Guides Home: Maths & Stats: Home

Start here

Search the library's print and online resources to find books, ebooks, articles, recordings and more.

Here is a short guide to help you get started: Multisearch: A Quick Overview

The library catalogue lists physical items and ebooks purchased by the library.

Use Multisearch to search the library catalogue and online collections at the same time.

Google Scholar can be a useful search tool when starting your research, but it should not be the only tool you use. However, while you know you can rely on MTU library resources, it is up to you to make sure content you find on Google Scholar is safe to use for your assignments and research.

Did you know you can link Google Scholar to MTU Kerry library so it always tells you when the full text of an article is available in the library?

Here is our Link MTU Kerry Library to Google Scholar guide.

Use the A-Z of Online Journals to find a specific journal or journals on a specific subject.

Searching the library's online resources is a bit different to searching Google. Here are some tips to get you started:

List keywords for each of the main concepts or ideas in your research question
What is the impact of global warming on Adelie penguins on the Antartic continent
Enter keywords not sentences into the search box
Join keywords using AND
- global warming AND penguins
Use OR between words with similar meanings and put OR'd words in brackets
- Adelie penguins AND (global warming OR climate change)
Use quotation marks to look for phrases
- Adelie penguings AND "global warming"
Try searching with different combinations of keywords and see what works best.
Use your search results to find new keywords

Things to think about when making your list of keywords

Synonyms (words that mean the same thing)
- drug abuse, drug addction or substance abuse
Acronyms (abbreviations)
- GP or General Practitioner, HSE or Health and Safety Executive
Specialist language
- narcotics vs drugs
Word endings
- addict* will find addict, addicts, addicted, addiction, but child will not find children.
Phrases (looks for words together and in order)
- "controlled substance"
UK vs American Spelling
- colour vs color, analyse vs analyze, centre vs centre

For more search help, check out out the Effective Searching Module of the Assignment Toolkit. and our Top Tips for Smarter Searching guide for more search hints

Information Sources for Maths & Stats

Use Multisearch to find books and ebooks. Here is a selection of print and electronic books available through the library.

Mathematical Statistics with Mathematica by Colin Rose; Murray Smith This text and software package presents a unified approach for doing mathematical statistics with Mathematica. The mathStatica software empowers the student with the ability to solve difficult problems. The professional statistician should be able to tackle tricky multivariate distributions, generating functions, inversion theorems, symbolic maximum likelihood estimation, unbiased estimation, and the checking and correcting of textbook formulae. This is the ideal companion for researchers and students in statistics, econometrics, engineering, physics, psychometrics, economics, finance, biometrics, and the social sciences. The mathStatica CD-ROM includes: mathStatica - the applications pack for mathematical statistics, custom Mathematica palettes, live interactive book that is identical to the printed text, online help, and a trial version of Mathematica 4.0.
Call Number: 519.50285
ISBN: 0387952349
Publication Date: 2002-03-08
Schaum's Outline of Statistics by Murray R. Spiegel The guides that help students study faster, learn better-and get top grades Updated to match the latest developments in the field of statistics, this new edition includes dozens of new problems showing output from EXCEL, SAS, SPSS, STATISTIX, and MINITAB, all of which are in general use for in college courses on statistics.
Call Number: 519.5 SPI
ISBN: 9780070602342
Publication Date: 1989-01-01
Differential Equations and Their Applications by F. John (Editor); Jerrold E. Marsden (Editor); Martin Golubitsky; W. Jager (Editor); Lawrence Sirovich (Editor); Martin Braun There are two major changes in the Fourth Edition of Differential Equations and Their Applications. The first concerns the computer programs in this text. In keeping with recent trends in computer science, we have replaced all the APL programs with Pascal and C programs. The Pascal programs appear in the text in place of the APL programs, where they are followed by the Fortran programs, while the C programs appear in Appendix C. Mathematics is playing an ever more important role in the physical and biological sciences, provoking a blurring of boundaries between scientific disciplines and a resurgence of interest in the modern as well as the classical techniques of applied mathematics. This renewal of interest, both in research and teaching, has led to the establishment of the series: Texts in Applied Mathematics (TAM).  The development of new courses is a natural consequence of a high Ievel of excitement on the research frontieras newer techniques, such as numerical and symbolic computer systems, dynamical systems, and chaos, mix with and reinforce the traditional methods of applied mathematics. Thus, the purpose of this textbook series is to meet the current and future needs of these advances and encourage the teaching of new courses. TAM will publish textbooks suitable for use in advanced undergraduate and beginning graduate courses, and will complement the Applied Mathematical Sciences (AMS) series, which will focus on advanced textbooks and research Ievel monographs. 
Call Number: 515.35
ISBN: 0387978941
Publication Date: 1992-12-05
Numbers and Geometry by John Stillwell; F. W. Gehring (Editor); P. R. Halmos (Editor) NUMBERS AND GEOMETRY is a beautiful and relatively elementary account of a part of mathematics where three main fields--algebra, analysis and geometry--meet. The aim of this book is to give a broad view of these subjects at the level of calculus, without being a calculus (or a pre-calculus) book. Its roots are in arithmetic and geometry, the two opposite poles of mathematics, and the source of historic conceptual conflict. The resolution of this conflict, and its role in the development of mathematics, is one of the main stories in the book. The key is algebra, which brings arithmetic and geometry together, and allows them to flourish and branch out in new directions. Stillwell has chosen an array of exciting and worthwhile topics and elegantly combines mathematical history with mathematics. He believes that most of mathematics is about numbers, curves and functions, and the links between these concepts can be suggested by a thorough study of simple examples, such as the circle and the square. This book covers the main ideas of Euclid--geometry, arithmetic and the theory of real numbers, but with 2000 years of extra insights attached. NUMBERS AND GEOMETRY presupposes only high school algebra and therefore can be read by any well prepared student entering university. Moreover, this book will be popular with graduate students and researchers in mathematics because it is such an attractive and unusual treatment of fundamental topics. Also, it will serve admirably in courses aimed at giving students from other areas a view of some of the basic ideas in mathematics. There is a set of well-written exercises at the end of each section, so new ideas can be instantly tested and reinforced.
Call Number: 510
ISBN: 0387982892
Publication Date: 1997-10-30
The Beginner's Guide to Mathematica® Version 3 by Jerry Glynn; Theodore W. Gray This revision of the successful textbook The Beginner's Guide to Mathematica teaches new Mathematica users some of the important basics of the latest release of this powerful software tool: these include using the typesetting features, programming palettes, defining functions, creating graphs and notebooks, and applying useful problem solving techniques. Using their skills as Mathematica experts and teachers, the authors provide a brisk but careful tutorial for the Mathematica novice. From the fundamentals of installing and running Mathematica on your computer, through to tips on how to get the most from the advanced programming features, the presentation maintains its concise and knowledgeable tone, providing indexes for both concepts and Mathematica function names. This book will be a valuable tool for both students and individual Mathematica users.
Call Number: 510.285
ISBN: 0521622026
Publication Date: 1997-09-28

Use Multisearch to find journals and ejournals.

Here is a selection of print and ejournals available through the library. Click the "i" icon to quickly see if the journal is available in print or online

Journal of Mathematical Physics Journal of Mathematical Physics features content in all areas of mathematical physics. Articles focus on areas of research that illustrate the application of mathematics to problems in physics, the development of mathematical methods suitable for such applications, and the formulation of physical theories.
Qualitative Research Journal Qualitative Research was established in 2001 by Sara Delamont and Paul Atkinson. The journal was founded to offer a critical and reflective gaze on methodological approaches, understandings and engagements, and worked to counter tendencies that imagined qualitative research could become a taken for granted set of precepts and procedures.
Communications in Statistics - Theory and Methods Publishes papers that make theoretical and methodological advances in probability and statistics, including new applications of methods.
Mathematical Biosciences Mathematical Biosciences publishes work providing new concepts or new understanding of biological systems using mathematical models, or methodological articles likely to find application to multiple biological systems. Papers are expected to present a major research finding of broad significance for the biological sciences, or mathematical biology. Mathematical Biosciences welcomes original research articles, letters, reviews and perspectives.

Here are some website you may find useful. Remember to always check the quality and reliability of resources you find on websites.

The Irish Mathematical Society The Irish Mathematical Society aims to further Mathematics and Mathematical research in Ireland. Its membership is international, but it mainly represents mathematicians in Universities and other third level institutes in Ireland.
Mathtutor To bridge the gap from school to university study, to revise or find the maths topic you missed, you will want to meet mathtutor. Video tutorials, with diagnostics, summary text and exercises, take you through more than eighty topics in the way you choose. Arranged on seven DVD-Rom disks, you can view and work with them online
Stats Tutor statstutor was developed by staff from Loughborough and Coventry Universities and also the sigma network (http://sigma-network.ac.uk/), with contributions from the Royal Statistical Society's Centre for Statistical Education as well as a number of other colleagues from other HE instutions in the UK. This was part of a pilot project to investigate the potential for the production of different types of learning materials that could be used free of charge by students, lecturers and everyone looking for post-16 statistics help.
Wolfram Mathworld MathWorld is an online mathematics reference work, created and largely written by Eric W. Weisstein. It is sponsored by and licensed to Wolfram Research, Inc. and was partially funded by the National Science Foundation's National Science Digital Library grant to the University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign.
The European Mathematical Information Service The European Mathematical Information Service (EMIS) was founded in 1995 as the central portal for electronic math resources in Europe. Since then, with the support of the European Mathematical Society and many publishers, FIZ Karlsruhe has developed the largest open access electronic library in mathematics ELibM as the core of EMIS, as well as many more useful resources.

Use these databases to do a more focused search for journal articles that relate to your music topic. Click on the "i" icon to see a description for each database.

You can find a full list of library e-resources on the library's A-Z of Online Resources page.

ASABE This link opens in a new window The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is a professional and technical organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food, and biological systems. Membership in the Society is open to engineers and non-engineers alike.
The American Society of Agricultural and Biological Engineers is a professional and technical organization dedicated to the advancement of engineering applicable to agricultural, food, and biological systems. Membership in the Society is open to engineers and non-engineers alike.
Ebsco-Host This link opens in a new window Ebsco is the world's most valuable and comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database.
Science Direct This link opens in a new window From foundational science to new and novel research, discover our large collection of Physical Sciences and Engineering publications, covering a range of disciplines, from the theoretical to the applied.
Taylor & Francis This link opens in a new window Search and explore the millions of quality, peer-reviewed journal articles published under the Taylor & Francis, Routledge and Dove Medical Press imprints.

Research Help

Need an idea? - Here are some suggested places to start:

Multisearch - limit your results by subject or topic.
Google Scholar - useful for finding existing research.

Not sure how to develop your topic?

Watch this online tutorial from Sage Research Methods : Defining a topic.
Visit the Assignment Planning & Re ading module of the Assignment Toolkit:

Referencing is an essential skill for academic writing. It is important to acknowledge the work of others to avoid plagiarism.

We recommend you complete the following online tutorials from the MTU Libraries Assignment Toolkit.

Here is a link to some very useful Referencing Guides covering all of the most popular referencing styles. In this section, you'll also find information on Referencing Software.

Look for a peer-review limiter on your search results page.

How do I know if a journal is peer-reviewed?

If you are searching a library database such as CINAHL, use the peer-reviewed limiter.
Google the journal home page; this information is almost always located on the publisher's website.
Ask a librarian for help.

Be careful, however! Not all articles within a peer-reviewed journal are peer-reviewed articles.

TIP: Peer-reviewed articles will have an abstract and a list of references.

We recommend you complete the following online tutorials from the MTU Library Assignment Toolkit.