LibGuides: Computing and Games Design: News, standards & statistics

News articles

Newspapers are a good source for the very latest information. However, they are aimed at a general audience, and do not tend to be very technical or detailed. They are not peer-reviewed and can be biased.

Nexis This link opens in a new window
Nexis is a major full text database for global news and business information. It gives access to over 35,000 sources, with more than 12,000 international news sources including UK daily and regional newspapers, current affairs magazines, and professional journals.

Alternative link - please note that, the first time you use this link, you will be asked to enter your first name and last name in order to access Nexis.
Nexis also includes 80 sources of company information, plus thousands of biographies of government officials, politicians, celebrities, investors and business contacts.

Standards

Standards are documents that establish a common technical specification, so products and processes can work safely, reliably and consistently.

IEEE Xplore This link opens in a new window
IEEE Xplore provides access to the collection of electrical engineering, electronics and computer science journals and conferences published by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) and the Institution of Engineering and Technology (IET). The database also includes all active standards from the IEEE.
IEEE Xplore
In the database IEEE Xplore there are now over 3.8 million articles on computing related topics. There are thousands of early access articles that you can only find by searching IEEE Xplore (not by searching through Google Scholar or Library Search).
British Standards Online This link opens in a new window
From 19th December 2020, British Standards Online will require you to install a plug-in to read it standards. We will provide further details as we learn more.
PDF copies of virtually all current standards produced by the British Standards Institution with technical specifications covering products, processes and practices for all areas of engineering, industry, food and work, as well as standardised glossaries of terms..
British standards are only applicable in the UK: however, some British standards have been adopted from standards produced by international bodies, such as ISO or CEN. Such standards will be indicated in their standard number - in the case of the previous example, BS ISO and BS EN respectively - and will be applicable outside the UK in the countries which belong to those bodies. Please note that the database can be searched either by standard number or by keyword, but not both: so if your search fails the first time, make sure that the right box is ticked under the search box.

International Telecommunications Union Publications
The ITU Electronic Bookshop provides ITU-R and IRU-T standards on radio and telecommunications. Three standards can be downloaded free of charge if you register.

Statistical data

Sometimes you may find it useful to find statistics to support your work.

You may find statistics on a specific computing topic in articles about that topic.

If you are looking for general statistics, the sources below may help.

Office for National Statistics This link opens in a new window
The main gateway to UK official statistics. Provides direct access to tables of data, full text publications and the latest official releases. Covers Britain's economy, population and society at national and regional levels. Updated daily.

World Bank little data book on ICT
Key data on information and communications technologies, including economic and social context, sector structure and sector performance for countries across the world

Business Source Premier This link opens in a new window
Full text coverage of trade and academic journals covering all business disciplines, including marketing, management, accounting, finance and economics. Also includes industry and company profiles and SWOT analyses, country economic data and market research.
World Factbook This link opens in a new window
Broad overviews of countries, briefly describing geography, people, government, economy, communications, transport, military and transnational issues.
Includes images of national flags and reference maps of continents and regions. Country profiles include both written and statistical data.
UK Data Service (registration required) This link opens in a new window
UK and international survey and statistical data drawn from a range of respected sources including: United Nations, IMF, OECD, World Bank, International Labour Organization (ILO), International Energy Agency (IEA), Eurostat and UNIDO. Free registration required to access some parts of the database.

Statistics about products, services and companies may be found using the market research databases:

Mintel Academic Reports This link opens in a new window
Mintel is a leading name in Market Research, the Library provides access to reports published in the last two years for leading UK industries including: Technology, Media, Household Care, Health and Wellbeing, Food and Drink, Beauty and Personal Care, Automotive.
The Library subscription also covers Mintel Market Sizes which provides global market data such as market size, market share, market forecasts and segmentation.