Information comes in variety of different formats such as books, journals, radio programmes etc. This guide aims to highlight the different types of information that are available to you when you write your assignment and the benefits and disadvantages of each, particularly, reference materials, books, journals and websites.
Reference materials can consist of a range of different types of material providing background information. These are useful when you are new to a topic and need a simple overview. Examples of reference materials are:
Dictionaries: useful to find definitions of terms, subjects or topics, - not good for providing a broad overview of a subject.
Encyclopaedias: useful to find a brief overview of a given subject area or concept. They have more detailed coverage than dictionaries
Oxford Reference Online is a good resource to find definitions of terms.
Books provide a general overview of a subject area and are a good place to start when new to a subject. They usually contain well established information as well as reference lists to related journal articles and resources. Many books are now available electronically and can be accessed off campus. You can search the Library catalogue to find a list of (e)books available in the Library.
However, books can become out of date very quickly due to the length of time taken in the publishing process.
Journals (sometimes referred to as periodicals) are published at regular intervals throughout the year. They are available in both print and electronic formats depending on the University's subscriptions.
Journal articles are useful because:
They discuss a specific subject in much more details than books.
The information contained in journal articles tends to be based upon primary research.
Journal articles tend to be more up-to-date than books as the publication process is quicker.
Journal articles are sometimes 'peer reviewed', which means that in order to be published they have been reviewed by experts to ensure that the information is correct.
You can search for journal articles using the University's search engine, Summon. You will find that journal articles will be the main focus for your assignments.
However, journal articles are not useful at providing a general overview of a subject and may go into too much detail.
If you're not sure of the difference between journals, articles, and databases, this video should clear things up! (It was (produced by another library, so ignore the points at the end about accessing databases)
