Try to think outside your discipline when searching the library catalague. Searching Design and "social aspects" found the following book of case studies.
Others can providing advice on the research process. Covering topics such as developing your project proposal and how to do a literature review. Here is just one example
The essential guide to doing research.
Help
Do it yourself: Try the interactive tutorials.
Assistance from the Library staff: Ask Us>
Reading Lists
Locate your reading list items on E-Reserve by lecturer or unitcode or search the CDU Catalogue to find your Set texts.
Locating items using a reference/bibliography list
To find these items you need to be able to interpret the reference and identify the type of publication, whether it is a book or journal.
Use these publication details to search the CDU Library catalogue.
Hint!
If you attempt to search the Library catalogue using title of the article or book chapter, you will not find it.
Can't tell a reference to a Journal articles from a conference paper or a chapter from edited book?
This tutorial from Monash clearly demonstrates how to identify the different parts of a reference.
Help
Do it yourself: Try the interactive tutorials.
Assistance from the Library staff: Ask Us
Standards Australia
Standards Australia Online provides full text access to the complete collection of Australian, Joint Australian/New Zealand standards and most Standards Australia handbooks.
The Library pays subscriptions to a number of specialist database providers. These can be used to find journal and newspaper articles, case studies, conference papers useful for your task.
You will sometimes come across references to articles that are not available as full text.You may need to search in a few different places to find the full text, in our catalogue, using citation linker
Document delivery
Masters by Coursework, PhD and staff are all eligible to request books or articles by interlibrary loan.
Science Direct
A prominent source of academic information in the fields of science, technology, medicine and psychology.
ASME Journals
Scitation is the online home of journals from
American Society of Mechanical Engineers. Browse the current issue or search across multiple journals.
Emerald A leading publisher of peer reviewed journals, including engineering and project management.
Engineering Collection - Australia
Produced in collaboration with Engineers Australia,
Provides access to a range of journal articles, conference papers, working papers and other grey literature.
ATRI
Australian Transport index. Covers transport and road related research, including road engineering,rock mechanics and traffic engineering.
They contain high quality material that is generally not freely available.
Experts write reviews and provide case studies.Academics compete to publish in highly prestigious journals.
Journals and Conferences are conducted by authorative bodies such as universities and professional associations. Presenting at a peak conference or having a paper published in a reputable journal can be a career enhancing experience.
Sign in using your student logon details. Edit the Library Links preferences to locate CDU Library.
You will then be recognized as a CDU student and will be able to access the complete article via the Full text @ CDU link of anything we have purchased access rights to via our databases.
Help
Do it yourself: Try the interactive tutorials.
Assistance from the Library staff: Ask Us
Criteria for Evaluation
A number of factors can be used to evalute the information you find.
Has the information been through a peer review process?
Before publication articles or conference papers are reviewed and assessed by experts within the field to determine whether they meet scholarly quality criteria. This is a defining feature of a scholarly journal.
Authority
who is the author and what expertise do they have in this area?
Can you tell the difference between the publisher/webmaster and author.
Are occupation, experience, credentials, education listed?
Uniqueness
what does this work offer compared to other resources?
Is it from an originating source?
Are they reporting on someone else’s work or did they conduct the original research?
This is especially important on the internet where it is so easy to copy text from one source to another. You might like to track down the original article or report, rather than relying on second or third hand opinion.
Affiliation
Is it from an institution with a good reputaion? Does that institution have a vested interest in the topic?
e.g company, government body, university. what institution
You would not expect to find a report condemning the fast foods impact on health from a fast food company. Nor would you expect Greenpeace report to support whaling.
Purpose and objectivity
Ask yourself why this was written and for whom.
to inform?
to critique?
to explain?
to persuade?
to sell?
Audience
who is the intended audience?
expert or novice?
student or practitioner?
consumer or researcher?
Material designed for general audience maybe factually
correct but would not generally be appropriate for academic purposes.
Validity
how true and accurate is the information? This can be difficult to judge. Some things to consider include:
What evidence is provided?
Are references provided?
How do those sources measure against these criteria?
Currency
Can you identify when this information was made available?
Is it new or reissuing of old data?
Has it been kept up to date?
How important is currency to your work?
If you are discussing a historical event you will probably want contemporary information as well as the later interpretations.
If you are working for a financial firm and doing economic forecasting you will definitely need the latest data.
Scope
depth of information?
how broad is the subject area?
What do you need, a quick understanding of a topic or in depth specialist knowledge?
For example: The kind of information you require on asthma will differ whether you are suffering from an attack, doing a school project or are a medical researcher.
Because you have to. The University expects it.
Referencing, when done correctly acknowledges the work of others and will prevent you from accusations of intellectual theft and plagiarism.
It allows the reader to follow an idea, using the details provided, to locate the original publication. This could be because the reader is interested in the topic or because they wish to verify the details of the quotation, making sure the author hasn't been taken out of context.
How do I reference properly?
Check out the support material on the Library's Referencing Page
One of the main referencing styles used at CDU is CDU Harvard
IEEE numbering style is often used in Engineering.Always check with your tutor, which style they prefer. IEEE style guide
Referencing Software
EndNote Web
Collect & store references.
Create a formatted bibliography, in the approved CDU Harvard style, for your paper or help with “in text” referencing.
