Welcome - Getting Ready for the New Academic Year Tutorial
- Getting Ready for the New Academic Year for PG Students (Tutorial) 45 minutesThis interactive tutorial will give you the academic and information skills guidance you need to get your postgraduate journey off to a good start.
By the end you will be able to:
--Know how to find information on the Library website
--Be aware of what is expected of you at postgraduate level
--Understand where to go for help with your assignments
--Manage your time more effectively
--Use reading strategies to help you take in information
--Know the key principles to academic writing at postgraduate level
Using Library Resources for Research
As a postgraduate student, you will be expected to conduct independent research and to identify, understand and use a wide range of information sources. The Library is here to help you at every stage of your research and can provide guidance on literature searching, referencing, managing the information you find, and obtaining books and journals that we don't hold.
There are two dedicated library spaces for Postgraduate Students:
- Postgraduate Study Room on the first floor of the library (Room 1.22).
- Postgraduate Collaborative working room (Maurice & Hilda Laing) on the third floor.
Both rooms are equipped with computers and can be accessed with your ID card.
Literature Searching
The Library subscribes to thousands of academic journals and materials with coverage across all subject areas. Searching through all of this material for your research or literature review can be really tough. Fortunately, the Library also has tools to help you.
The most effective way to search for journal articles on a topic is to use a database, such as PubMed, Web of Science, JSTOR or Academic Search Premier. Databases bring together a large number of research articles, often concentrating on a particular subject area.
Databases can help you find peer-reviewed academic articles from all over the world, from many different publishers, over a long time period. Many databases have links to full-text articles where the Library has a subscription, but some only provide abstracts.
Please refer to the A-Z List of Databases to see all those we currently subscribe to.
To keep your research up-to-date, you can set up auto-alerts for your subject on most literature databases. This will alert you to any newly published research on your topic.
For help finding the most appropriate database for your research, consult the Library's Subject guides. If you experience difficulty accessing an online resource, see these tips for Problems with online resources.
For more support you can contact the Learning and Teaching Librarian at libraryengagement@roehampton.ac.uk.
Useful links
- Patter Blog‘Patter’ is Pat Thomson, Professor of Education in the School of Education, The University of Nottingham. Her blog covers all aspects of the PhD experience from setting up your routine and getting organised to refining your topic and writing regularly. New posts are added to her blog monthly.
Managing the Information You Find
You need an effective system to manage the references and articles you find. The Library supports RefWorks: a reference management software that can help store and organise your information, and creates your reference lists and bibliographies for you.
Our RefWorks pages has lots of quick online tutorials and information sheets.
- RefWorks Help and GuidanceRefWorks is an online tool for storing and managing your references, provided by UR Library.
Looking for other Academic and Study Support - Postgraduates
Looking for other Academic and Study Support?
The Academic Achievement Team also have a dedicated Postgraduate section on the Learning Skills Hub looking at:
- Beginning your journey
- Approaching research/assignments
- Search, Read, Note-take
- Data and Statistics
- Academic Writing
- Dissertations
Academic Achievement Team can be contacted at aateam@roehampton.ac.uk. You can also make use of Studiosity. See Full Details of other Study Support available on the Nest Portal.
Inter Library Loans
The Inter Library Loan (ILL) service gives students and staff the option of requesting books, book chapters and journals articles when we do not have them in the Library collection. The items are borrowed from the British Library and U.K. and Ireland institutions and are supplied for free.
Inter Library Loans are not available for Alumni or our partner institutions.
You can also check the availability for the item in academic libraries near you on Jisc Library Hub Discover; it may be faster to visit another London academic library through the SCONUL scheme.
Inter Library Loan FAQs
How to I request an Inter Library Loan?
Where to collect my Inter Library Loan?
Returning an Inter Library Loan
How to renew Inter Library Loans?