Resources for staff undertaking further studies
Last updated May 2021
Google Scholar
Google Scholar is Google's search engine for academic articles; not all of the articles are freely available. To limit the search to mostly freely available articles uncheck the include patents and include citations boxes in the options on the left of the search results, and add this to the end of your search: filetype:pdf OR filetype:html
If you are getting a lot of books in your results (they have [book] in front of the title) and don't want books, add -book to your search box.
Open Access (OA)
These are articles that are freely available. Some are freely available from the date of publication, others are published under a model where they become freely available after a certain amount of time. OA articles are better for some topics than others, and be aware that they are sometimes of dubious credibility (see the section on evaluating resources).
Directory of Open Access Journals - Select the articles checkbox under the search box. It helps if you limit the full text language to English.
CORE - Use the advanced search option on the left of the search results to refine your search.
BASE - On the advanced search page, uncheck the non-open access at the bottom right. If your results still contain a lot of non-OA sources, use the Access drop-down menu under the Refine Search Result list on the right of the search results, and select Open Access.
Google Books
Google Books is a project undertaken by Google to digitise the world's books. In most cases the book won't be available in full, but there are often substantial portions digitised.
Libraries
Think beyond your uni library- you may also find valuable resources at your local library or the State Library. Council and uni libraries can also organise inter-library loans if there is a book you need that they do not have in their collection.
Government documents
There is a wealth of information online published by the government and accessible via Google. Use these search operators to find it: (see section on advanced searching for more information)
site:.gov.au
filetype:pdf
site:[specific url of site]
ABS
The best way to search the ABS is through Google, using the site:abs.gov.au site operator. Check the date of the ABS page to ensure you are using the most recent data.
ERIC
ERIC is a free access education database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Use the check boxes to limit your search to peer reviewed and to articles with the full text available.
Sweetsearch
Sweetsearch is a search engine designed to find results that are more relevant to students than Google's results. It favours American results, so if you need Australian pages add site:.au to your search.
iTunes U/podcasts
iTunes U is a place to access recorded university courses, however iTunes will be discontinuing this service at the end of 2021 (watch this space to see if an alternative source of educational recordings appears in its place). There are also many podcasts created by scholars and experts and you can find these wherever you get your podcasts.
Google Scholar is Google's search engine for academic articles; not all of the articles are freely available. To limit the search to mostly freely available articles uncheck the include patents and include citations boxes in the options on the left of the search results, and add this to the end of your search: filetype:pdf OR filetype:html
If you are getting a lot of books in your results (they have [book] in front of the title) and don't want books, add -book to your search box.
Open Access (OA)
These are articles that are freely available. Some are freely available from the date of publication, others are published under a model where they become freely available after a certain amount of time. OA articles are better for some topics than others, and be aware that they are sometimes of dubious credibility (see the section on evaluating resources).
Directory of Open Access Journals - Select the articles checkbox under the search box. It helps if you limit the full text language to English.
CORE - Use the advanced search option on the left of the search results to refine your search.
BASE - On the advanced search page, uncheck the non-open access at the bottom right. If your results still contain a lot of non-OA sources, use the Access drop-down menu under the Refine Search Result list on the right of the search results, and select Open Access.
Google Books
Google Books is a project undertaken by Google to digitise the world's books. In most cases the book won't be available in full, but there are often substantial portions digitised.
Libraries
Think beyond your uni library- you may also find valuable resources at your local library or the State Library. Council and uni libraries can also organise inter-library loans if there is a book you need that they do not have in their collection.
Government documents
There is a wealth of information online published by the government and accessible via Google. Use these search operators to find it: (see section on advanced searching for more information)
site:.gov.au
filetype:pdf
site:[specific url of site]
ABS
The best way to search the ABS is through Google, using the site:abs.gov.au site operator. Check the date of the ABS page to ensure you are using the most recent data.
ERIC
ERIC is a free access education database sponsored by the U.S. Department of Education. Use the check boxes to limit your search to peer reviewed and to articles with the full text available.
Sweetsearch
Sweetsearch is a search engine designed to find results that are more relevant to students than Google's results. It favours American results, so if you need Australian pages add site:.au to your search.
iTunes U/podcasts
iTunes U is a place to access recorded university courses, however iTunes will be discontinuing this service at the end of 2021 (watch this space to see if an alternative source of educational recordings appears in its place). There are also many podcasts created by scholars and experts and you can find these wherever you get your podcasts.
Using databases
Databases are collections of academic and peer-reviewed articles. Use your uni library website to access the databases they subscribe to. If you want to access other databases, you can register your local library card to access the State Library's subscription databases, we have instructions on how to do that.
Databases are collections of academic and peer-reviewed articles. Use your uni library website to access the databases they subscribe to. If you want to access other databases, you can register your local library card to access the State Library's subscription databases, we have instructions on how to do that.
Advanced search skills
There are tricks you can use in most databases and search engines to search for specific things or return more relevant search results. If you want a more detailed explanation of these please see Kate Hewson.
There are tricks you can use in most databases and search engines to search for specific things or return more relevant search results. If you want a more detailed explanation of these please see Kate Hewson.
A helpful trick...
If you are using a long PDF, document or website you can search for a particular word using ctrl+f (or command+f on a Mac).
If you are using a long PDF, document or website you can search for a particular word using ctrl+f (or command+f on a Mac).
Reading academic articles There are two main types of academic articles- scientific articles and humanities articles. We have information on how to read a humanities article in our resource on how to use an academic article, and we have a guide for reading a scientific article on our extension science research page (use the links at the top of the page to jump straight to it). |
Academic skills (writing, study skills, note-taking, etc) Your uni website or the uni library website will probably have a section of resources on these skills if you need to brush up, but these websites are also valuable: Purdue Online Writing Lab - Use the menu on the left to navigate. This resource is a gold mine with guides on a huge range of academic writing styles. Study skills for university - Monash University 'How-to' assessment guides - Western Sydney University Academic Style - Deakin University Editing checklist - UNSW How to edit and proofread your essays like a pro - this. |
Referencing
Your uni library will have a referencing guide for the style of referencing you need to use. It is important to apply this consistently. It will save you a lot of stress if you reference as you go, rather than leaving it all until the end. Always make a note of the bibliographic information for any source you read, so you have the information if you need to include it in your bibliography. If you are using a source that isn't included in the referencing guide provided by your uni, you can find the correct format by searching: [source type] [referencing style] site:.edu |
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