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How to begin

Understand your topic

Before you start your research it is useful to spend a bit of time on analyzing your topic.

This involves:

1. Reading the question carefully to understand what the task requires.
2. Summarising the topic question in your own words

Doing some background reading on your topic to familiarise yourself with the subject. Suitable resources for background reading include lecture notes, textbooks, encyclopedias and specialist dictionaries. Check out the Engineering subject guides for links to useful reference books. Wikipedia can be a starting point as well but do not include Wikipedia sources in your reference list.

Identifying keywords

To conduct an effective search for information you must first identify keywords that will find the information you need.

1. Brainstorm your topic
2. Create a list or word-cloud of the main subject words associated with your topic
3. Include additional keywords that express similar ideas or spelling variations (synonyms)
4. Focus – choose specific terms rather than general concepts
5. Use formal / industry vocabulary rather than everyday language. Your background reading will help you identify appropriate terminology.

More about Planning your search

Searching with Library Search

This video shows how to use Library Search to find information

Using Library search (YouTube, 2m 47s)

Where to your start reading

Use Library Search to find a book on your topic

1. Watch the Using Library Search video on this page then go to the Library website to find a book
2. Enter two or three keywords in the Library Search box. Use the main subject word(s) and a second or third keyword to provide context,  eg. bridge construction bamboo.  There is no need for a sentence, question or punctuation
3. Repeat the search if necessary using different keywords
4. Select a relevant book for background reading
5. If the book is in print, check the location and borrow it.  If it is electronic, read it online
6. As you read take note of useful terminology which could be used as keywords in later searches.

Example:

You want information about materials used in bridge building.  If you enter the term “bridge building” as your search it will be too general to find useful results.  You need to add an additional keyword or two to provide focus.  You might, for example, want to consider a particular type of material , e.g. bamboo.  Your search would now look like this: “bridge construction” AND bamboo 

Finding information for assessments and research

Information for academic assignments must come from appropriate sources.
These include:

• Academic or peer reviewed journal articles – find these through Library Search.
• Government and professional reports – find these on the internet using Google Advanced search. See Searching Google for Grey Literature Standards, patents and prior art.   

Some sources are inappropriate to use in academic assignments.

• Do not use newspaper or popular magazine articles
• Avoid websites that lack professional credibility and authority
• Ensure sources are up to date.

Types of information (YouTube, 2m 48s)

What is ‘peer-review’

At university you are expected to use research articles from academic journals.

Academics and researchers communicate the results of their research in articles which are published in academic journals. You may have heard of “Nature” or “The Lancet”.   These are high quality scholarly journals where leading researchers publish their findings.

Scholarly articles are often referred to as ‘peer reviewed’ articles because they are reviewed by subject experts for academic rigour and quality prior to getting published. Scholarly and ‘peer reviewed’ articles always contain scholarly references and a bibliography.

Peer-reviewed journal articles video (YouTube, 1m 58s)

More about Peer reviewed journal articles

Using databases to find journal articles

Databases are electronic collections of information that are searchable using keywords.

They provide access to discipline specific research papers published in academic journals and specialized content such as reports or conference papers.

Databases are available through the Library. Select “Databases” from the Search dropdown menu in Library Search and enter the name of the database in the search box, eg Scopus

Further information

Read about searching in databases to learn how to use databases to find articles.

Watch our video on choosing a database to find journal articles on your topic (YouTube, 1m42s)

Here are two databases to try

Scopus

A multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, book reviews and conference proceedings. Watch our video on doing a basic search in Scopus (YouTube, 3m 10s).

Web of Science

A collection of citation databases and citation analysis tools covering the sciences, social sciences, arts and humanities. Watch the video on searching Web of Science (YouTube, 2m 02s).

Using Google effectively

You can use Google for some types of information.

While you shouldn’t rely on Google as your primary source of information for assignments, it can be useful for finding research reports that are not available in scholarly publications.

Read Web Searching for information on how to find information from government agencies, non-government and professional organizations.  This is called “Grey Literature” Then go to Google and try for yourself.

More about Grey Literature.

Google Scholar – Use Google scholar, in addition to Library search and Databases. Enable View @ UQ Library link to get full text.

Improving your searching techniques

You may not be satisfied with your first attempt at finding information.

Here are some tips to improve your searches:

• Successful searching is an iterative process – if you don’t find “good” articles the first time try again using different keywords
• Check your spelling –  incorrect spelling or typos will retrieve few or no results
• Using AND between search terms will find articles containing both words, i.e., fewer but more relevant results, eg. (jetty AND fishing) = 66 peer reviewed articles in Library Search
• Using OR between the same terms eg. (jetty OR pontoon) = 2,793 peer reviewed articles. Using OR to combine terms of similar meaning will increase results to find articles containing either or both of the words
• Use quotation marks around phrases to search for the exact phrase and increase the relevancy of the results, e.g. “water resources”.   This only works for commonly used word combinations
• A single useful article can lead to many more – have a look at the references or citing articles as they will often be relevant as well.

More about search techniques.

Evaluating information

Critical evaluation is integral to the research process.

Use this to determine whether the information you have found is appropriate and relevant to your topic. It is especially important for information found on the Internet.

You should consider:

1. Does the website have a reputable author / organisation?
2. What is the site’s purpose?
3. Who is the intended audience?
4. Does it provide contact details or links to further information?
5. Does it have a date?

Find more about evaluating information in our guide. You can also watch our video on evaluating information (YouTube, 3m20s).