Library Guides: MGT501 Research Skills Guide: Develop your skills

Welcome

This guide is designed to help you with your research for MGT501.

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 tab to see what you need to revise.

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. If you are confused or unsure about the assessment topic, ask your lecturer or tutor who will be happy to talk it through with you.

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

Examples:

Keywords	Synonyms or related terms
systems theory	systems approach
business environment	management, organisation, corporation...
VUCA environments	volatile, uncertain, complex, ambiguous, disruption, technology, sustainability
agile philosophy	agile mindset

Does your task place any limits? For example, a date range for sources.

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.

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:

Business Source Complete
An EBSCOhost database covering management, finance, international business, economics, accounting, marketing, and tourism.
Content includes more than 4,200 journals, of which more than 2,800 are peer-reviewed, plus other non-journal content. Much of the material is available in full-text.

Coverage (not necessarily full-text) extends back to 1886; updating is daily.

This database is one of many available in EBSCOhost. It is also part of the EBSCOhost (Business) databases package. Once you are in the EBSCOhost platform, 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.
ProQuest Business Databases
A package of ProQuest databases all with business-, economics-, and management-related material. These databases can also be searched individually or in any combination.
This collection of databases is ProQuest's subject area package of 10 databases with business-related material, plus ProQuest Ebook Central. Some of these databases are the business subset of a larger database. For example, ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: Business is a subset of ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global.

All but one of these resources contain full-text material. But as with all ProQuest databases, where a record does not have the full-text available, you can use the Find a copy links to search for the full item elsewhere.

The specific databases are:
* ABI/Inform Collection itself a package of 3 databases
* Accounting, Tax & Banking Collection
* Asian & European Collection
* Business Market Research Collection
* Canadian Business & Current Affairs Database: Business
* Career & Technical Education Database: Business
* COS Conference Papers Index does not include full-text material
* Ebook Central results from this collection will appear in a separate tab
* India Database: Business
* ProQuest Dissertations & Theses Global: Business
* Research Library: Business.

Once you are in the ProQuest platform, you can change to any other ProQuest database by clicking on the Change databases tab in the top menu. All ProQuest databases can be searched individually or in any combination.
Trove
The National Library of Australia's free portal to a huge range of Australian online materials, including the full-text of selected Australian newspapers from 1803-1954.
Trove describes itself as a discovery service and an exciting, revolutionary and free search engine. It searches across a huge repository of Australian material.

Trove seeks to provide reliable information from collections which include:
- the National Library of Australia;
- more than 1000 libraries around Australia;
- other Australian cultural and educational institutions;
- international collections with relevance to Australia.

In early 2010 the service covered 90 million items (much of it digital), which was expected to increase as the service developed and other organisations contributed data.

In a single search, you can search across pictures, unpublished manuscripts, books, oral histories, music, videos, research papers, diaries, letters, maps, archived websites, and Australian newspapers from 1803 to 1954. Note that the Australian newspaper content is available in full-text.

Trove also gives you the opportunity to contribute and participate through tagging, commenting on, organising, and improving data, and through sharing information and ideas.

How is Trove different from Google? Trove:
- is neutral (not driven by a commercial imperative);
- focuses on resources collected by Australian institutions;
- has value-added features such as facets, related items and user augmentation (e.g. tagging, annotation, review, creation of lists);
- provides a single search across multiple format types and collections.

You can find more information on Trove at About Trove.

The Business, Management, Marketing & WHS list has more databases you can search.

Remember! When looking for information on your specific industry you may need to explore some of the other topic lists in the A-Z databases

Learn how to search efficiently in Primo and Library databases:

Other Sources

In your assessment you've been asked to use websites and videos. See the links below for more information.

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.

Search string examples:

"systems theory" AND manage*
(organisation OR corporation) AND "systems theory"
"agile philosophy" AND management AND (organisation OR corporation)

Remember: you will need to try a range of searches. Don't stop after just one.

To understand how search operators work check out:

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 CRAP (Currency, Reliability, Authority, Purpose) test can help you quickly and easily evaluate any piece of information.

Keen for more?

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

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 textbooks are 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.

Watch: eBook etiquette

Management by Schermerhorn, J.R. et.al.
Publication Date: 2019
Management by Samson, D. et al.
Publication Date: 2020

Using AI

Generative AI tools can be helpful study companions — they can support your thinking, help you explore new ideas, and guide you toward useful resources.

You might use Gen AI to:

Generate topic ideas or refine research questions
Clarify tricky terms or complex concepts
Suggest useful sources or recommend databases
Improve your keywords or search strategies

Important: Always check your subject outline to see if using AI tools is permitted. Using AI without permission could breach academic integrity rules.

Think of AI as a starting point — a way to support your research, not replace your critical thinking or use of credible academic sources.

See more on AI:

Your guide to generative Artificial Intelligence
Charles Sturt University AI use guidelines.
Generative AI at university
Tips on how to use AI for study and research.

Last Updated: Jul 2, 2025 12:37 PM
URL: https://libguides.csu.edu.au/MGT501
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