MIS782 Value of Information
This guide is designed to help you find resources for the MIS782 assessment. Use Library databases and open access resources to locate relevant information. To supplement and use quality resources to support your research, look at tips on using the Advanced Search to locate journal articles, newspaper/media articles and company information/data.
About NIKE
- D&B Hoovers for company SWOT and analyst reportsCore and Advanced company information with SWOT and analyst reports and detailed insight There is no direct link to these reports. Go into D&B Hoovers and type the company name in Search for a Company box at the top of the page.
Search for news and media information about LinkedIn from our newspaper databases.
- FairFax Media NewspapersOur subscription to Fairfax Media Newspapers covers access to The Age ; Australian Financial Review and The Sydney Morning Herald.
- News Limited NewspapersOur subscription to News Limited Newspapers covers access to Geelong Advertiser ; The Australian, Herald Sun ; Daily Telegraph ; Courier Mail ; The Mecury and other News Limited titles.
- Newsbank Access AustraliaNewsbank Access Australia is a text and image newspaper database which features a large collection of Australian news from multiple newspaper sources and is updated daily.
- Company, Industry and Company InformationA resource guide by Deakin Library dedicated to resources on Company, Industry and Company information.
- A-Z Newspapers and JournalsGo to this link when looking for newspaper databases and individual journal titles.
Planning your search
Before you begin looking for resources for your research, invest some time planning your search strategy. Spending a small amount of time now will save you time and frustration later. This sounds obvious, but to begin searching you should be clear about the topic of your research or assessment. Ensure you review your assessment instructions. You may already have received a topic, a statement or clues to guide your search. So write down your summary and check that it's clear and focused.
Related Links
Referencing and academic writing are not the Library's area of expertise.
If you need assistance in these areas, it is best to contact Academic Skills or the Study Support team.
Summarise your question or topic
This sounds obvious, but to begin searching you should be clear about the topic of your research or assessment.
If this is for an assessment, ensure you review your assessment instructions. You may already have received a topic, a statement or clues to guide your search.
So write down your summary and check that it's clear and focused.
Identify the keywords
Now highlight, underline or circle the keywords or main concepts in your summary. These words can help you build your search strategy and set parameters.
Think of alternative search words for each concept
These can be synonyms, related words, abbreviations, acronyms and other words that are specific to your topic. For example,
- competitive advantage can also mean business advantage
- social media can also mean social networks
To discover synonyms, refer to a thesaurus (such as https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus) and see what other words could be used.
Be clever
Now you have a strong basis for your search, it doesn't stop there.
Use Advanced Search to improve your search strategy. Create clever search strings using symbols and special characters to get better search results! More details about these advanced search techniques are in the section below.
Document your search
This will help you plan your search properly and remember the techniques.
Download the planner below and follow the steps to create your own search strategy.
Library Advanced Search
To make the most of Library Advanced Search, it is good to know a few tips and tricks! Using the Advanced Search in the library, you can search for more than one concept with its predictive text function that will bring up relevant keywords and concepts you may never have thought of. Use the tips below to target your searching to return more relevant results.
Phrase searching narrows a search to show results that contain an exact phrase e.g. "competitive advantage"
To conduct a phrase search, add double quote marks around two or more words you want to search for.
For example: searching for "social networks" will only return records that contain this exact term. The search will not return results where the word 'social' or 'networks' appear alone.
Truncation searching broadens a search to show results that include words with variation.
To conduct a truncation search, use an asterix character * to signify where the variation should exist.
Use this when you want to show results that include words with different endings. For example, searching for project* will return records that contain any of these words: 'project', 'projects', 'projection', 'projector', etc.
Truncation can also be useful when spelling variations exist. For example, searching for organi*ation will return records that contain either of these words: 'organisation', 'organization'.
Truncation searching is sometimes referred to as wildcard searching or stemming.
Boolean searching is a type of search that allows users to combine keywords with operators (such as AND, OR, NOT) to produce more relevant results
Using the word AND between two search terms narrows a search to show results containing both terms.
Example: "facebook" AND "competitive advantage"
Conversely, using the word OR between two terms broadens a search to show results containing either term.
Example: "social media" OR "social networks"
Using NOT will narrow your search by excluding certain results from your search, however as the video on the next tab shows it should be used with care as this technique can remove relevant results.
Example: "higher education" NOT "community college"
Suggested keywords and concepts
Use the predictive text function in Library Advanced Search to generate similar keywords and concepts. This can also help refine your research.
What resources should I use?
Library Advanced Search will generate search results from a wide range of resources. So which one/s should you use? This will depend on your assessment. If you are required to use scholarly or peer-reviewed articles, then you must include them.
Not sure what academic or scholarly resources are or how to find them? See Access Resources
Filter your search results
Tick the respective boxes to select the appropriate resource type
