SCIE Athens FAQs
Eligibility
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Q. I am a social worker employed by a voluntary sector organisation – can I apply for a SCIE Athens account?Open
A. At present the SCIE Athens service is only offered to social care staff employed by local authorities in England and Wales in accordance with the terms agreed with the NHS in relation to access to the NHS core content collection. Our licences with the publishers of journals purchased for the SCIE service have also been negotiated on this basis. We are not able to give access to social workers employed in the private, independent or voluntary sectors. Social work students should be able to access Athens through their higher education institutions.
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Q. Can I use my NHS or university Athens account to access SCIE's Athens service?Open
A. No – SCIE Athens is a separate service managed by SCIE and access to the resources purchased for it are only open to SCIE Athens account holders.
However, if you are eligible for a SCIE account – for example, a student on placement with a local authority with a gov.uk email address you can apply for SCIE Athens for use while you are working for the LA.
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Q. I work for a local authority in Wales – can I apply for SCIE Athens?Open
A. SCIE's service is now available to social care staff in Wales who have a .gov.uk email address. For more information about the resources available and how to register go to SCIE Athens pages on Social Care Online
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Q. I am a social worker in Northern Ireland or Scotland – can I apply for SCIE Athens?Open
A. SCIE’s service is only available to social care staff in England and Wales.
Health and social care staff working in Northern Ireland are eligible to use electronic information services provided by Queens University Belfast and delivered through the Health on the Net Northern Ireland website.
Social workers in Scotland can make use of a range of similar resources available through Social Services Knowledge Scotland.
If you work in Wales go to the NHS e-library for health.
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Q. I work as a social worker for a Local Authority. I am seconded to a health trust and have an NHS e mail account, not a local government e mail account. I know that I can access Athens via the NHS, but I would like to access resources which are more relevant to social care. Is this possible?Open
Unfortunately the SCIE service is based on access to a .gov.uk email address so unless your LA can provide this you will not be able to access the SCIE resources whilst on secondment. If you do have both a LA email address and a NHS email account you can register for both Athens services. As another possible option The College of Social Work also offers an electronic book and journals service to members and if you are interested in joining The College you can find out more from their membership page.
Username/password enquiries
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Q. I can’t remember my username and passwordOpen
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Q. How do I change my email address / password?Open
A. You can amend your personal details by logging into/visiting MySCIE.
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Q. When does my account expire?Open
A. SCIE Athens accounts are issued for 12 months. Once your account is within 4 weeks of expiry you will receive an email notifying you of the expiry date and instructions on how to renew your account.
Resource enquiries
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Q. What journals are available in full text?Open
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Q. I have a SCIE Athens account but I can't access the full text of the particular journal I'm looking for - why not?Open
A. Your Athens account gives you access to the content you are entitled to use – which has been negotiated for all users of the service by SCIE. SCIE Athens coverage includes access to the journals and databases held in the NHS core content collection and 17 key social work journals purchased by SCIE. The journal you are looking for may be a title we have not been able to purchase.
We are evaluating SCIE Athens content and will be considering additional titles for purchase. If you have a suggestion for a journal you feel would be useful please contact us.
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Q. I can view the journal title I want but I can't access the particular article I'm interested in – why is this?Open
A. This may be because, although SCIE has purchased access to the journal title, the date of the article you are looking for falls outside the period for which we have purchased coverage and it is therefore not accessible.
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Q. Can the SCIE Athens give me access to online social care books?Open
A. Yes, our Dawsonera eBook service is free to use for SCIE Athens account holders.
It offers access to a range of current titles in social work, sociology and social welfare.
Log onto the Dawsonera Portal using your Athens username and password, select a title from the catalogue and put in a request to “rent” it for a period of between 1-3 weeks.
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Q. Can I read a Dawson ebook on my Kindle?Open
A. Accessing Dawson content on Kindles is not something that is currently possible on the Dawson technical platform - Dawson are working on this and hope to have a solution facilitating Kindle use in place by the end of the year.
In the meantime electronic books have to be read either on the Dawson website or downloaded (in Word or PDF format) to a laptop or memory stick. Downloaded material is available for a limited period only.
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