Library Guides: CHM321 Research Skills Guide: Home

Welcome

Hi. I'm Lyndall, your embedded librarian. This guide was created to help you with your research for CHM321. You'll find links to videos and resources that will give you the tools to find great information.

To refresh your understanding of topic analysis, searching databases, and evaluating information check out the common search tips below or look back at this guide:

SCI101 Research Skills Guide

If you would like to get in touch or need more help, please;

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Your textbooks

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.

Watch: Ebook etiquette [1:04 mins]

Laboratory safety for chemistry students by Hill, R.& Finster, D.
Publication Date: 2016
Study and communication skills for the chemical sciences by Overton, T., Johnson, S. & Scott, J.
Publication Date: 2019

Where to search

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:

Academic Search Complete (EBSCOhost)
A huge multi-disciplinary database in the EBSCOhost platform that covers just about all the disciplines and subjects taught and studied at Charles Sturt University.
It includes article records and summaries from more than 12,500 full-text periodicals, and of these, more than 8,500 have full-text as well. There are also records and summaries from more than 13,200 other publications, including books, reports, and conference proceedings.

Subjects covered include nearly all areas of academic study, including arts & literature, business, computer sciences, education, engineering, environmental science, ethnic studies, language & linguistics, medical sciences, science, social sciences, and theology.

Coverage varies with publication title but extends back to 1887.

The database is updated daily.

Academic Research Complete is one of many databases available in EBSCOhost. EBSCOhost also has a number of subject-specific databases, and the Library gives access to packages of subject-related databases 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.
ScienceDirect
An Elsevier database of scientific content from journals and books, which gives comprehensive coverage of the sciences and social sciences.
Material is organised in the major subject areas ("domains") of:
• physical sciences and engineering
• life sciences
• health sciences
• social sciences and humanities.

Charles Sturt Library does not subscribe to all of the content in ScienceDirect, but the subscription does include the full-text of thousands of journals and hundreds of eBooks. Both the journal and eBook content cover a range of subjects.

To browse the collection, go to Journals & Books at the top of the main page. You can filter your browsing by journal or book title, domain and subdomain (subject areas), resource type (articles and book chapters), and access type.

You can search using basic or advanced search. Search results are available as journal articles and book chapters.

You can filter results to full-text content by ticking the box(es) for Subscribed publications and/or Open Access articles. You can also filter by article type or to book chapters.

For journal article results where the full-text is NOT available, click on the article title to go to the full record, then click on the Find It button to search for the full item via Primo Search.

Most full-text journal content is available from 1995 onward and, for some journals, the content is available from Volume 1. New titles are added regularly.

Elsevier also produces the Scopus database, a huge abstract and citation database, and the eBook collections ClinicalKey Student: Nursing and ClinicalKey Student: Medicine.
Web of Science
A collection of 6 databases available in the Thomson Reuters interface, the most significant of which are: Web of Science Core Collection; Current Contents Connect; MEDLINE; and SciELO Citation Index. These databases can be searched together or individually.
Details of the 6 databases are:
* Web of Science Core Collection - a collection of 5 citation indexes and 2 chemical indexes, where you can, amongst other things, find citing articles (ie articles that have cited a specific reference);
* Current Contents Connect - a current awareness product which includes tables of contents and citations from journals from all disciplines;
* KCI-Korean Journal Database - features research emanating from South Korea, and covers about 2,000 scholarly journals;
* MEDLINE - the well-known international health and medicine database, produced by the (US) National Library of Medicine;
* Russian Science Citation Index - covers Russian research in fields such as engineering, materials science, and ecology, with more than 600 journals indexed;
* SciELO Citation Index (Scientific Electronic Library Online) - a program of the Sao Paulo Research Foundation for the cooperative publishing of open access journals, which includes regional journals from Latin America and the Caribbean as well as titles from Spain, Portugal and South Africa.

These databases can be searched together ("All Databases", which is the default) or individually. To change to a single database, click on the drop-down arrow beside All Databases in the main tab-bar of the Web of Science screen.

Most of the articles in this databases don't have the full-text attached, but you can use the Find it button, situated beneath each record, to locate the full-text in another online database or in a campus library print holding.

Please note: Web of Science does not work in Internet Explorer 6 or 7, or Internet Explorer 8 or 9 when running in Compatibility View. If you wish to use Web of Science with IE, you should update the version, and, in IE 8 or 9, hit F12 and check that your Browser Mode is not set to Compatibility View.

The Science database list has more databases you can search.

Other Sources

You may need to refer to news articles, legislation and Standards in your assessment.

ANZ Newsstream
A ProQuest database featuring the full-text of Australian and New Zealand newspapers. Previously called ANZ Newsstand
This database includes titles from Fairfax (including The Age and The Sydney Morning Herald) and News Ltd (including The Australian, The Adelaide Advertiser, and The Herald Sun), plus leading regional and local newspaper titles from Australia and New Zealand, and transcripts and wire feeds from ABC programs.

Coverage varies, but most newspaper content is available from the mid- to late-nineties.

Other databases with online full-text newspaper content are Trove, Factiva, and Newspaper Source Plus.
Factiva
A global news and business information service, with most material available in full-text. It covers science, health, education, the humanities, and other subjects but has a focus on business, including business news, and company and industry research.
Factiva is produced by Dow Jones, a leading global provider of economic and financial information.

The database has full-text content from newspapers, newswires, business journals, market research reports, analyst reports, and websites.

It includes material from :
* Australian newspapers, including The Age, The Sydney Morning Herald, and Business Review Weekly
* US newspapers, including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal
* Magazines, journals and trade publications, including Forbes and Newsweek
* Newswires, including AFP, Reuters, and Dow Jones
* company reports
* other content including TV and radio podcasts; and major news and business information websites, blogs and message boards.

Coverage varies but goes back as far as 1980.

There is a useful online Help Guide available from ProQuest. It includes help pages on Simple Search, Search Builder (Charles Sturt's subscription defaults to Search Builder), Results pages, Companies/Markets, and Sample Searches.

NOTE: Charles Sturt Library has only 3 concurrent-user licences to Factiva. If you can't get access, try again later.
Standards Online
This database provides full-text access to all Australian Standards, plus abstracts and contents information for other international standards such as ISO, IEC, EN, ETSI, NSAI, and JSA.
You can view standards online, print, or save to PDF. Online viewing is limited to 3 users at a time.
You can search the collection by title, number, keyword, scope, or publication dates. You can limit your search to Australian Standards only, or search all the Standards databases.

You can view online, print, or save as a PDF. Online viewing is limited to 3 users at a time.

You will need to have a PDF reader on your device in order to download and read Standards offline. When you click on the Download button, you will see instructions for downloading a standard. We suggest that you follow these instructions and then ensuring that you open the standard from the file folder and NOT in your browser.

Downloaded files will be watermarked with your email address, there are limited print options and restrictions on sharing and copy/pasting. More information can be found on the DRM Explained page and in the FAQs.

Common search tips

These search tips can help you to find more relevant results in Primo Search and many other library databases. You can also have a look at the Database Help and the Primo Search Help guides.

Search Operator	Example
Use AND to retrieve results that contain both of your search terms.	laboratory AND accident
Use OR to retrieve results that contain any or all of your search terms.	laboratory OR lab
Using NOT to exclude irrelevant results.	lab NOT retriever
Combine terms with parentheses to create complex searches.	(laboratory OR lab) AND accident
Use quotation marks to search for a phrase	"chemical hazard"
Search for terms with different word endings using an asterisk. Use this carefully. Some databases require at least 4 letters before the *	manag* = manage, managed, managing, management Pol* = policy, police, polymer, polygon and so many more!
A question mark can be used to replace a single letter within a word.	analy?e = analyse, analyze

Some databases use different symbols, so if these tips don't work in the database you are using check their help section.

Learn how to search efficiently in the Library databases:

Types of articles, critical appraisal and evaluating information

This section of the guide covers types of articles, how to critically read what you've found and how to appraise and evaluate that information.

Types of research articles

Original or primary research article. These articles are reports of original research. They include a hypothesis, a short literature review, methods, results, interpretation of findings, and a discussion of possible implications.

Review article

Review articles provide a summary and an evaluation of research on a topic. The review will also identify gaps in knowledge, which will help identify further research that needs to be done.

Case study

A case study is a research method that involves an in-depth, detailed examination of an organisation, event, action, or person over a defined period of time.

Clinical trial

Clinical trials are research investigations in which people volunteer to test new treatments, interventions or tests as a means to prevent, detect, treat or manage various diseases or medical conditions.

Methodologies or methods

These articles present an experimental method, test or procedure.

Perspective, opinion, and commentary

These scholarly articles express a personal opinion or a new perspective about existing research on a particular topic.

How to read an original research article

An "original research article" reports the results of an original research study. It is sometimes called a primary research article. The article also looks at how the study adds knowledge to what is already known.

When you start reading a scientific research article it will help if you understand what is included in the different sections and what you should look for. Check out this detailed step-by-step guide.

Critical appraisal is an important step in research. While there are many options you can choose from one tool available to you is the CASP (Critical Appraisal Skills Program) Checklist

Evaluating what you find is a vital step in your research. Learn more about evaluation by visiting the evaluating information page.

Last Updated: Jan 8, 2025 10:57 AM
URL: https://libguides.csu.edu.au/chm321
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