EBSCOhost manages SPORTDiscus, a collection of abstracts and information sources relating to sport and sports medicine. The resource contains:
- abstracts (i.e. descriptions and short summaries of texts)
- articles published by academic journals
- chapters of books (i.e. digitised book chapters or chapters of e-books)
- e-journal articles
- articles published by non-academic magazines
- internationally published texts stored as government reports
- PhD theses and postgraduate dissertations
Although all of the source records include publication details (and most include abstracts in addition), many of them do not include a source attachment or link. Sources are attached in the form of PDF files, or linked as web-pages.
SGS students and staff can gain access to SPORTDiscus from the Databases page of the SGS LRC website. In order to do this, please click either on the phrase “Ebsco SPORTDiscus” or on the image-icon immediately below it.
Then follow the instructions given on the Ebsco SPORTDiscus page.
Near the bottom of the EBSCOhost Choose Databases page, click on the “SPORTDiscus with Full Text” button.
If you want highly particular information at this point, click on the “More information” icon, which is below the summary of the database.
You then see a window which provides a comprehensive guide to the resource.
When you have clicked on the “SPORTDiscus with Full Text” icon, you see a basic search box. Enter words or a phrase (e.g. “sport psychology”) and press the ‘enter’ key or click the Search icon, in order to do a basic search. You then see the first page of a search results list. Scroll down the page, reviewing the first ten search results, which have been suggested as the most relevant. You can view the subsequent pages of the list by clicking on the arrow or number icons at the bottom of the window.
Click on the “PDF full text” or “HTML full text” icons to gain full access to the sources.
In some of the records listed, you can choose to view images and references included in sources. In order to do view images, click on the thumbnail images or icons which allow you to “show all […] images”.
In order to view lists of references (i.e. sources cited), click on the “cited references” buttons.
On the left-hand side of the window are ten search refinement tools. You can use these to refine the focus of your basic search. The addition of a ‘thesaurus term’ would broaden the scope of your search. A “thesaurus term” is a search term (i.e. a word or a phrase) which has been linked to a large number of sources. (In the Refine Results section of the window, the bracketed numbers indicate the total number of sources included in categories or linked to terms.) Click on the tab labelled “Subject: Thesaurus Term” to add a thesaurus term. You see a list of thesaurus terms that relate to the subject of your search (e.g. “motivation”, which relates to “sport psychology”).
Click on one of the thesaurus terms listed. It has been added to your search term.
The results list includes sources linked to the thesaurus term.
The other search refinement tools narrow the scope of your search. Source Types, for example, narrows your search, directing you to sources of one type, e.g. non-academic magazine articles.
The resource allows you to browse publications (i.e. academic journals, e-journals and non-academic magazines). In order to do so, click on the Publications icon at the top of the window.
The Publications search box is below the basic search box.
Enter a search term in the Publications search box. Below the box, there is a menu of search options. When you choose each one of the search options, you discover the relevance of search results in a different way. The “alphabetical” option has been selected – its circle checked automatically.
That option lists search results in an order based on the similarity between your search term and the title of the publication. The “by subject and description” option lists search results in an order based on the number of times your search term occurs in source records; the “match any words” option lists results in an order based on the rate at which the individual words of your term occur in the records.
The resource also allows you to browse thesaurus terms – click on the “thesaurus” icon to do so. Use the “browsing: sports thesaurus” box to search for a thesaurus term.
Then follow the on-screen instructions, checking the boxes adjacent to each one of the terms you want to select, choosing a link word from the drop-down menu and clicking the “add” icon. If you have chosen “or” as the link word, the search results list will include source records, each one of which the search engine associates with one of the thesaurus terms chosen. If you have chosen “and” as the link word, however, the results list will include records associated with all of the thesaurus terms chosen. Moreover, if you have chosen “not” as the link word, the list will include records linked to the first term chosen, but those associated with the second term will be excluded.
You see your thesaurus terms in the search box at the top of the window.
Click on the Search icon or press the ‘enter’ key to conduct the search.
Additionally, the SPORTDiscus allows you to search for citations. This function can help you to find sources which relate to your current reading. In order to search for citations, click on the “cited references” icon at the top of the window. Firstly, you need to specify the source or sources you aim to find cited in reference lists – appropriately fill all or any number of the search boxes, and click on the Search icon. You see the search results, a list of references.
Secondly, you need to search for sources in which the specified source or sources have been cited – check the box or boxes adjacent to the specified source or sources, and click on the Find Citing Articles icon.
You then see a list of search results, records of the sources which cite the source or sources specified.
The resource gives you a folder in which you can save sources, write and save notes, save search results and receive alerts about new sources. In order to use your folder, click on the “sign in” icon at the top of the window; then click on the “create a new account” icon, fill the boxes (as instructed) and click on the “save changes” icon. Now, you can add source records to your folder – click the folder addition icons in the source records listed in your search results.
You can also customise (i.e. name and describe) your folder. Click on the “?” icon to open a window which explains this function.
Then click on the “New” button, fill the boxes and click on the Save icon to customise your folder. You can then create other folders and place those inside or outside of the ones you have previously created – click on the New icon again. Now you can “move” the folder to My Custom (the general space) or to one of the folders you have previously created.
This allows you to control the organisation of your folders. You can also share your folders with other members of institutions which pay to enable access to SPORTDiscus (e.g. SGS college) – to do so, click on the “+” box at the left-hand side of a folder icon, and click on the word “share”.
Fill the boxes and click on the Invite icon.
Finally, SPORTDiscus enables you to manipulate individual articles. To copy or move articles to new or previously created folders, check the boxes adjacent to source records, click on the drop-down menu labelled “copy to”, or on the one labelled “move to”; then select a folder.
To print, email and save articles, follow the links on the right-hand side of the window.
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