Really simple studying!

In the run-up to our first Media Zoo workshop (see post below) here are my thoughts on some of the technological wildlife that you can come to the zoo to tame for research purposes. Many of these technologies are not designed primarily for educational applications, but have nevertheless become valued research tools. RSS (Really Simple Syndication), for example, is essential to any researcher short on time. RSS allows you to subscribe to updated content from websites, so that it is downloaded directly to a feed reader. So your CFPs, journal articles, database searches etc will be delivered directly to one page, without you having to go and find them!

My favourite feed readers are Pageflakes and Netvibes. When you open an account on one of these, you can then start adding content and downloading feeds to your page. On my page, for example, I have a feed updating me on calls for papers in my field, as well as feeds for all my favourite journals, for a search term on the database I use and for various blogs from academics working in my field (as well as my email, facebook, twitter, bookmarks, to do list etc).

To find feeds, look for the RSS symbol. You can start by setting up a feed from this very blog! Sign up to your preferred reader, then select 'menu/add content', select 'add RSS feed' and copy and paste the blog address... really simple!

For help on RSS or finding and setting up feeds in your research area, make an appointment to see me in the Graduate School Media Zoo on weekday afternoons from 2pm.

Searching ABS Journals in Business Source Premier

In Business and Management Studies, researchers undertaking a literature review sometimes search across a defined group of journals. This is a way of focusing the literature search to make the results more relevant to the questions in hand. Groups are often chosen from the Association of Business Schools (ABS)'s Academic Journal Guide . Read more how about how they put together the guide here . There are several ways to search across ABS journals. Here is how to do it in Business Source Premier, a leading literature database for this subject area. 1. Login into the ABS journal guide. If you have never used it before you will need to create an account. 2. You can use the guide to draw up a group of journals either by using the Rankings information or the Fields. Fields divides up the journals into categories of research focus e.g. Accounting, Finance etc. In this example we will use the Fi...

You can now export multiple citations from Google Scholar

You can now export multiple citations from Google Scholar if you have a Google Account. Go to Google Scholar and sign into your Google Account. Conduct your search. Click on the Star icon (Save) under each reference you want to export. Then click on My Library in the top, right of the screen. Select all the references and click on the Export option: Click the Star/Save Icon Choose Export Option To Export into EndNote Choose the EndNote option. Open the EndNote file that is created. The references should automatically import into EndNote. To Export into RefWorks Choose the RefMan option. Save the RIS file that is created. Login to your RefWorks account. Click on the plus (+) button. Choose Import References. Add the RIS file you just saved. Set the file import option to RIS - Reference Manager. Click import and your references will be imported. --- Good Practice Tip: Always check that all the reference information you need has been...

Research as comics - Applied Comics Network

On Saturday 9th May I attended the first Applied Comics Network event to talk about the PhD sessions I offer on 'Communicating your research as a comic strip'. The event was looking at the use of comics for informational and educational purposes. Attendees included academics, PhD students, graphic facilitators and comic creators. Applied Comics Network is run by Lydia Wysocki ( Newcastle Science Comic , Applied Comics Etc ), John Swogger (Archaeology in the Caribbean, Something Different About Dad), and Ian Horton (Coordinator for Contextual and Theoretical Studies, London College of Communication). They started the event off (before & after the interruption of a fire alarm!) by looking at the different types of comics the network might cover. They had all come up with different categories but they included: Instructional (instructions for using/doing things) Informative (providing facts/information) Educational (these might be factual or have a narrative to ...

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