Blog Archives
Finding journals and journal articles using NELSON
FAQ: How can I use NELSON to find journals and journal articles?
While researchers are often best served by accessing Library and Learning Services’ electronic journal collections directly (via our A-Z list), our research discovery tool NELSON can be a quick and convenient way to find articles and journals online. Read on for a short guide.
Digital Object Identifiers: what they are and where to find them
FAQ: What is a DOI and how can find out if my work has one?
A Digital Object Identifier, or DOI, uniquely and permanently identifies an object. Although the ‘object’ in theory may be any entity (physical, digital or abstract), in practice the most frequent use of DOI names is to describe the location of electronic journal articles, data sets and other digital documents. To date over 84 million DOI names have been assigned (see DOI Factsheet), each with a set of basic metadata and a pointer to the full content.
The principle behind the DOI system is that clicking on a DOI name will take you straight to the definitive copy of the item, irrespective of whether its web address (URL) has changed.
Accessing electronic theses
FAQ: How can I get hold of a PhD thesis on my chosen topic?
Other people’s theses can be useful for both content and framework. Not only are they useful models for new PhD students, but also they contain comprehensive literature reviews, detailed methodologies and interesting findings which can be compared with one’s own.
There are a couple of key sources of UK theses: EThOS and Index to Theses. Printed copies of Northampton theses are also available in the two university libraries and indexed in NECTAR.
Finding an open access journal for your article
FAQ: How can I find a suitable open access journal in which to publish my work?
Perhaps your funder expects you to publish your work in an open access journal, or you’d like to enjoy the citation advantage of making your work open access, but you’re not sure where to start. Here are a few things to think about.
Increasing your citation count – a how-to guide
FAQ: How can I ensure my work is highly cited?
As a researcher there are a number of ways you can give your citation counts a boost, here are some suggestions.
Content is key
- Produce a piece of well written, top quality, original research. This is essential.
Renewing your Zetoc Alert
FAQ: My Zetoc Alert is about to expire. How can I renew it?
Anybody that uses Zetoc Alerts to keep up to date with research literature will know that once a year these expire and have to be renewed. This is a straightforward process and simply involves clicking on one of the links given in the reminder email.
The trick is to click on the correct link.
RefWorks: Restoring the Harvard UoN style
FAQ: I’ve lost the Harvard UoN output style in RefWorks. How do I get it back?
From time to time we need to apply maintenance tweaks to our university RefWorks configuration. An unfortunate consequence of this is that the Harvard UoN option will disappear from your list of output styles. This post demonstrates how to restore it.
Redirect your university email to a personal address
FAQ: How do I redirect my university email to a personal address?
In this post I’ll demonstrate how to use Outlook to redirect emails from your university email address to a personal email account. All you’ll need for this is a web browser. Once this is set up, any email to your @northampton.ac.uk address will be sent on to the address you enter (a copy will remain in your university inbox). Redirection can be turned off and on easily.
Journal impact factors
FAQ: What is a journal impact factor and why does it matter?
A journal’s impact factor is used to evaluate the relative importance of a journal in its field. The higher the impact factor, the more prestigious the journal. From a researcher’s point of view, ‘high impact’ journals are usually perceived to be the ‘best’ and most career enhancing places to be published.
The impact factor is a statistical measure; a journal with a high impact factor will have received more citations than one with a low impact factor.
NELSON and RefWorks – capturing your references
FAQ: How can I save items from NELSON to my RefWorks account?
NELSON is Library and Learning Services’ new resource discovery tool. It searches across a range of services including journals (full-text and abstract), ebooks and the library catalogue.
While researchers often benefit from searching databases directly, one advantage NELSON offers is a standard interface for several functions and services, including RefWorks, the University’s reference management software. RefWorks lets you collect, manage, share and annotate your references, and helps you cite them in Word. Whatever you find in NELSON, exporting it to RefWorks is quick and painless. In this post I’ll show you how to copy single and multiple items from NELSON into your RefWorks account.
UON Graduate School Blog 