estates Gazette (or Radius Data Exchange) and Architects' Journal you need to go to our Passwords for Resources page, make sure you're logged into the Library website (blue login button on top right of screen), and then click on "Passwords for Resources page" before choosing the journal of interest.

This page lists key sources for Civil Engineering and Surveying:

Check out this video on how to find journal titles.

Check out this introductory video on finding journal articles.

If we don't have an item you're interested in, we may be able to obtain it via Interlibrary Loan or watch this video which explains how.

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:

You can get the most out of searching databases by considering what keywords you use. 

For an introduction to Discovery watch this video by our Business Librarian.

Watch this video for a demonstration of how to analyse your keywords and this video for a demonstration of using your keywords in an advanced search.

Alternatively, either see this two page Library Guide on Choosing Keywords for tips on this or use this form to analyse the concepts of your searches.  For a sample assignment title to unpick the concepts, look at the PowerPoint below.

• SCES keywords

(pptx file 62 kb)

Not all databases we have access to contain the full text of an article.  Some contain the bibliographic data and an abstract or summary of the contents.  If you want to do wider searches and literature reviews which draw on the width of the literature, you'll need to do a little more work and include results from these indexing databases in your research.  Indexing databases may link through to full text where we have it, if not try an Interlibrary Loan.

  • AccessEngineering

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    AccessEngineering is a collection of critical, regularly updated engineering reference information. It includes instructional videos, interactive tables and charts, as well as personalization tools.

  • Engineering Village

    Engineering Village consists of three databases: GEOBASE, GeoRef and Compendex. GEOBASE indexes journal literature across the earth sciences from 1980-present. GeoRef covers geological literature from North America (1785-present), plus geological literature from the rest of the world (1933-present). Compendex is the most comprehensive bibliographic database of scientific and technical engineering and computing research available. 

  • Engineering Workbench

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Engineering Workbench hosts a collection of industry standards, codes and specifications.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

    Additional access instructions:

    If you are accessing Engineering Workbench for the first time, you will need to register for an account using your University email. For off campus click here

  • Greenfile

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    GreenFILE covers research information on all aspects of human impact to the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on the environmental effects of individuals, corporations and local/national governments, and what can be done at each level to minimize these effects. This is a multidisciplinary resource and topics include global climate change, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling, and more. 

  • ISURV

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    ISURV provides RICS guidance and official documents in relation to the built environment. This resource provides insight from industry practitioners and legal experts to assist in the application of theory to practice.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

  • RICS Knowledge and Information Services

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Includes references to journal articles, audio-visual materials, books and law reports from the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.

  • TechRxiv

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    TechRxiv (pronounced "tech archive") is an open, moderated preprint server for unpublished research in the areas of engineering, computer science, and related technology.

    Additional access instructions:

    If you can't click through to the full text of this database, consider an interlibrary loan.

  • Construction Information Service

    Up-to-date technical information for the architecture and construction industries, including building regulations, standards, advice notes reports, books and articles.

  • ICE virtual library

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Provides access to those Institution of Civil Engineers titles to which we have access.

  • IEEE Xplore

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Full text of technical literature in electrical engineering, computer science and electronics.

  • IMechE Proceedings Archive

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Archive of the Proceedings of the Institute of Mechanical Engineers including over 200,000 pages of unique material.

  • OnePetro

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    OnePetro is an online library of technical literature for the oil and gas exploration and production (E&P) industry. Content includes journal articles and conference proceedings.

  • Science Direct

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Access 1000s of Elsvier articles and book chapters from our subscribed content on scientific, technical, and medical research.

  • Scopus

    Large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature covering all subject areas.

Much Health & Safety (or Occupational Safety & Health as is often used in North America) information can be found in our standard databases such as Discovery or Engineering Village.

However, we do have some subject specific resources which may be of use - particularly for specialised information such as fact sheets or reports.

  • Barbour

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Barbour is a health and safety information service providing information sourced from over 900 providers. Information within it includes legislation, technical guides and best practice along with director level briefings and employee training guides. The legislation diary identifies all known upcoming changes in legislation relating to different health and safety topics.

    The following video from Barbour shows you how to get the best from this resource

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

  • Info4education

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    This supplier gives access to two major resources for Construction and Health and Safety professionals (Construction Information Service and OHSIS), needing rapid, reliable and up-to-date online access to standards, legislation and other guidance information related to their industries. Many items included in full-text. Product catalogues are also available covering construction, engineering, process and electronics industries.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

  • 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

 

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

Some material is available online (often in Institutional Repositories like the University of Portsmouth PURE database), some are not freely available and you may be asked to pay for access to some resources.

However, you can save time and 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.

If it's still not available, we may be able to get it via Interlibrary Loan.

Scholar also offers an alerting service, a referencing option and a times cited count.

It has slightly more limited advanced search features (see below).  If you need full Boolean Logic use other databases such as Discovery, IEEEXplore, Science Direct, Business Source Complete or Engineering Village.

Using Google Scholar guide

 

Google Scholar also includes an Advanced search feature.  This can be found under the three line icon in the top left corner.

On the Advanced search screen you can find articles in various ways:

'with all of the words' - this is the equivalent to an AND search in a database but you do not need to type AND between your words or phrases.

'with the exact phrase' - this is the equivalent of a phrase search in " " marks in a database but you do not need to type the quotation marks

'with at least one of the words' - this is the equivalent of an OR search in a database but you do not need to type OR between your words or phrases

'without the words' - this is the equivalent of a NOT search in a database (although note that as with a NOT search, it may discard useful results)

You can also limit by where the words occur, author, publisher and/or date.

AND, OR and NOT are explained further in our Library Guide on Boolean Logic but note that Advanced Search on Google Scholar is a limited and you may wish to use Library databases with advanced searches instead.

 

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: (NB: Google Scholar - see above - also has a similar feature.  Look for the 'Cited by...' link.)

Watch this video for a brief introduction to citation searching.

  • Scopus

    Large abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature covering all subject areas.

  • Web of Science

    Part of Web of Knowledge, includes records for thousands of scholarly publications. Search across three main citation databases (Science/Social Science/Arts & Humanities). 

Other Resources

There are a wide range of resources available to Learning at Work students beyond the obvious journals, databases and websites. Here we list a selection we think you could find helpful.

  • AccessEngineering

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    AccessEngineering is a collection of critical, regularly updated engineering reference information. It includes instructional videos, interactive tables and charts, as well as personalization tools.

  • BCIS Online

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    The Building Costs Information Service provides independent cost information to the construction industry.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

  • British Architectural Library Catalogue

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    The Royal Institute of British Architects Library catalogue can be used to find what journal articles and books have been published on your subject.

  • British Standards Online

    Access thousands of UK standards. For educational use only - excessive downloading or printing is not allowed. 

    How to download a standard 

  • EG Radius

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    EG Radius provides data and news for the commercial property market.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

  • Engineer-it (IHS)

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Engineer-it provides you with instant access to over 1,800,000 pages of full-text, full colour catalogues, technical data sheets, handbooks, selector guides and manuals from an extensive range of suppliers

  • Engineering Case Studies Online

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    A wide range of video and text material focusing on engineering failures and successes. The collection will eventually contain 250 hours and 50,000 pages of quality documentaries, accident reports, experiments, visualizations, case studies, lectures and interviews from leading engineering institutions around the world.

    Additional access instructions:

    Authentication required for off-campus access

  • Engineering Workbench

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Engineering Workbench hosts a collection of industry standards, codes and specifications.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

    Additional access instructions:

    If you are accessing Engineering Workbench for the first time, you will need to register for an account using your University email. For off campus click here

  • 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)

  • Institution of Structural Engineers

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    The Institution of Structural Engineers is the world's leading professional body for qualifications and standards in structural engineering.

  • ISURV

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    ISURV provides RICS guidance and official documents in relation to the built environment. This resource provides insight from industry practitioners and legal experts to assist in the application of theory to practice.

    This resource is restricted to members of the University of Portsmouth

    You have two ways to access the login instructions:

    1. Contact the Library from any Library enquiry desk or by contacting us:

    2. Connect to the University VPN and use the link below:

    View restricted access information for resources

    To verify you are a University member, please use your university email account or include your student/staff number in your message. If calling, please have your student/staff card ready.

  • Knovel

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Knovel enables you to manipulate engineering data from a wide range of sources. In addition to full-text ebook content it also provides access to equations, materials and substances data, and interactive charts and graphs. Its materials database covers everything from mechanical to chemical properties data, corrosion data and material properties. Knovel provides interactive engineering tools that enable data analysis, and specialized data search and taxonomies that make it easy to discover answers to technical questions.

    This is a video tutorial to get you started with Knovel. 

    https://service.elsevier.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/14354/c/10545/supporthub/knovel/

    This LibGuide from Elsevier provides more help and support.  And this marketing page from Elsevier gives a good overview of the support for learning and teaching that Knovel and Engineering Village can offer to all "engineers of the future".

     

  • NHBC Standards

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    The NHBC Standards give the technical requirements, performance standards and guidance for the design and construction of new homes acceptable to NHBC (National House Building Council).

  • The Subsidence Forum

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

  • TRID: the TRIS and ITRD database

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    TRID is an integrated database that combines the records from TRB's Transportation Research Information Services (TRIS) Database and the OECD's Joint Transport Research Centre's International Transport Research Documentation (ITRD) Database. TRID provides access to more than one million records of transportation research worldwide.

  • British Standards Online

    Access thousands of UK standards. For educational use only - excessive downloading or printing is not allowed. 

    How to download a standard 

  • Esp@cenet

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Espacenet offers free access to more than 80 million patent documents worldwide, containing information about inventions and technical developments from 1836 to today.

  • IHS standards store

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Use this commercial site to check the validity of standards across different countries. Search the Library catalogue for the few IHS Standards we have purchased.

  • 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.

  • 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

  • Credo Reference

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Explore Credo for trusted reference sources like dictionaries - a great alternative to Wikipedia! 

    Watch these short videos to get started:

    1. Search tips
    2. Using the automated mind map

  • Digimap

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Digimap is a collection of EDINA services that deliver maps and map data of Great Britain. We subscribe to the complete collection which provides access to modern and historic Ordnance Survey mapping, geological mapping, aerial photography, Lidar data, demographic data and more.

  • Emerald Insight

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Access thousands of articles from our subscribed peer-reviewed journals on topics like health, management, HR, and marketing. 

  • Google Scholar

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    What

    • A variant of Google that searches for academic literature

    Why

    • Provides access to articles, books, conference papers and preprints
    • Links to Full-text @ Portsmouth where available when settings are applied

    How

    • Simple or advanced searching allowing refinement by date, author etc
    • A Library Guide to this resource is available

  • JSTOR

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    Provides access to more than 12 million journal articles, books, images, reports and primary sources in 75 disciplines.
    Watch this video for great tips.

  • 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.

  • Oxford Dictionary of National Biography

    Fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    The national record of over 60,000 biographies, 72 million words, 11,000 portraits of significant, influential or notorious figures who shaped British history and culture, worldwide, from the Romans to the 21st century - extremely useful for detailed biographies about literary figures.

  • Policy Commons

    Access the world’s largest public policy database with 3.2+ million resources from 24,000+ global organizations. Covers topics like health, education, business, and more. Free registration needed for 25 searches a month. Watch this short video to see how it could help you.

Support for researchers

 

Our "Support for Researchers" pages include reference management tools and searching for information sections that may be useful for academic and research staff. We also have specialist topic areas which are relevant to all academic and research staff, along with many PhD students, and those who want to dive a little deeper into their research. The resources below are an example of what's on offer. There are many more resources to explore on these pages.

Two alternatives to Google Scholar can be found in Core and Base.

For help with citation searching, see this introductory video.

• Effective Literature Searching for Technology Researchers

(pdf file 729 kb)

Referencing

Referencing is an important part of your academic studies and the skills you develop as part of the higher education community.  We want to help you avoid plagiarism and get your referencing right.

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

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

For a video running through these slides, see here.

.

ChatGPT (and other generative AI)

You may have read about ChatGPT and similar generative AI which use large language models to respond to user prompts with statistically probably words and sentences which have the appearance of human generated output.  They are often seen as shortcuts when conducting academic research.  You may even have experimented with such tools or used them to assist with your studies/research.

Current generative AI, such as ChatGPT, cannot and do not think, analyse, reason or argue.  All they can do is sort words into familiar patterns.  This allows them to create persuasive but potentially unsound rhetoric.  Anything produced by the current generation of AI should therefore be viewed with critical scepticism.  AI cannot find or replace genuine research using trusted information sources.

Understanding how to use these tools correctly is essential to avoid breaches such as plagiarism that could impact your successful course progression. 

  • You must ensure you appropriately cite and reference any text or output generated by AI in an assignment.
  • You must check the legitimacy of the information contained there.
  • The final product must be your own work and not just copied from an AI generator.

Examples of usage that might be considered legitimate could be in assisting with planning an assignment, generating ideas for further investigation, or helping find additional search terms or keywords.  You may wish to check with tutors whether such usage is acceptable.

The University has issued a statement on the use of Generative AI such as ChatGPT in assignments and the Library has produced guidance on citing and referencing generative AI.  You might also want to note the general student guidance offered here.

You should be aware that ChatGPT and similar tools invent some academic references.  They are large language models which have been trained 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.  Using such fabricated information in your work may be considered academic misconduct so you should always double check your reference lists.

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).

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

• 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.

For a video running through these slides, see here.

For a short video looking at the balance of your references, see this video.

• SCES Referencing Exercise

(pdf file 836 kb)

• SCES referencing exercise with solutions (file for download)

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

• Reference List Balance

(pptx file 42 kb)

  • Referencing Support

    Not fully searchable in EBSCO Discovery

    A webpage outlining the support that can be obtained for referencing accurately and consistently.

Library Guides

• Construction engineering management

(pdf file 149 kb)

• Civil engineering

(pdf file 118 kb)

• Quantity surveying

(pdf file 146 kb)

• Property development

(pdf file 146 kb)

• Construction project management

(pdf file 148 kb)