Skip to Main Content

Help finding literature for your species study

Understand your task

Before you start, read all assessment details including the marking guide and feedback sheet.

You need to research a species of interest which must be confirmed by the course coordinator (see the course website for more details).

Read the Species Study guide in the course for clues about:

  • Choosing a species - how specific you can be
  • What to investigate e.g. taxonomy, biology, behaviour, disease etc.
  • Parameters of the assessment e.g. types of information, where to search, sub topics to explore

Key techniques to use

  • Highlight key concepts (main ideas) in the task e.g. the content words that give your task meaning
  • Create a mind map or table to organise key concepts and related keywords. Add to this as you start searching.
     

Example table for the Tasmanian Devil
 

Areas of interest (add more) Synonyms or alternative keywords
Taxonomy
  • taxonomical classification
  • classification, classify
  • Species description
  • other keywords?
Biology
  • biological characteristics
  • characteristics
  • genetics, genes
  • other keywords?
Behaviour
  • Behavior
  • feeding, hunting
  • food, diet
  • reproduction, mating
  • family groups
  • socialisation
  • other keywords?

Tip:  Draw on your own knowledge along with course readings. When mapping out keywords consider synonyms, acronyms, plurals and different word endings.

How to form a search strategy

Where to search

Getting Started

Searching databases

Databases can be a useful source of scholarly information. It is useful to become familiar with a few key databases throughout your studies.

Always look for an Advanced search option to use. Here is an example from BioOne:

BioOne search example for "tasmanian devil" AND hunt* OR feed* OR diet*

Key tips:

  • Add each different concept on a new line. Notice these are connected with AND.
  • Easily find plural and different word endings using the * symbol (truncation) e.g. hunt* finds hunt, hunts, hunter, hunting
  • Change keywords to find different results

Tip

Search the internet for relevant government departments and other reputable organisations.

Start your search

The Library collection search is a useful place to start to locate relevant information about your species.

Search example

Library collection search for "tasmaninan devil" (biology OR characterstics OR ecology)

Key tips

  • Use double quotes to find exact phrases e.g. "tasmanian devil"
  • Group synonyms using brackets () and connect them with OR
  • Change keywords to find different aspects out about your species
  • Limit your results by Books or Peer reviewed articles (left menu)

Finding quality information

Always use quality, reputable and credible sources. This can be a scholarly book, peer reviewed journal article or government website.

Learn more

Evaluating sources

It is important you evaluate all sources you want to use, even if you find them in the Library Collection or a database. Consider:

  1. Will this help me answer the assessment task? Is it relevant?
  2. Can I understand it?

Watch this video (3 min 15 sec) for more key things to consider.

More help

Feedback