Find journal articles, newspaper articles, book reviews etc.

Note: the search above won't find every article, for a more comprehensive search see the information below on databases.

To find relevant and good quality information for your work, searching databases is the most effective method. You have free access to a range of searchable databases though you may need your GUID and associated password to use some of them. Databases contain quality-assessed journal or newspaper articles on particular topics.

Databases

• Databases for Physics (complete listing) / Key databases for Physics (selected listing)
• Databases for Astronomy

For help using specific databases - see guides which are found by clicking on the "Full details of this resource" link on individual database records on the databases lists.

Internet sites

Internet sites for Physics

• Physics World (Institute of Physics) - News, articles, resources and details of events from the Institute of Physics.
• PhysLink - Physics & Astronomy Online - The site provides access to physics and astronomy news, links to relevant reference resources etc.. Note that this is a commercial site ; however, the site is maintained by a volunteers working in the areas of physics and astronomy.
• PhysNet - PhysNet is a 'worldwide physics departments and documents network'. The site includes links to physics departments and institutes worldwide, a search facility covering material such as pre-prints and reports, as well as links to other relevant physics related sites. The site is overseen by the European Physical Society.
• The WWW Virtual Library: Physics - Key web sites in various areas of Physics recommended by experts as being of high quality.
• European Physical Society - The EPS site provides access to Europhysics News which offers short articles on a range of general physics topics.

Internet sites for Astronomy

• Royal Astronomical Society - The web site of the UK's leading professional body for astronomy and astrophysics. The site includes news. Particularly useful is Astronomy in the UK, a review of British astronomy and space science. The site also has a useful list of general Astronomy and Astrophysics links.

Once you have decided on your dissertation topic. use the Library's webpages on Information Skills which contains helpful tips on doing a literature review, searching for information, finding theses and dissertations and so on.

If you would like some advice on searching for information, please contact me by email susan.ashworth@glasgow.ac.uk - or by phone 0141-330-6703

You might find some resources useful for your dissertation which we don't have available from this Library. Through our Inter Library Loan service you can order books and journal articles free of charge. See the Need Something We Don't Have section on our website.

Referencing and citing – using your sources

What is referencing?

Referencing is the acknowledgement of items you have read and used while creating a written piece of work for your essay, dissertation, article or thesis.

It is important to keep an exact and complete record of the details of all the sources of information that you use for coursework, essays, dissertations or publications. Sources can include books, journal articles, web pages and legal cases. If you don’t keep a precise record you will have difficulty (and a lot more work) when you need to list the sources in your reference list.

Citations

When writing an essay, report or dissertation, it is usual to cite [mention] the sources that you used, referred to, or took quotes from. These references might describe journal or newspaper articles, books, government reports, web pages

Citing accurate references is important for the following reasons:

• To give credit to concepts and ideas from other authors
• To provide evidence of the extent of your reading
• To use other work to support the arguments you make
• To allow the user to locate the cited references easily
• To help you avoid plagiarism

Which style of referencing does the School of Physics & Astronomy use?

There are many styles for references, however, the most commonly used styles are Harvard (a version using author/date format) and Vancouver (numbered format).  

See Harvard referencing guide from Leeds University

Managing your references using Reference Manager or EndNote software

Reference Manager and Endnote - These are reference management software programs [available locally] which help you to record and store references to books or journal articles and many other sources while you are working on a project. You can then use the stored information to generate bibliographies for your essay, thesis or article using a wide range of styles.

How do I get help with using referencing programs?

See our local Support web pages    
IT Services also runs introductory courses where you can make an online booking to attend a training session on an advertised date.

Plagiarism – what is it and how to avoid it

You must always acknowledge the sources you use. Use of material without cknowledgement of the sources is called plagiarism which is considered to be an act of fraudulence and an offence against University discipline - see the University Plagiarism webpages
TurnitinUK – in University of Glasgow, Turnitin is a program used by some departments to detect plagiarism in student work submitted for assessment. 

College Librarian for Physics and Astronomy

Susan Ashworth, susan.ashworth@glasgow.ac.uk - 0141-330-6703 - Room 810 (Level 8) 

I am the Librarian responsible for Physics and Astronomy. You are welcome to contact me for advice on how to find information for your assignments, projects or dissertations.

For more general information have a look at the Information for students/staff/subscription members pages.