Where to search

Where you search will be informed by a number of factors including:

• the scope of your question and the types of evidence/sources that can best answer this (research articles, clinical trials, news media, etc.)
• the amount of time and rersources you have to complete the project.

Watch this video to understand key places to search (2 min 31 sec):

For many research areas there can be a benefit to searching for both commercially published literature and what is known as grey literature.

"Grey literature is recognized as a key source of evidence, argument, innovation, and understanding in many disciplines including science, engineering, health, social sciences, education, the arts and humanities" — Pisa declaration on policy development for grey literature resources

In summary, it:

• Introduces alternative perspectives
• May be the only source of information (where there is little published evidence)
• Overcomes or minimises publication/reporting bias
• Can be essential in emerging, changing or interdisciplinary research areas
• Complements published research and fills in research gaps

To learn about searching for grey literature (and other sources) see the:

Primary sources

First hand accounts.

Examples: original research articles that give results of a study by the researcher, letters, interviews, personal journals, laboratory logs, statistics, survey results, raw data, legislation and case law.

Start with: Library databases, data repositories, archives and Trove from the National Library of Australia.

Secondary sources

Second hand accounts of information which provide background information or summarise, interpret and explain results of original research .

Examples: books, Hansard, parliamentary papers, review articles and theses.

Start with: Library databases, Library catalogue and Government websites

Tertiary sources

Compiles and summarises information from primary and secondary sources to introduce the current state of a topic. Some tertiary sources are also considered secondary sources and vice versa.

Examples: encyclopedias, almanacs, path finders, case studies and bibliographies.

Start with: Library catalogue

Databases are organised collections of published and grey literature. They can include publications such as journal articles, book chapters, reports and conference papers, and consist of full text publications, bibliographic records only (containing the descriptive information, such as title, authors, and abstract) or a mixture of both.

Databases can be discipline specific, such as medical, art, engineering or business databases, or multidisciplinary, covering all subject areas.

Below are two largest citation databases that may be useful places to search.

Database records and thesauri of subject headings contain terms that reflect language and attitudes of the authors and period in which publications were written. Some terms are outdated, offensive, and inappropriate.

Explore more possible places to search using these guides.