Finding scholarly sources for your short academic paper
1. What you need to do
This guide will help you find scholarly literature for your assignment.
You have been provided with 2 journal articles but required to find 1 additional scholarly paper.
Before you start, make sure you clarify the assessment requirements by reading the assignment instructions and marking criteria supplied on your course website.
2. Plan your search
Before you start looking for information, use the following steps to plan your search:
- Define any unfamiliar terminologies.
- Identify the key concepts in your assignment topics. These will form the foundation of your search.
- Make a list of any synonyms or related keywords for each key concept.
| Note: a table can be a useful strategy for organising key concepts and alternative concepts or synonyms. |
Example topic:
The engagement and participation in supporting quality of life in older people within aged care homes and the community.
Example table:
Key concepts |
Synonyms / alternative concepts |
|
Concept 1: Older people |
Elderly |
|
concept 2: Quality of life |
Life quality |
|
Concept 3: Aged care |
Nursing home |
|
Concept 4: Community |
Community dwelling Living at home |
This table is not comprehensive, you may find more concepts as you begin to search.
Watch the video below to learn more about how to plan your search.
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Plan your search (Nursing)Learn more about planning your search for your assignment in this Library guide.
3. Searching the Library collection
The Library website can be a good starting place to search for scholarly information.
| Library collection search example |
- You can start by putting the main concepts into the search box.
Make sure you select the Library Collection tab
Tip: use "double quotes" to keep concepts together as a phrase.
- Use the Refine my results menu (left side) to apply filters to your search.
| Tip: you can swap each concept to different alternative keywords and search again. |
Learn more on how to use the Library catalogue by working through the interactive tutorial below.
4. Searching Google Scholar
You can search Google Scholar in the same way as a Catalogue basic search.
- Select the Google Scholar tab on the Library website
- Search your keywords
- Select Fulltext at UniSA to access the resource or download PDFs
5. More help
Watch the video below to learn what is a literature review :
