Library Guides: ITC331 Research Skills Guide: Develop your skills

Welcome

This guide aims to help you with your research for ITC331.

Each section introduces the steps you should take when researching for an assessment. You'll find links to videos and resources that will give you the tools to find great information. Use the activities on the Test your knowledge page to see what you need to revise.

Some of the skills on this page may be familiar to you from previous subjects. Read over the content below to refresh your skills, and if you're feeling confident in your searching ability take a look at the Extend your skills page for advanced search tips.

These skills and strategies can apply to any assessment where you need to demonstrate research skills and source relevant literature.

Getting started with your assessment

The first thing is to make sure you clearly understand the task and what topic you are seeking information for, this is called topic analysis. Check your assessment task details in your Subject Outline

With an understanding of your task, you then need to plan how you will search for information. This starts with identifying and brainstorming keywords.

Let's use an example task:

Analyse the ethical issues surrounding the impact of video games on well-being. Apply classical ethical theories - utilitarianism, deontology, contract theory, and virtue ethics - in your evaluation and analysis.

Keywords	Synonyms or related terms
ethics	Ethical use, morals, principles, utilitarianism, deontology, contract theory, virtue ethics, privacy, IP, regulation
video games	gaming, computer game, online gaming, gamers, gameplay, mechanics, development...
well-being	wellbeing, well being, welfare, happiness, health, stress...

For guidance in topic analysis check out:

Choose the right place to search

Before you start searching, think about what types of information you need and where you can search to find those types of resources.

In Assessment 1 you've been asked to include at least seven (7) quality academic references, outside of those you've been provided in the subject.

Primo Search

Primo Search is a good place to start as it allows you to use one search box to bring back results from most of our Library collection including books, eBooks, journal articles, newspaper articles and more. You may get a large number of results and some of these will be from outside your subject/discipline area. Check the content is relevant to your assessment task before you use it.

Library databases

Databases will help you find academic resources and are often subject-specific. You will get fewer results than Primo, but they will be more relevant to your subject/discipline.

I recommend trying the following databases:

Computers and Applied Sciences Complete
An EBSCOhost database of citations, article summaries, and full-text articles which covers computing and technology and includes more than 1000 full-text periodicals.
Computers & Applied Sciences Complete (CASC) "covers the research and development spectrum of the computing and applied sciences disciplines". It provides indexing and abstracts for more than 2100 publications, including academic journals, professional publications, and other reference sources.

Searchable cited references are included for key journals.

Subjects covered include: engineering disciplines; computer theory & systems; and the impact of, and the social and professional context of, new technologies.

This database is one of many available in EBSCOhost. Once on the EBSCOhost search screen, you can change databases by clicking on the Choose Databases link above the search boxes. All EBSCOhost databases can be searched individually or in any combination.
ACM Digital Library
Incorporates two resources: one a full-text collection of publications of the Association for Computing Machinery; the other a collection more than 750,000 citations from 3000+ publishers, including the ACM.
ACM Library is a large collection of citations and full-text items from the Association of Computing Machinery.

The resource has two components:
* The ACM Digital Library, a repository of papers published or co-published by the ACM;
* The Guide to Computing Literature, a collection more than 750,000 citations from 3000+ publishers, including the ACM.

It is the ACM Digital Library that is the full-text resource. Our subscription includes access to more than 320 publications, including journals, magazines, newsletters, transactions, proceedings, and publications by affiliated organisations.

ACM Library offers not only searching and browsing but also personalised services such as saving results and queries, and setting up Table-Of-Contents (TOC) alerts.

Coverage is from 1947 - current, and updating is weekly.

Note: ACM journals which we previously subscribed to in print have been converted to online access and are available in this collection.
IEEE Xplore Digital Library
A full-text database of publications from the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) and its publishing partners, including the IET (Institution of Engineering and Technology). These organisations are the world's major electrical and electronic engineering authorities.
Subject content includes electrical and electronics engineering, computer science, and associated topics such as aerospace engineering, biomedical sciences, geosciences, physics, medical imaging, digital animation and media, and telecommunications.

The main content that you have access to in IEEE Xplore is the IEEE/IET Electronic Library (IEL), which includes access to full text articles published since 1988 (and select content published since 1893) from:
* more than 150 IEEE journals, transactions, and magazines;
* 25 IET journals and magazines;
* proceedings from more than 1000 IEEE and IET annual conferences;
* more than 2,100 approved and published IEEE standards in key technology fields;
* the IEEE Standards Dictionary Online.

You also have access to:
* the VDE VERLAG Conference Proceedings, which include AbstractPlus records and select full text published since 2005 from more than 20 annual conference titles. [VDE Verlag is a European technical/scientific publisher]; and to
* individual online journals, including access to all AbstractPlus records and full text published since 2005 from IEEE Transactions on Circuits and Systems for Video Technology and from IEEE Transactions on Image Processing.

Updating is weekly, and more than 25,000 new IEEE/IET articles are added each month.

The IT, Computing and Maths list has more databases you can search.

Consider the concepts in your set task - you may need to search in databases from outside your discipline such as psychology or social sciences.

Learn how to search efficiently in Primo and Library databases:

Watch: Searching in a database (4 mins)
Watch: ITC331 search skills demonstration (22 mins)
This is the same video embedded elsewhere in this guide.
Searching in Primo
Database help

Create a search strategy

When you search using Primo Search or a library database use the keywords and limits you identified above to create your search. Combine the keywords with "search operators", rather than searching with a whole sentence or question. Search operators tell Primo or the database how to search with your keywords.

Below are some basic searches that use Boolean operators, phrase searching, truncation and/or grouping. Combining these techniques is called a search string or strategy.

Search Strategy	Operators
gaming AND stress	Boolean
"video gaming" AND wellbeing	Boolean, phrase
"video gaming" AND (wellbeing OR well-being)	Boolean, grouping, phrase
"video gaming" AND stress* AND (wellbeing OR well-being)	Boolean, grouping, truncation, phrase

Evaluate

Using credible information will improve the quality of your assessment and may result in better marks, but how can you tell whether the resources you've found are credible and suitable for your assessment? Have you been asked to use peer reviewed, academic or refereed articles? Are you using authoritative websites?

The information below will help you evaluate the information you find, in books, journal articles, or online to make sure it’s reliable.

Reading, writing and referencing

The Academic Skills team can help you to build your writing, referencing and reading skills to be successful at Charles Sturt University.

Explore resources from the Academic Skills team in the Learning Skills section of the Student Portal.

Here are some pages to get you started:

Your textbook

Good news!

Your textbook is available online through the library!

However access to your textbook is limited. Follow the best practice in the video below to ensure you have access to what you need without disadvantaging other students in your subject.

Ethics and Technology by Tavani, H. T.
Publication Date: 2016

Watch: eBook etiquette

Search skills demonstration

Watch this video for an overview of the library services and how to search for information.

You can download a PDF of the slide deck below.

ITC331 Research Skills slides

Keen for more?

If you're interested in learning more, check out the following:

Read: Extend your skills
Take a look at the next page of this guide for advanced search strategies
Online Library Workshops
Getting started with the Library

Last Updated: Jul 2, 2025 12:06 PM
URL: https://libguides.csu.edu.au/itc331
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