Other search tools
Introduction
This section introduces additional search tools that may be useful to identify information for your research question. By the end of the section, you will have explored a range of resources including grey literature (information that has not been published commercially or indexed in major databases), other library catalogues and the technique of browsing important journals in your area of interest.
Selecting databases for your research
Databases can be used for many different aspects of your research, from developing your research proposal, writing your literature review, conducting research activities, writing up your results and discussing the significance and impact of your research.
Searching databases at the start of your research journey can:
- inspire creative ideas
- consolidate your understanding of your research area
- help you write a good research question
- accelerate the research proposal writing process
- provide the framework of study for the duration of your degree
Explore a few different databases to see what sorts of information they contain. Ask your supervisory team and your Liaison Librarian for guidance on what databases may be appropriate to answering your research question.
Activity – Finding the right databases
- Go to the QUT Library Databases
- Select your subject area.
- Note the divisions by study area, formats and specialist researcher databases.
- Read the synopses for the databases that are likely to be relevant. Consider subject relevance and breadth of coverage and the types of formats indexed in the database.
Finding theses
Examining theses in your discipline is good practice and is recommended early in your candidature. This strategy will assist in thinking about how to structure and format your thesis, the originality of your idea or question, and provide a source of rich bibliographies. Think about theses in terms of local, national and international content. For QUT theses, check QUT ePrints, Australian theses can be found in Trove and international in ProQuest Dissertations. Most universities, in many countries and some regions have open access repositories for theses, research publications, and sometimes datasets for researchers.
There are a number of tools available from QUT Library and the web for finding theses in your research area:
- QUT ePrints contains the online QUT theses.
- Trove provides access to the Australian theses managed by the National Library.
- ProQuest Dissertations contains international theses with a US focus.
- Google Scholar gives access to most open access repositories.
For links to international, regional and national repositories, see the Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations list.
Finding key journals
Scanning the latest issues of certain journals is a valuable strategy to:
- gain an understanding of the research being done around your topic
- help you reflect on the scope and direction of your research
- identify the current trends in a discipline
- to ensure you find valuable information that might be overlooked in a database search
After searching journal databases and identifying the best articles for your topic, it may become apparent that the most relevant articles are consistently found in a handful of journals.
Find out which journals are specific to your topic area:
- recommendations from your supervisor
- select high quality journals by subject area journals using Scopus, Web of Science and SciMago Journal and Country Rank
- search using your key concepts in Library Search with results limited by relevant journal format and subject terms to evaluate for best sources
Online journals via publisher websites
Some publishers may cover your subject area better than others. Journal publisher websites give quick access to the tables of contents, so you can scroll through the recent issues to get a feel for current trends. You might notice 'hot topics' of the day and adjust your research scope to consider new concepts or frameworks. You can subscribe to receive notification of the table of contents of new issues of key journals by email.
Here are some key journal publishers for QUT faculty areas:
- Routledge/Taylor and Francis and Wiley - multidisciplinary
- Intellect for arts, design, cultural studies, communication and media, film studies
- Elsevier and Springer for science, health and medicine
- Wolters Kluwer for law, business and health
- Edward Elgar for business, economics, politics, law
- Sage for education, arts, media, health, psychology, engineering, criminology and more
- Emerald for information technology, business and management.
- Eric for education.
Browsing print journals
In some subject areas, print journals are important. These areas tend to be the disciplines with a high reliance on images, e.g. art and design, music and architecture. Scanning the latest issues of print journals can therefore be a valuable option. New issues are available in the journal section of QUT Library. To physically browse and locate what the Library has in print, find out the general call number range for your research area. Popular print journals include:
- Wallpaper (fashion)
- Rolling Stone Australia (popular music)
- Monument (architecture)
Other library catalogues
Most universities provide access to their library's catalogue online and there are 'union catalogues' with the holdings of many libraries. At QUT you can request most items via online request using Request from other institutions. You can also request that your Liaison Librarian purchase additional items for the QUT Library collection.
Union catalogues include:
- Trove
- WorldCat is the world's largest catalogue, containing library catalogue holdings from many countries.
Grey literature
Grey literature is an umbrella term that describes materials produced on all levels of government, business and industry that is not distributed via commercial publishing methods. Grey literature allows for the introduction of alternative perspectives, is useful for exploring areas where there is little published evidence, and for finding recent and local resources.