Postgraduate Research
Meet the team
The Learning Services research support team supports postgraduate and staff research activities across all faculties. Our role is to help you get the most from the resources and services on offer, and develop your academic writing, ICT and information seeking skills.
Craig Collinson
Academic Support Officer: Craig provides academic writing skills support for both research (M.Phil/Ph.D) and taught postgraduate (M.A/CPD) students (for further details see the Academic Support section).
Yvonne Smith
Academic Support Librarian: Yvonne provides assistance and support to research students (M.Phil/Ph.D) and staff engaged in research to develop skills in finding information, using electronic and web resources, keeping up-to-date and managing information.
- RefWorks (bibliographic management tool)
- Locating information resources
- Literature searching
- Using electronic journals and databases
- Current awareness services
Elaine Czotter
ICT Staff Development Co-ordinator: Elaine delivers an annual programme of ICT learning events including:
- Managing Folder and Files on the Edge Hill Network
- PowerPoint on-screen presentations
- Advanced features of Word for long documents
Getting started
Learning Services staff will help you make the most of the resources available. We will help you find and use the information you need to study successfully.
The Library Catalogue
The best place to start to find resources is the library catalogue. It will locate all items in the library and also give you access to thousands of electronic books, journals and databases.
You can use 'My Account' to renew and reserve items and see what you have borrowed.
Login at the top of this page to access the library catalogue 24/7 or use one of the computers around the University Libraries.
More information on using the library catalogue can be found in the 'First time here' section.
Infozone
Infozone is an interactive introduction to the services, facilities, resources and support you can expect from Learning Services. It forms part of your induction but it can be a handy reference tool to use throughout your time here.
Infozone is made up of six sections which you can work through in order or dip in and out of as required, and includes:
- Interactive quizzes
- Guided searches of the Library Catalogue and key electronic databases
- Videos
- Campus Tours
Click ‘Login’ at the top right of this page to access Infozone through Blackboard.
Online resources
Learning Services subscribes to many online collections of journals and databases, below are a few aimed at researchers. They are all available through the Library Catalogue.
Zetoc
Zetoc provides access to the British Library's Electronic Table of Contents of around 20,000 current journals and around 16,000 conference proceedings published per year. The database covers 1993 to date, and is updated on a daily basis.
Index of Theses
A comprehensive listing of theses with abstracts accepted for higher degrees by universities in Great Britain and Ireland since 1716. Links are provided advising how to obtain the full text of the theses.
Journal Citation Reports
Accessed via the Web of Science Additional Resources tab, the Journal Citation Report provides journal performance metrics that offer a systematic, objective means to critically evaluate the world's leading journals.
JSTOR Collections
Archives of academic journals. Journals are always included from volume 1, issue 1 and include previous and related titles. The most recently published issues (past 3-5 years) are not available
RefWorks
An online research management, writing and collaboration tool to help researchers gather, manage, store and share information, as well as generate citations and bibliographies. See the RefWork Guide for details.
Academic Support
Learning Services provides academic writing skills support for both research (M.Phil/Ph.D) and taught postgraduate (MA/CPD) students. This confidential supportive service is provided in one to one sessions, and includes.
- To be a ‘critical friend’ (but not tutor) in discussions of written work
- Advice on dissertation structure, thesis and chapter planning
- Confidential advice and referral to other departments and services
For more information or to book a session, please contact Craig Collinson Collinsoc@edgehill.ac.uk
Finding information
Yvonne provides 1-to-1 and group training sessions for research students (M.Phil/Ph.D) and staff engaged in research. These include.
- Locating information resources
- Literature searching
- Using electronic journals and databases
- Current awareness services
For more information or to book a session, please contact LSResearch@edgehill.ac.uk
Bibliographic management (RefWorks)
Group and 1-to-1 training sessions on our bibliographic management tool, RefWorks, are available to postgraduate students and staff throughout the year.
You may also want to participate in one of the frequent free training webinars run by RefWorks. Sign up for these at http://www.refworks-cos.com/training/.
For more information or to book a session, please contact: LSResearch@edgehill.ac.uk.
Further Research Tools
Alerting Services
Keep up-to-date with the latest publications in your field of research using free alerting (or current awareness) services. These include:
Alerting Services
Open Access Repositories
Institutional repositories allow access to research outputs from academic and research institutions.
OpenDOAR allows you to search for repositories and to search repository content.
Edge Hill Research Repository contains details and links to the University's research.
UK Institutional Repository Search provides access to academic and research repositories content.
Electronic Theses Online Service
The British Library’s EThOS service allows you to request an electronic copy of a thesis.
Libraries and Library Catalogues
The COPAC library catalogue provides access to the merged catalogues of major University, Specialist, and National Libraries in the UK and Ireland, including the British Library.
As a member of staff or research student you are eligible to join the SCONUL Access scheme which allows you to use and borrow material from higher education libraries in the UK and Ireland. Information about the scheme and how to join other libraries can all be found on our SCONUL pages.
