Library Guides: GPM417 Research Skills Guide: Develop your skills

Welcome

Hi. I'm Heather, your librarian for GPM417 and I've created this guide to help you with your research.

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. See the Extend your skills page for advanced search techniques and use the activities on the Test your knowledge page 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.

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

From your assessment tasks:

Keywords	Synonyms or related terms
terrorism	terroristic activity, organised group, systematic violence or intimidation, political...
emergence	origin, history, historical context, aims, ideology, foundation, grievances, development, rise...
evolution	actions, activities, trends, expansion, leadership, escalation...
counterterrorism	countered, response, government response

Remember: You also need to identify keywords relevant to your chosen group or organisation. Start by identifying any group name variations or abbreviations.

Also consider if your task places any limits that will focus your research. These might be geographic or time-based limitations.

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:

Political Extremism and Radicalism
This Gale Primary Sources database covers far-right and radical-left political groups from the US, Europe, and Australia in the twentieth century.
Subject content includes philosophical, social, political, and economic ideologies and contemporary issues surrounding gender, sexuality, race, religion, civil rights, and universal suffrage. Materials include periodicals, campaign propaganda, government records, oral histories, and various ephemera.

Sources include the Searchlight Archive at the University of Northampton, the American Radicalism Collection at Michigan State University, the Hall-Hoag Collection of Dissenting and Extremist Printed Propaganda from the John Hay Library at Brown University, and various collections from The National Archives in the UK.

The material is largely from Britain and the US but also covers factions from Europe and Australia
.
You can search using basic or advanced search. You can also use the Topic Finder and Topic Frequency search tools.
International Security and Counter Terrorism Reference Center
A database which includes full-text articles; news feeds; reports; summaries; books; FAQs; images; and proprietary Background Information Summaries that pertain to terrorism and security. Available here in the standard EBSCOhost interface.
International Security & Counter Terrorism Reference Center provides a comprehensive open source intelligence resource for analysts, risk management professionals, and students.

Content includes: hundreds of thousands of selected articles from full-text journals; news feeds; reports (including Stratfor Analysis, Stratfor Forecasts, and Stratfor Geopolitical Diary); summaries; books; FAQs; and proprietary Background Information Summaries that pertain to terrorism and security.

An Images file of over 9,000 pertinent images has been added to the database. You can access this images collection by hovering your mouse over the More heading in the blue bar at the top of the search screen.

ISCTRC is one of many databases available in EBSCOhost. Once on the EBSCOhost search screen, you can change databases by clicking on the Choose Databases link above the search boxes.
Global Terrorism Database
An open-source database providing information on terrorist events around the world from 1970 through 2020.
For each GTD incident, information is available on the date and location of the incident, the weapons used and nature of the target, the number of casualties, and--when identifiable--the group or individual responsible.

Statistical information contained in the Global Terrorism Database is based on reports from a variety of open media sources.
Terms of Use

The Emergency Management, Policing and Public Safety or Customs, Excise and Security lists have more databases you can search.

Learn how to search efficiently in Primo and Library databases:

News and media

You are encouraged to use counter-terrorism discource and policies discussed in historical newspapers as part of your case investigation. I recommend trying the following databases:

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.
Newspaper Source Plus
A database of full-text newspaper articles and news transcripts from a range of sources, mainly in the U.S., but including The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age.
This database features more than 1200 full-text newspapers, and includes more than 86 million full-text articles, plus more than 2 million television and radio news transcripts.

The newspapers covered include the New York Times (from January 1985 to present), Christian Science Monitor, Irish Times (Ireland), San Francisco Chronicle, The Times (UK), Toronto Star, USA Today, The Washington Post, and The Washington Times, while tv and radio sources include ABC News (American Broadcasting Company), CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation), CBS News, CNBC, CNN, CNN International, FOX News, MSNBC, National Public Radio, and PBS.

The database is mainly American in focus, but does include some international material (as listed above), and some Australian material, including The Sydney Morning Herald, and news transcripts from the (Australian) ABC.

For a more comprehensive source of Australian and New Zealand newspaper articles, please see ANZ Newsstream.
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.

Additional sources

Check the Research Links in your subject site and our Terrorism Library Resource Guide for additional recommended resources including key journals, useful websites, think tanks, and supplementary databases.

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.

For your assessment topic potential search strings could include:

(IRA OR "Irish Republican Army") AND terrori*
(IRA OR "Irish Republican Army") AND (history OR origin*)
terroris* AND (response OR counter OR counterterrorism)

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 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.

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

Here are some pages to get you started:

Chicago Style

The Library has access to The Chicago Manual of Style Online, and there are print copies of past editions in the Library collection.

Additional resources:

Chicago Manual of Style Citation Quick Guide
Referencing at CSU has helpful links, guides, and information about referencing consultations.

If you're using EndNote, you can change your Endnote settings to Chicago, so it will automatically format your in-text citations and bibliography in Chicago style.

Your textbook

Good news!

Your textbooks are available online through the library!

Terrorism: A history by Law, R.D.
Publication Date: 2016
Chasing Shadows by Campion, K.
Publication Date: 2022

Watch: eBook etiquette

Search skills demonstration

Watch these videos for an overview of the library services and how to search for information.

You can download a PDF of the slide deck below.

GPM417 Research demonstration
slides PDF

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.

Develop your digital skills

Our Digital Skills module series is designed to empower you with the tools and knowledge needed to thrive in the digital landscape, at university and beyond.

Check out the Digital skills module series to discover tips on content creation, security and safety in the digital world, AI, and more.

Keen for more?

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

Last Updated: Jul 4, 2025 1:53 PM
URL: https://libguides.csu.edu.au/gpm417
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