Locating information resources for your research essay

Once you understand the task of writing an research essay you may now want to search for additional literature relevant to your topic.

1. Identify the types of sources you will need to find.  eg you may need to search for peer-reviewed journal articles, books or book chapters, conference papers, maps, statistics or relevant websites. 
2. Identify your keywords and refine your search terms. Use the Finding the right information page to show you how to do this.
3. Identify which databases are most relevant for your topic. Check out Where to find sources for assistance with this. 

Library Search on the QUT Library homepage is a great place to start. 

• For instructions on how to use it, try Using the Library Search

Google is good for routine searches but Google Scholar provides a simple way to broadly search for scholarly literature. 

• Use Google Scholar's Advanced search to gain the most relevant results.
• Set up Fulltext@QUT links when searching off campus so Google Scholar will link you to QUT Library holdings. 

Scopus and Web of Science are important databases for first-year science students to be familiar with. 

1. There are other specialist databases relevant for Science.

• Check out Where to find sources for assistance in identifying other databases which are relevant for your topic.

2. Consult the help screens of each database as search techniques will differ. 

• This includes how to do Boolean and Proximity operator searching, how to do Phrase searching and how to find Plural forms of a word. For Scopus Help. For Web of Science Help.