LibGuides: School of Applied Sciences: Databases &amp; more

Key resources for your subject area

In this section, you will find guides to the key information resources for your subject area, including library databases and other information sources such as statistics and newspapers.

Using databases

Use academic databases to search for journal articles and other academic literature. Some of the databases available via the library provide access to the full-text of articles, and others will provide access to abstracts. Training on using databases is available from your Subject Librarian. If you're interested in setting up an appointment, please don't hesitate to contact the Library at library@napier.ac.uk.

Resource Spotlight

Digimap

Digimap is an online map and data delivery service. Access OS maps, explore environmental data, visualise spatial census data, input your own datasets, annotate and print maps, and download data to use with GIS or CAD. Check out the video below for an introduction to using the ROAM application with the Digimap Society Collection.

Key Databases by Subject

All Biosciences

BIOSIS Citation Index Biosis Citation IndexSM combines critical life sciences research with powerful citation indexing. Clarivate Analytics’ privacy policy
Natural Science Collection The Natural Science Collection includes the Agri & Env, Bio Science, and Earth, Atmospheric & Aqua Databases and provides full-text titles from around the world including scholarly journals, trade and industry journals, magazines, technical reports, conference proceedings, government publications and more. ProQuest’s privacy policy
ScienceDirect ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information. Elsevier’s privacy policy
TOXLINE This database, produced by the U.S. National Library of Medicine, provides bibliographic citations and abstracts from the core journal literature in all areas of toxicology, including chemicals and pharmaceuticals, pesticides, environmental pollutants and mutagens and teratogens. Now part of the new Agricultural & Environmental Science Database‎. ProQuest’s privacy policy
Web of Science The Web of Science Service for UK Education provides a single route to all the Clarivate Analytics products subscribed to by your institution. Connect to the Web of Science Service, search using the 'All Database search' or select an individual product from the drop down list. Clarivate Analytics’ privacy policy

Animal, Plant & Conservation

CAB Abstracts with Full Text CAB Abstracts with Full Text covers the significant research and development literature in fields of agriculture, forestry, aspects of human health, human nutrition, animal health, as well as the management and conservation of natural resources. EBSCO’s privacy policy
Digimap The Environment collection of Digimap provides mapping data from the UK Centre for Ecology and Hydrology.
GreenFILE GreenFILE covers all aspects of human impact on the environment. Its collection of scholarly, government and general-interest titles includes content on global warming, green building, pollution, sustainable agriculture, renewable energy, recycling. EBSCO’s privacy policy
JSTOR JSTOR is a highly selective digital library of academic content in many formats and disciplines. Use the filter on the left hand side of your search to limit your results to the subject are of Biological Sciences. JSTOR’s privacy policy
Zoological Record Zoological Record® is the world's oldest continuing database of animal biology. It is considered the world's leading taxonomic reference, and with coverage back to 1864, has long acted as the world's unofficial register of animal names. The broad scope of coverage ranges from biodiversity and the environment to taxonomy and veterinary sciences. Clarivate Analytics’ privacy policy

Biomedical

MEDLINE MEDLINE provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree, tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals. EBSCO’s privacy policy
PubMed PubMed, developed by the National Library of Medicine in the USA, provides access to bibliographic citations to biomedical journal articles,and to additional life sciences journals. MEDLINE is the largest subset of PubMed. National Library of Medicine's privacy policy

Other Databases

For a full list of databases by discipline, use the A-Z databases list.

All Subjects

ScienceDirect ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information. Elsevier’s privacy policy
Web of Science The Web of Science Service for UK Education provides a single route to all the Clarivate Analytics products subscribed to by your institution. Connect to the Web of Science Service, search using the 'All Database search' or select an individual product from the drop down list. Clarivate Analytics’ privacy policy

Criminology & Policing

Lexis + Lexis+ (formerly known as Lexis Library) is a legal database. Resources include legislation, case reports, journal articles and commentary including the full text of The Stair Memorial Encyclopedia, Scottish Criminal Case Reports, Scottish Civil Law Reports, All England Law Reports, The New Law Journal, Family Law (journal). Lexis Nexis’ privacy policy
Westlaw UK Westlaw is a gateway containing a large and growing number of databases, which can be searched separately or together. Examples include the UK case locator, UK legislation, Legal Journals index, UK current awareness and EU materials (e.g. cases, legislation, journals, current awareness). Full text law reports and journals (primarily Sweet & Maxwell titles) can be accessed together with much full text material from the rest of the world, especially the USA, Canada and Australia. When you reach the Westlaw website, you may be blocked by a message asking you to set up a personal account. If you do not want to give your personal details, you can fill the boxes in as follows: First name: xxxxxx Surname: xxxxxxx Email: xxxxxxxxxxx@yahoo.co.uk Thomson Reuters' privacy policy

Psychology

CINAHL with Full Text CINAHL with Full Text is a comprehensive research database and source of full text for nursing & allied health journals. Additional materials include full-text evidence-based care sheets, quick lessons and continuing education modules. EBSCO’s privacy policy
MEDLINE MEDLINE provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree, tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals. EBSCO’s privacy policy
PsycARTICLES This collection, published by the American Psychological Association and affiliated journals, provides access to the full spectrum of research in the field, from cutting-edge research from preeminent scholars to the historical underpinnings of the behavioural and social sciences. EBSCO’s privacy policy
PsycINFO This database contains more than one million citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations and technical reports, all in the field of psychology. It also includes information about the psychological aspects of related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law. EBSCO’s privacy policy

Social Sciences

JSTOR JSTOR's archival journal collections include more than 2,000 journals in the humanities, social sciences, and natural sciences. This now incorporates content previously accessed via separate collections, including Arts & Sciences, the Music Legacy collection, the Language and Literature collection, Business, and Biological Sciences collections. JSTOR’s privacy policy
Social Sciences Citation Index The Social Science Citation Index provides researchers, administrators, faculty, and students with access to the bibliographic and citation information they need to find research data, analyze trends, journals and researchers, and share their findings. Clarivate Analytics’ privacy policy
Social Science Premium Collection‎ This collection provides access to databases covering international literature in social sciences, including politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education. ProQuest’s privacy policy
Society Digimap Society Digimap provides a wealth of census and socio-economic data for Great Britain. By providing these datasets as layers to visualise along with high quality Ordnance Survey data, users can access the rich information to gain valuable insights for their areas of interest. Digimap provides Ordnance Survey map data of Great Britain to UK Higher Education. Please note that you will need to register for Digimap. How to register for Digimap Digimap’s privacy policy

Other Databases

For a full list of databases by discipline, use the A-Z databases list.

General

ScienceDirect ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information. Elsevier’s privacy policy
Web of Science The Web of Science Service for UK Education provides a single route to all the Clarivate Analytics products subscribed to by your institution. Connect to the Web of Science Service, search using the 'All Database search' or select an individual product from the drop down list. Clarivate Analytics’ privacy policy

Sport & Exercise

CINAHL with Full Text CINAHL with Full Text is a comprehensive research database and source of full text for nursing & allied health journals. Additional materials include full-text evidence-based care sheets, quick lessons and continuing education modules. EBSCO’s privacy policy
MEDLINE MEDLINE provides authoritative medical information on medicine, nursing, dentistry, veterinary medicine, the health care system, pre-clinical sciences, and much more. Created by the National Library of Medicine, MEDLINE uses MeSH (Medical Subject Headings) indexing with tree, tree hierarchy, subheadings and explosion capabilities to search citations from over 4,800 current biomedical journals. EBSCO’s privacy policy
PEDro PEDro (Physiotherapy Evidence Database), a free database of over 39,000 randomised trials, systematic reviews and clinical practice guidelines in physiotherapy. For each trial, review or guideline, PEDro provides the citation details, the abstract and a link to the full text, where possible. All trials on PEDro are independently assessed for quality. These quality ratings are used to quickly guide users to trials that are more likely to be valid and to contain sufficient information to guide clinical practice. PEDro is produced by Musculoskeletal Health Sydney, School of Public Health at the University of Sydney and is hosted by Neuroscience Research Australia (NeuRA). Freely available. PEDro's privacy policy
SPORTDiscus This database offers comprehensive, bibliographic coverage of sport, fitness and related disciplines. SPORTDiscus is provided by the Sport Information Resource Centre. EBSCO’s privacy policy

Psychology & Education

Education Collection This collection provides access to ERIC, the leading index for education research, together with the full-text Education Database. Together, they provide abstracts, indexing and full text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers and more, including full- text from hundreds of leading education journals. ProQuest’s privacy policy
PsycINFO This database contains more than one million citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations and technical reports, all in the field of psychology. It also includes information about the psychological aspects of related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law. EBSCO’s privacy policy

Other Databases

For a full list of databases by discipline, use the A-Z databases list.

General

ScienceDirect ScienceDirect contains over 25% of the world's science, technology and medicine full text and bibliographic information. Elsevier’s privacy policy
Social Science Premium Collection‎ This collection provides access to databases covering international literature in social sciences, including politics, public policy, sociology, social work, anthropology, criminology, linguistics, library science, and education. ProQuest’s privacy policy
Web of Science The Web of Science Service for UK Education provides a single route to all the Clarivate Analytics products subscribed to by your institution. Connect to the Web of Science Service, search using the 'All Database search' or select an individual product from the drop down list. Clarivate Analytics’ privacy policy

Education

British Education Index The British Education Index provides information on research, policy and practice in education and training in the UK. EBSCO’s privacy policy
Education Collection This collection provides access to ERIC, the leading index for education research, together with the full-text Education Database. Together, they provide abstracts, indexing and full text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers and more, including full- text from hundreds of leading education journals. ProQuest’s privacy policy
ERIC The ERIC (Educational Resources Information Center) database is sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education to provide extensive access to educational-related literature. EBSCO’s privacy policy
Research into Higher Education Abstracts Research into Higher Education Abstracts, published on behalf of the Society for Research into Higher Education, exists to propagate knowledge about, and encourage discussion of, significant research into higher education. Informa's privacy policy
Teachers TV (Education in Video) Teachers TV from Education in Video provides access to all 3,530 globally-acclaimed instructional videos produced in 2008 by the United Kingdom's Department of Education to train and develop teachers' skills through demonstrations and commentary by teachers, administrators, and other educational experts. ProQuest's privacy policy

Psychology

PsycINFO This database contains more than one million citations and summaries of journal articles, book chapters, books, dissertations and technical reports, all in the field of psychology. It also includes information about the psychological aspects of related disciplines such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, physiology, linguistics, anthropology, business and law. EBSCO’s privacy policy

Other Databases

For a full list of databases by discipline, use the A-Z databases list.

Other Resources

Digimap
Digimap provides Ordnance Survey map data of Great Britain, as well as census and environmental datasets and more.

FigShare
FigShare is an open access repository for research outputs, including datasets and figures.
Google Dataset
Google Dataset Search is a search engine from Google that helps researchers locate online data that is freely available for use.
Office for National Statistics
The UK's largest independent producer of official statistics and the recognised national statistical institute of the UK.
Statistics.gov.scot
Open access to Scotland's official statistics and datasets.
UK Data Service
The UK Data Service is the largest digital repository for quantitative and qualitative social science and humanities research data in the United Kingdom.

Undergraduate and postgraduate dissertations and PhD theses can be excellent sources of information to support academic work. Though they are not typically cited, they are especially useful for their bibliographies, which can give you a relevant collection of references to help you get started on your research, and they can also present helpful examples of how to structure and format your writing.

To find out how to access theses submitted to Edinburgh Napier and other universities, both in the UK and internationally, please see our Finding Theses page.

The following resources can also be used to locate dissertations and theses (please note that full text access is often not provided):

To search for dissertations and theses held within specific countries or regions, the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations (NDLTD) provides an A-Z of countries/regions with links to resources at NDLTD Find EDTs.

Springer Protocols
Springer Protocols is the largest subscription-based electronic database of reproducible laboratory protocols in the Life and Biomedical Sciences.

Digimap
Digimap provides Ordnance Survey maps for the UK, as well as Environmental and Society map data. Please note that you will need to register for Digimap. How to register for Digimap

National Library of Scotland Maps
Access and view all the maps the National Library of Scotland have scanned as high-resolution, colour, zoomable images. The maps date between 1560 and 1964 and relate primarily to Scotland and include county and town maps, coastal charts, and detailed town plans.
Old Maps Online
Old Maps Online indexes over 400,000 maps made available by official archives, museums, and libraries from around the world.
OpenSeaMap
OpenSeaMap is an open source, worldwide project to create a free nautical chart.

Audiovisual Media

Anatomy and Physiology Online
Anatomy and Physiology Online has 20 interactive modules covering all body systems with interactive 3D anatomy and media rich physiology content.
Box of Broadcasts
BoB is an innovative online off-air TV and radio recording service for UK higher and further education institutions. It contains over a million items, including an archive of all BBC TV and radio content dating from 2007. You can also edit programmes into clips, create playlists, embed clips into Moodle, share items via social media and generate reference citations. Please note that our BoB licence is for educational purposes only, and only for use within the UK.
JSTOR Global Plants
GPI is an international undertaking by leading herbaria to digitize and make available plant type specimens and other holdings used by botanists.
Scotland on Screen
This website provides free access to films from the Scottish Screen Archive. The films document over a century of Scottish lives on film, with particular reference to social, economic and environmental change.
SCRAN
Scran is a charitable online learning service with over 370,000 images and media from museums, galleries, and archives.
Teachers TV (Education in Video)
Teachers TV provides access to all 3,530 globally-acclaimed instructional videos produced in 2008 by the United Kingdom's Department of Education to train and develop teachers' skills

News Media

Financial Times
FT.com is an international business and finance news website that is associated with the London based financial newspaper, Financial Times. Access note: Use your university email to register and remove the word 'live' from the email address.
Nexis Uni
Over 40,000 premium & online news and business sources.
Times Digital Archive
The Times Digital Archive is an online, full-text facsimile of more than 200 years of The Times.
Times Higher Education
The Times Higher Education (THE) magazine is published weekly and provides the latest news in the field of Higher Education. See Times Higher Education Institutional Set-up for access instructions.

The British Library
The BL has a collection of over 170 million items.The archives include newspapers, sound recordings, patents, prints and drawings, maps and manuscripts.
ENU Special Collections
Edinburgh Napier University has a number of outstanding collections which explore, explain and engage with the cultural history of Edinburgh and beyond.
National Library of Scotland
Explore the NLS extensive special collections and archives. The NLS is a growing collection of over 34 million print and digital items, including moving image, sound, rare books, maps, and photographs.