Summer Programme for Masters Students

Over the next few months, the Masters student will be working hard to submit their dissertation in September. Your dissertation is a substantial piece of work that requires many digital and information literacy skills.  These skills are useful, not just for this upcoming project, but also for employability and future learning.  As such, the Bay library team have created a programme of classes that will take place over the summer to help you develop these skills.

Please find below a calendar of our events and a short description of each session. These sessions are drop-in session, and there is no requirement to pre-book.  All sessions will be held in the Bay Library in PC Room 2.

June

19th June, 10.00 am Working Smarter where you can find out about tools and apps that will help with organising resources, Time Management, developing ideas, keeping up-to-date and working collaboratively.

21st June, 3.00 pm Avoiding Plagiarism where we look at note-taking and referencing skills to ensure good academic practice in-line with University Policies.

26th June, 10.00 am Literature Review where we Learn how to scope, plan and gather information for the literature review process.  Get advice on creating a systematic approach to your review to ensure a comprehensive search.

July

3rd July, 10.00 am Referencing Software (Input) looks at booth Endnote and Mendeley and gives you a chance to explore your chosen software.

 5th July, 3.00 pm Academic Sources this session explores quality, peer-reviewed, academic sources for your dissertation.

 10th July, 10.00 am SAGE Research Methods SAGE research methods is a database containing thousands of resources, dedicated to research methods. This session looks at different research methods, case studies and statistical resources.

12th July, 3.00 pm Finding Datasets looks at the large number of freely available datasets and explores these datasets and discuss the implications surrounding their use.

 17th July, 10.00 am Business Databases This session looks at two amazing Industry standard resources, Marketline and Mintel. We also explore the country statistics, company information and analysts reports, market research and country information within these resources.

 19th July, 3.00 pm Keeping up-to date Given the amount of new knowledge and data being produced daily, it can seem a daunting task to keep up to date with the relevant information in your field. By the end of this session you will be aware of a range of free tools which can help you create personalized streams of information tailored to your interests. We will look at alerting services, RSS, Twitter and more.

 24th July, 10.00 am Financial Databases The School of Management subscribes to a number of industry standard resources containing valuable information on company data, mergers and acquisitions, economic and financial data and financial data on banks and other financial  resources.

 26th July, 3.00 pm Referencing Software (Output) With the dissertation due in a few weeks this session will concentrate on the output of your references from the software onto the page. At the end of the session there will be a librarian available to look at individual references and advise on changes

August

With revision and assessment from the 30^th July to the 17^th July there will be no workshops available.  However for the remainder of the month the library will be hosting “Library Retreats”.  Two-hour distraction free research and writing time with a librarian available for the first hour to advise on literature and referencing.

21st August, 10.00 am The Library Retreat

23rd August, 3.00 pm The Library Retreat

28th August, 10.00 am The Library Retreat

30th August, 3.00 pm The Library Retreat

September

These final two session will concentrate on referencing.

4th September, 10.00 am Referencing Software (Output) will be a repeat of the 26^th July session. This session will concentrate on the output of your references from the software onto the page.  At the end of the session, there will be a librarian available to look at individual references and advise on changes.

6th September, 3.00 pm Check your references will concentrate on the more obscure references and will be led by the students in attendance.  After the session the librarian will be available to look at individual references.

For those of you unable to make the above sessions you can still book 1-2-1 sessions with a librarian throughout the summer. Our calendar is available at  https://swansea-uk.libcal.com/calendar/BayLibrary.  If there isn’t a suitable slot available please email your subject team at buslib@swansea.ac.uk

SAGE research methods online

Are you working on your dissertation or research project this summer?

Sage research methods can give you the information that you need to select and use the your research method/s. It provides the theory and practical experiences of reserch methods.

Whether you are using qualitative, quantative, or mixed methods there are many books, videos and cases that can help you.

Access this resource by searching for ‘SAGE research methods’ in iFind.

Sage have produced this comprehensive guide to using the resource, so if you need any help check it out or get in touch with us at buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

How to write a literature review

For those of you who are writing a dissertation or doing a research project this summer, this short guide from Emerald Publishing explains the stages of a literature review in an easy to read format.

For more detailed guidance, we have lots of books online and in the library which can help. Search for them on iFind, or browse the ‘LB’ section of the library shelves. Your librarians are also available all summer for advice – just email us at buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

What is a literature review? – extract from Emerald guide. 

 

Finding dissertations

When you begin your masters research project, you may want to look at successful dissertations from other students. This can help you to understand how you might go about researching and writing up your own work.

There’s information about finding dissertations on our website. Check the section on Finding Theses to see how you can use iFind to look for dissertations from the School of Management. The dissertations from before 2013 will be most helpful as they follow a similar format (introduction, literature review, methodology…) to the one you are expected to use. Most of our dissertations are kept in the library at Singleton Park Campus, but they can be sent to Bay Library for you to look at there. Use the Request option on iFind or ask at the Library Desk for help. The dissertations are for reference use only, so they must not be taken out of the library.

You might also find it helpful to see how students outside of Swansea University have tackled research on your topic. The database Proquest Business Collection includes dissertations from around the world. Just type in keywords for your subject and tick the Full text box on the search page, then using from the options down the left of the results screen go to Source type>More options>Dissertations & Theses.

Remember to reference anything you use from someone else’s dissertation! Work from Swansea University and from other students around the world is very likely to be in the Turnitin database and will be identified as plagiarism if you haven’t referenced it correctly.

If you have any questions, please email buslib@swansea.ac.uk. We will be here all summer if you need any help!

 

Making Subject Headings work for you – targeting your search using the Thesaurus in ProQuest and Ebsco

Are you having trouble finding relevant articles in your database search results? Are you struggling to identify the right keywords to define your topic? The Thesaurus could help!

It might sound like something out of Jurassic World, but a database thesaurus is actually a searchable list of the ‘controlled’ subject headings used by that database. These standardised headings are used ‘tag’ articles to help you find what you want. Since terminology can change from country to country and over time, these standardised subject headings can pick up articles which you might miss when you think of your own keywords. The Thesaurus will also show you broader, narrower and related terms which can help to guide your search.

So, for example, if you look up ‘Strategic Management’ in the ProQuest Thesaurus, you’ll find ‘Corporate management’ as a broader term and ‘Balanced scorecard’ as a narrower term. You’ll also find related terms such as ‘Enterprise risk management’, ‘Market strategy’ and ‘Strategic planning’. You could add some or all of those terms to your search to find articles you need.

ProQuest has made a short video to help you find and use the Thesaurus. It’s well worth a look!

The Thesaurus in Ebsco’s Business Source Complete works in a similar way. There’s a guide available with more help and information.

If you have any questions or would like to find out more, please get in touch with us at buslib@swansea.ac.uk.

Looking for business-related information from and about Europe?

• Need to read Jonathan Hill’s (EU Commissioner for Financial Services)  latest speech on Capital Markets Union?
• Looking for the recent report on “A Digital Single market Strategy for Europe” or the European Investment Bank’s “Investment Plan for Europe”?
• Or the latest info on the Transatlantic Trade and Investment Partnership?
• Need detailed comparative data of inflation rates across EU countries (Harmonised Indices of Consumer prices)?

 

The European Union has many divisions and websites for the Parliament, Councils, Commissions, Bank, Courts – it can difficult to navigate.  However there are two key resources which could help you:

EUROPEAN SOURCES ONLINE
http://www.europeansources.info/search.jsp
European Sources Online (ESO) is an online database which provides access to information on the institutions and activities of the European Union, the countries, regions and other international organisations of Europe, and on the issues of importance to European citizens and stakeholders. ESO provides access to thousands of expertly selected websites, documents and publications from the EU and other international organisations, national governments, think tanks, stakeholder organisations, working papers etc., full text articles from Financial Times and European Voice, plus bibliographic records to key academic textbooks and periodical articles, and a series of Information Guides compiled by the ESO Editorial Team. Updated daily. Link to our Guide.

EUROSTAT

http://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/
Eurostat is the Statistical Office of the European Communities in Luxembourg. Eurostat gathers data from the official statistical agencies in EU member countries. It then has to ensure that the data is harmonized so that meaningful comparisons can be made across several countries.  Eurostat covers all subjects especially business, economics, finance.

Get the intel on Mintel! (And other sources of market research information)

Have you used Mintel, our fantastic source of information for marketing research, yet? If not, or if it’s been a while, take a look at the brand new video tutorials  now available on the Mintel help pages. The videos cover the following areas:-

• Category Overviews

Useful if you want to browse the most recent content by Sector, Theme or Demographic

• Added Value Content

This is good if you want to find out about those ‘added extras’ which are available in Mintel, like Webinars, Analyst Insight and Quarterly Updates

• Creating Email Alerts and Saved Searches

Shows you how to set up a profile so you can keep up to date with the latest content in your areas of interest

• Creating Report Graphs

Who doesn’t love a graph? This video shows you how to create one from a table of figures

• Finding What’s Available in Your Subscription

Shows you how to check which Mintel content is available to you (Swansea University subscribes to the following industry categories: e-commerce, food, leisure, technology and drink)

• Running a Search

Does what it says on the tin! Tips for searching Mintel content

• Structure of a Report

Highlights the key features of the Mintel reports so you know where to find the information you need

The videos are particularly useful if you’re using Mintel Oxygen, which is great for finding independent market research reports containing analysis, commentary and data. At Swansea University, we also have access to Mintel Market Sizes, where you’ll find data on industries and countries, including market size, market share and forecast data for thousands of consumer goods categories worldwide.

Although Mintel provides our specialist market research database, you may also find relevant reports on two of our other key databases, EBSCO Business Source Premier and ProQuest Business Collection. For help finding market research reports via these sources, check our guide on Blackboard under the heading ‘Can’t find the market research you need on Mintel?’.

All four databases are available off-campus as well as on-campus, so you’ll always have a wealth of marketing information available at your fingertips!