The purpose of this publication is to provide you with a starting point to finding resources in for commencing research students. The listings of sources provided here are not intended to be comprehensive and students should certainly investigate additional sources and strategies for their information research. Research students are expected to conduct rigorous and thorough literature reviews and thus their information research must reflect the same rigor and thoroughness.
- Search strategy
- Books
- Theses and dissertations
- Bibliographic databases
- Internet resources
- Evaluating information
- Related guides and information
Beginning information research for a literature review or bibliography should always begin with careful consideration and design of the search strategy. The search strategy consists of more than the title or topic of your research and must take into account the scope and design of the source you are searching. Therefore, your search strategy must be flexible enough to change to suit the database or site you are searching.
Designing your search strategy should follow these basic steps:
- Detailed description of your topic
- Selection of key concepts or keywords
- For each concept or keyword - consider alternative spelling; synonyms; alternative phrases; sub-aspects of the concept (how to break it down)
- List out all the alternatives for each concept or keyword
- Consider how you might combine the concepts or keywords so that you obtain the most relevant information for your needs
- Keep this search strategy information handy, so you can use it when searching the Library Catalogue, databases and Internet sources and modify your searching to suit the scope and design of the source
Search design may also take into consideration the following advanced search strategies:
| Search Strategy | Description | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Controlled Vocabulary | An indexing system in which the indexer, in the process of assigning descriptors or subject headings to the works indexed, selects from a list of preferred terms. Can identify 'Controlled Vocabulary' terms provided within either an 'Index', 'Thesaurus' or 'List of Subject Headings' included within a database. |
In the QUT Library Catalogue, the controlled vocabulary is the Subject Headings, based on the Library of Congress Subject Headings. In the database ACM Digital Library, the controlled vocabulary is called index terms, based on their own Computing Classification System. |
| Boolean Operators | Boolean logic links ideas in order to narrow or expand a database search by using the operators AND, OR, or NOT. AND: Narrows the search and retrieves only articles containing both terms. OR: Broadens the search and retrieves all articles including either term, such as synonyms. NOT: Narrows the search and excludes all articles that include one term, but may also eliminate relevant material. |
To find articles containing both of the terms, your search would be: "multimedia AND design" To find articles containing synonyms or alternative terms, your search would be: "machine intelligence OR artificial intelligence" To eliminate a term from your search, your search would be: "multimedia NOT web" |
| Parentheses (Brackets) | Parentheses are used to 'nest' subsets of your search within the search strategy to ensure the search occurs in the correct order. This may be important when trying to find synonyms or alternative terms within a complex search strategy. |
To find articles about international marketing that also discuss asian markets, your search strategy could be: "(international marketing OR global marketing) AND asian markets" |
| Truncation | Truncation allows you to cut a word back to the 'stem', in order to find all variations of the word. This can help with finding plural terms as well as other variations. The truncation symbol will vary between databases. Do not truncate too far to the left as it may make the retrieval set of records too large and perhaps irrelevant. |
In ProQuest databases, the truncation symbol is a '?', so to find all variations of the word "intelligence", your search would be: "intelligen?" - this will find "intelligence"; "intelligent", and probably more terms. |
| Wildcards | Wildcards are similar to truncation, but are placed within words to find spelling variations.To use the wildcard, enter the desired search terms and replace each unknown character with a wildcard character. The truncation symbol will vary between databases. Wildcard replaces a single character only. |
When searching for organisational applications of software, you will need to consider alternative spellings, so you can search on "organi?ation" |
| Proximity Operators | Proximity searching allows you to search for two or more words that appear a specified number of words (or fewer) apart in database. Proximity operators composed of a letter (N or W) and a number (to specify the number of words). Near Operator (N) will find words if they are within 5 words of one another independent of order in which they appear. Within Operator (W) will find words if they are within 8 words of each other and in the order entered. |
The strategy "genetically N3 modified" will find where the word 'genetically' occurs within three words of the word 'modified'. The strategy "environmental W2 planning" will find where the word 'environmental' occurs within two words AND before the word 'planning'. |
Not all databases will offer all advanced search features, you will need to check the Help section of the database.
Books
Books are a valuable source of research information. By searching the QUT Library Catalogue, you can locate books on specific topics, as well as books on research methodology and research writing.
To find books on your topic, you should search on your keywords. You can use the call number browsing or subject heading hypertext links to find other specific material on your topic. You can use the 'Limit' options to narrow by date, campus, subject area, or QUT thesis.
When conducting research for literature it is important to be aware of previous and current research in your area. It may even be necessary to check the research from your supervisors or other key authors. Theses and dissertations are a valuable source of in-depth research. They may also provide rich sources of references within a topic, or even research methodologies.
All students and staff at QUT are able to locate and access QUT Masters (Research) and PhD theses. Masters and PhD students and staff may request theses and dissertations from other Australian and overseas institutions, when needed for research or teaching. There are always two steps to obtaining a thesis or dissertation: 1. Locate the thesis or dissertation that you are seeking. 2. Obtain the thesis by requesting it in the appropriate manner.
QUT Theses
QUT Library holds an archival collection of all QUT PHD and Masters (Research) theses . These are held in a closed Stack collection at each campus Library depending on to which faculty they were submitted. Honours theses and Masters (Coursework) Major Project dissertations are NOT deposited in the stack collection.
To locate specific theses in QUT Library, you can search by corporate author for the relevant school or research centre, or by subject heading or keyword. If you are searching by corporate author, you must type in the entire name of the school in full. You can use the "Limit" option in the Library Catalogue to limit your author or subject/keyword searches to "QUT Theses".
QUT theses can be requested at the Loans Desk at each campus Library. You will need to fill in a request form and the theses are collected twice per day and held at the Loans Desk for you to collect. QUT theses cannot be taken out of the Library - you must read them in the Library and return them to the Loans Desk. They are an irreplaceable collection and QUT policy forbids the Library from lending them.
Non-QUT Theses and Dissertations
| Database title | Coverage | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Australian Digital Theses (ADT) |
Varies by university |
The Australian Digital Thesis database provides access to fulltext theses documents deposited by students at participating Australian universities. Not all Australian universities are participating in the project, and of those that are, not all make it a requirement for students to deposit their thesis to the ADT database. |
| ProQuest Digital Dissertations (abstracts) | 1861- (Dissertations); 1997- (Fulltext previews) |
Index and abstract service for doctoral dissertations and masters' theses in North America and Europe. Titles published since 1997 are available in PDF digital format and have 24 page previews available |
| NDLTD |
1996- |
A network of libraries of digital theses sponsored by the US Department of Education's Fund for the Improvement of Post-secondary Education. Links are provided to each of the 21 participant libraries and there is also a search function to search across some or all of the member libraries' collections. This operates like a metasearch engine, so having submitted the search one must then look at the individual results for each library. |
| MIT Theses Online |
1896-, mainly 1996- |
a selection of MIT theses and is provided by MIT Libraries and MIT Information Systems. It includes those which have been scanned by Document Services since 1998, for printing or electronic delivery to purchasers. Advanced and simple searching is possible, as is browsing by author or date. |
| Individual Library Catalogues | Varies by university |
The Library holds a publication that may assist in locating relevant Australian and overseas universities and research institutions publishing theses and dissertations: The Research Centres Directory by Gale Publishing: GP Reference 001.40257 1 (Latest year only held) You can then access the library catalogue of that institution to search for theses and dissertations. A comprehensive listing of Australian libraries can be found at the National Library of Australia: http://www.nla.gov.au/apps/libraries. A comprehensive listing of overseas libraries can also be found at the National Library of Australia: http://www.nla.gov.au/libraries/resource/libxregion.html |
Once you have identified the thesis or dissertation you are seeking, you must try to obtain it. Staff and PhD and Masters students may obtain these by placing a Document Delivery request (for a whole book). The Library will obtain a copy of the thesis for you. These theses are extremely expensive for the Library to buy and we would ask you to be selective in your requests. Please carefully evaluate how useful the thesis would be and only request it if it is directly relevant to your research.
Bibliographic databases
Locating journal and research articles is different from locating books. The Library Catalogue will tell you if QUT Library holds a particular journal but it will not provide information about individual journal articles. However, the journal databases will help you to locate references to journal articles, and sometimes the abstract and full-text of the articles.
The journal databases vary in the amount of information which they provide. If you find a reference to a journal article, but not the full text, then you will need to perform a Title search, using the Title of the journal (NOT the article) on the library catalogue. The library catalogue will provide the print and/or electronic holding details if the journal is available to QUT staff and students.
QUT staff and students can access the databases from within QUT libraries or remotely from your School, home or office via the Internet. Most databases require your QUT username and password. Access to the databases is available from the Find Databases page.
You may also wish to consult the Subject Guides on specific topics.
The Internet provides access to a large range of resources in the many subject areas. However, the quality of the resources varies, and as part of your research process, you will need to evaluate each web site.
Many students rely exclusively on one Internet search tool. However, careful selection of a variety of Internet resources will result in much more appropriate materials for inclusion in a research literature review and also allow for much more comprehensive coverage of the Internet.
| General Internet Search Tools | Description |
|---|---|
Currently the biggest search tool on the Web. NOTE: No one search tool indexes the entire Internet. |
|
| AlltheWeb http://www.alltheweb.com/ | Search Engines perform keyword searches for Web documents that contain the terms (keywords) that you specify. Each search engine searches its own database of Web sites. |
| AltaVista http://www.altavista.com/ | Provides you with both basic and advanced searching which offers powerful command driven search features. |
| Vivismo http://vivisimo.com/ | A meta-search engine that clusters search results. |
| E-print Archives | Description |
| An eprint is an electronic copy of an academic paper. The OAIster search engine searches across hundreds of eprint archives. Via OAIster, you can access nearly 2 million eprints (including QUT eprints). | |
| Other E-print archives | A selection of e-print archives is indexed on the Library database subject guide. |
| Academic Subject Directories | Description |
| BUBL is an academic subject directory - sites are evaluated and abstracted and only included if of academic quality. | |
| InfoMine http://infomine.ucr.edu/ | InfoMine is the Scholarly Internet Resources Collections from the University of California. |
| WebBrain http://www.webbrain.com/html/default_win.html | WebBrain lets you search the Web visually, so you can explore a dynamic picture of related information, instead of searching through long lists of text. |
| WWW Virtual Library http://vlib.org/ | The WWW Virtual Library is run by a loose confederation of volunteers, who compile pages of key links for particular areas in which they are expert; even though it isn't the biggest index of the web, the VL pages are widely regarded as high-quality guides to particular sections of the web. |
| Hidden Web Search Tools | Description |
| Complete Planet http://www.completeplanet.com/ | Obtain a list of over 100 000 searchable databases and specialty search engines. CompletePlanet search results are not Web documents, per se, they are entry points to searchable databases and search engines. |
| Direct Search http://www.freepint.com/gary/direct.htm | DirectSearch is a mainly a scholarly search tool guide. It includes thousands of search tools organized into 12 broad subject categories that are divided into hundreds of subtopics and subsubtopics. |
Evaluating information
Information may be of varying quality and relevance to your research. It is important always to carefully evaluate all information for the quality of the information itself. There are guidelines for evaluating information which can help you with the evaluation process.
Another process of evaluating information involves ensuring that the information is the most relevant and applicable to your topic. You will need to ensure that you have read the most important and seminal works and authors within your field. One method of ensuring that your information is of the highest quality and is well-regarded within your discipline, is to use citation indexes.
Citation Indexes
Citation indexes help you to identify the most authoritative authors and well-regarded publications within a subject discipline. Citation indexes provide links to other authors and publications that reference the original work, thus allowing you to track research forwards and backwards. This is helpful to see how other authors regard this research and also to see how research on a topic may develop over time.
| Database title | Coverage | Description |
|---|---|---|
| Web of Science | 1992- CD-ROM editions of individual indexes available prior to 1992 |
This is the Web equivalent of the: Science Citation Index Expanded; Social Sciences Citation Index; and Arts & Humanities Citation Index; print and CD-ROM indexes. Web of Science indexes over 8,500 high impact research journals from a wide range of disciplines, and as such provides an interdisciplinary view of international research literature that is well suited to applied research. |
Individual databases such as IEEE IEE Electronic Library and ScienceDirect have the citation indexing feature within their own publications and database only. This will link between publications indexed and full-text within this database.
Related guides and information
This information is intended as a general overview and guide to commencing research students.
There are many related guides on other issues at the Subject Guides and Learn How guides.
There are help guides for finding information on specific research topics such as:
- Research Methodologies
- Writing an Annotated Bibliography
- Writing a Literature Review
- Writing a Research Proposal
- Writing Theses and Dissertations
There are also other pathfinders in citing information.