Researching for your CAFS project
Updated Term 4 2022
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Helpful information
How to read an academic article (there is advice at the bottom of this page about where to find academic articles)
How to use the SLASA Referencing Generator
How to read an academic article (there is advice at the bottom of this page about where to find academic articles)
How to use the SLASA Referencing Generator
Finding information
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CAFS research planner
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Is the information reliable?
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Primary research
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Search hacks
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Literature reviews
What is a literature review?
A critical analysis of written sources on a certain topic.
REMEMBER: “Literature” can mean any written source- articles, statistics, reports, interviews, brochures etc.
Why do we write literature reviews?
How to write a literature review
DEFINITIONS:
Analysis: Breaking down and discussing the ideas in an article
Synthesis: Making connections between the ideas in different articles
What a literature review IS NOT
For more information...
Literature reviews - The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Literature review guidelines - Purdue Online Writing Lab
Sources consulted
ANU Academic Skills & Learning Centre n.d., 'Literature reviews', Australian National University, accessed 25 October 2018.
<http://www.anu.edu.au/students/learning-development/research-writing/literature-reviews>.
Monash University 2018, 'Introduction to literature reviews', Monash University, accessed 25 October 2018. <https://www.monash.edu/rlo/graduate-research-writing/write-the-thesis/introduction-literature-reviews>.
QUT 2018, 'Writing a literature review', QUT, accessed 25 October 2018. <https://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/litreview.jsp>.
What is a literature review?
A critical analysis of written sources on a certain topic.
REMEMBER: “Literature” can mean any written source- articles, statistics, reports, interviews, brochures etc.
Why do we write literature reviews?
- To show what’s been written on a topic
- To provide an overview of key ideas
- To identify patterns
- To identify gaps in the research
- To provide a solid background to a research topic
How to write a literature review
- Gather the articles you are reviewing
- Read them and make note of the arguments made by the authors
- Draw a table or mind map if it helps you
- Analyse the literature - focus on:
- Key ideas
- Major patterns
- How credible is the author?
- Similarities and differences between your articles
- Are there gaps in the literature on a particular topic?
- Structure the literature review like an essay:
- Introduction: Why you are writing the review, what ideas you will cover, how you chose your articles etc.
- Body: Have a paragraph for each different idea, synthesise and critically analyse your sources, explain how your IRP fits into the existing research on this topic
- Conclusion: Main agreements or disagreements in the literature, gaps in the literature or areas for further research, how your research builds upon or differs from the existing research etc.
- Bibliography. You can use the SLASA Referencing Generator.
DEFINITIONS:
Analysis: Breaking down and discussing the ideas in an article
Synthesis: Making connections between the ideas in different articles
What a literature review IS NOT
- It’s not a book review
- It's not a summary of your articles
- It's not a list of all the articles you read for the assignment
- It's not an essay describing each of your articles one by one
For more information...
Literature reviews - The Writing Center, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
Literature review guidelines - Purdue Online Writing Lab
Sources consulted
ANU Academic Skills & Learning Centre n.d., 'Literature reviews', Australian National University, accessed 25 October 2018.
<http://www.anu.edu.au/students/learning-development/research-writing/literature-reviews>.
Monash University 2018, 'Introduction to literature reviews', Monash University, accessed 25 October 2018. <https://www.monash.edu/rlo/graduate-research-writing/write-the-thesis/introduction-literature-reviews>.
QUT 2018, 'Writing a literature review', QUT, accessed 25 October 2018. <https://www.citewrite.qut.edu.au/write/litreview.jsp>.
Places online you can go to for information
SweetSearch is a search engine designed for use by students and it is designed to give results that are more trustworthy and more useful for schoolwork than Google's results.
For academic articles...
If you are already a member of your local library, you can register that library card to access the State Library's e-resources, where you can find peer-reviewed articles. The best databases for a range of topics are EBSCO, Proquest and Informit. We have a guide on using the State Library's databases.
Google Scholar is another source of academic articles, although it can be hard to find freely available articles. Uncheck patents and citations, and add filetype:PDF to the end of your search if you're struggling to find articles you can access. If you're getting a lot of book citations, add
-book to the end of your search.
The Conversation is a website of articles written by academics, but in a journalistic style that is easier to read than academic articles.
For high quality journalism...
ABC news
The Guardian
The Atlantic (only six free articles per month)
Other places to research online
Trove - This is the National Library of Australia's search portal, where you can search the library catalogue as well as all their online collections. If you need historical sources from Australia this is an excellent resource.
Australian Bureau of Statistics - For data and statistics on all aspects of Australian society.
WIRED - Technology news (only four free articles per month).
Australian Institute of Family Studies - The Australian government's key research body in the area of family wellbeing.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - The Australian government's national agency for statistics and data on health and welfare.
SweetSearch is a search engine designed for use by students and it is designed to give results that are more trustworthy and more useful for schoolwork than Google's results.
For academic articles...
If you are already a member of your local library, you can register that library card to access the State Library's e-resources, where you can find peer-reviewed articles. The best databases for a range of topics are EBSCO, Proquest and Informit. We have a guide on using the State Library's databases.
Google Scholar is another source of academic articles, although it can be hard to find freely available articles. Uncheck patents and citations, and add filetype:PDF to the end of your search if you're struggling to find articles you can access. If you're getting a lot of book citations, add
-book to the end of your search.
The Conversation is a website of articles written by academics, but in a journalistic style that is easier to read than academic articles.
For high quality journalism...
ABC news
The Guardian
The Atlantic (only six free articles per month)
Other places to research online
Trove - This is the National Library of Australia's search portal, where you can search the library catalogue as well as all their online collections. If you need historical sources from Australia this is an excellent resource.
Australian Bureau of Statistics - For data and statistics on all aspects of Australian society.
WIRED - Technology news (only four free articles per month).
Australian Institute of Family Studies - The Australian government's key research body in the area of family wellbeing.
Australian Institute of Health and Welfare - The Australian government's national agency for statistics and data on health and welfare.
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