Searching Skills, Plagiarism and Referencing in your

Final Year ProjectCatie Tuttle

Subject Librarian (Business Undergraduates)

Catie.Tuttle.1@city.ac.uk

What I’m going to cover:

1. What sort of information you might need to find

2. Which databases and resources you’ll use to find

information

3. How to search the databases effectively

4. Referencing and avoiding plagiarism

5. How to get help when you’re stuck!

Refresher: what will you need to find and read?

■ Journal articles

■ Market research

■ News articles

■ Books

■ Company reports

■ Financial data

… and anything else that you and your supervisor/tutors identify: government

documents, corporate websites, conference proceedings, etc.

Where can you find it all?

■ Books: in the library – University Library at Northampton Square and the

specialist Learning Resource Centre at Bunhill Row.

■ Online, via the Library homepage: we’ve got access to millions of articles,

reports, e-books, market research, newspapers, etc. through our extensive library

subscriptions.

■ Financial Resources Suite: Bloomberg, Morningstar, Eikon and Datastream

available on the 5th Floor of the University Library and in the Financial Resources

Zone at Bunhill Row.

Databases: where the good stuff is

■ Databases contain journal articles, reports, case studies, company information, country information,

financial data, market research and more.

■ It’s good quality, authoritative information that you can only find through these subscription resources.

■ Using these databases to find information will help you get great marks.

■ You need to log into the databases to find this information: it’s not available for free just on the internet.

■ Use your subject guide to work out which database is best for what you’re looking for:

http://libguides.city.ac.uk/businessstudies

General Starting Point: CityLibrary Search

■ Use the search box on the Library website: look for

subject words or company names

■ CityLibrary Search will search across our books,

articles and reports.

■ Use the facets on the left-hand side to narrow your

search: ‘Full Text Online’ gives you just things you

can read over the internet

Subject Guide• E-resources to

use by topic

• Referencing

and Citation

• Book an

appointment

Key Academic Databases

Business Source Complete

Use for articles, market research, company, industry and country profiles, case studies, trade magazines, peer reviewed

research, Harvard Business Review, images.

Science Direct

Huge database focused on academic, peer-reviewed articles. Also contains actual science, but huge amount of business

and management information as well.

ProQuest

New database: peer-reviewed articles, newspapers, data, reports, trade journals... All sorts of stuff, not just business-specific.

Wide-ranging and useful.

Financial Times – FT.com

Everyone can have a subscription to the excellent FT.com website, phone and tablet apps. The sign-up link is on the

Cass Library Services Moodle page – use your city.ac.uk email to sign up.

Tips for accessing databases

■ Log in using your IT username and password.

■ Use the subject guide or the library catalogue for the right link.

■ In rare cases, you might need a special username and password… check the catalogue for

details.

■ Most databases can be used from anywhere with an internet connection.

■ A few need special computers in the library, e.g. Bloomberg – see the subject guide for

more information.

Science Direct

• Searches across

subjects, so be

sure to narrow

down to Business

• Use Advanced

Search option to

search more

complex terms

ProQuest Business Collection

• Searches across

newspaper articles,

company reports,

country reports and

more

• Select ‘Browse’ to

get reports

• Loads of filters help

you find exactly what

you’re looking for

Business Source Complete

■ Search term more than one

word? Use “quotes” to

search exact phrase

■ Link search terms:

■AND to get fewer results

■OR to get more results

Tips for searching databases

• Think about a search strategy before you begin.

• Consider making a “map” of your ideas to help

• Helps you see connections between ideas to make search terms:

Example

• Books/website on this by Tony Buzan, available in our libraries

• Make a list of the terms you try out as you search.

• Stops the frustration of searching the same phrase repeatedly!

• You can use the list to search the next database more quickly

• Writing a list allows you to make new connections between concepts

• Helps identify synonyms, alternative words/phrases

Refining your search

■Use the categories on the dropdown list of the database to

search only a given field.

■Add ‘wildcards’ to search across different formations or

spellings of the same root word. ■Using a * searches alternative endings (‘manag*’ will retrieve

management, managers, managing, etc.)

■Using a ? Searches alternative spellings (‘organi?ation’ retrieves both

‘organization’ and ‘organisation’

Smart searching: where to look

• Look in the reference list of your article for further

research.

• Use Business Source Complete, Web of Science or

Google Scholar to find who has cited your article

since it was published

Plagiarism: what is it?

University Definition:

■ “Plagiarism is passing off the ideas or words of someone else as though they were your own. It applies

equally to the work of other students as to published sources.”

■ “Submitting, as one's own, an assignment that another person has completed.

■ Downloading information, text, artwork, graphics or other material from the internet and presenting it as

one's own without acknowledgment.

■ Quoting or paraphrasing material from a source without acknowledgment.”

■ Using other people’s ideas without acknowledgement.

City University London (2012) ‘City University Assessment and Feedback Policy’ Available at:

http://www.city.ac.uk/__data/assets/pdf_file/0008/68921/assessment_and_feedback_policy.pdf (Accessed 22 September 2016).

Avoiding Plagiarism : Resources

■ Cass Student Intranet

■ Watch our Library Shorts Film: Basics of Referencing

■ Studywell: Online guidance, quizzes and case studies to help you learn

■ If in doubt, reference it! Use Cite Them Right Online

■ You can also check with your lecturer or ask a librarian if you’re unsure what

to do.

Why put citations and references in your work?

■ We cite all ideas, quotes, data, opinions, etc. that are not our own by telling the reader

where it came from.

■ Careful referencing protects you from accidental plagiarism■ Reference as you go along in your notes and your work so you can always trace ideas back

■ Good referencing makes your work more scholarly: ■ Shows your wide range of reading & sources

■ Shows good awareness of academic norms & standards

■ Helps back up your arguments with work of other scholars

■ Can show how hard you worked!

What does it look like? Example: Journal articles

You can see good referencing habits whenever you look at a journal article.

Example of a Harvard Style reference:

In-text citation:

According to Ready, certain qualities can be identified early in the recruitment

process (2010, p. 53).

Reference list:

Ready, D. et al (2010) ‘The anatomy of a high potential’, Business Strategy

Review, 21(3), pp. 52-55.

Referencing and Citation Help

■ Cite Them Right Online Brilliant guide to Harvard Referencing, best place to find layouts, help, advice.

■ Books in the library:

• Neville, C. (2010) Complete Guide to Referencing and Avoiding Plagiarism, 2nd ed. Maidenhead: Open

University Press.

• Pear, R., Shields, G. (2013) Cite Them Right: the Essential Referencing Guide, 9th ed. Basingstoke:

Palgrave Macmillan.

■ Subject Guide Citing and Referencing Tab:

• http://libguides.city.ac.uk/business/referencing

■ Tools to help:

• Citation software: RefWorks, Mendeley. More complex but helpful for storing/reusing references.

Contact the library for the RefWorks code. Mendeley is free.

• Word has built-in functions as well.

Any Questions?Please come and ask!

Help In Person:

Library desks on the 2nd and 5th Floor, and at Cass

Contact Catie: catie.tuttle.1@city.ac.uk or 020 7040 4151

General enquiries email for Cass: CassLibrary@city.ac.uk

Enquiries phone number: +44 (0) 207 040 8191

Help Online:

Library Website: www.city.ac.uk/library

Subject Guides: http://libguides.city.ac.uk/business

City, University of London

Northampton Square

London

EC1V 0HB

United Kingdom

T: +44 (0)20 7040 4151

E: catie.tuttle.1@city.ac.uk

http://www.city.ac.uk/library