LibGuides: Child Play Therapy: Grey literature and Google

Grey literature and Google

We have listed a few grey literature sources in your field to get you started including websites, statistics and more generally, tips to searching Google and Google Scholar. However, there could be many more useful and high-quality resources available.

Recommended websites

Learn to Play
Dr Karen Stagnitti has assembled a wide range of resources for therapists, parents and teachers.
Evidenced-based Child Therapy
The overarching goal of this website is to provide greater visibility for the evidence base for play therapy interventions and provide a venue for disseminating research on a global scale.
HealthDirect
Australian government gateway to health information.

Organisations

Association for Play Therapy
The Association for Play Therapy (APT) is a US professional society aimed at fostering contact among mental health professionals interested in exploring and, when developmentally appropriate, applying the therapeutic power of play to communicate with and treat clients, particularly children.
Australasia Pacific Play Therapy Association (APPTA)
APPTA is an independent organisation designed to promote and enhance the image of professional play therapy practice and support professionals who work in the field.
Australian Childhood Foundation
The Australian Childhood Foundation works to ensure that all children are safe from the trauma from abuse, violence and neglect.
British Association of Play Therapists
The British Association of Play Therapists is the primary professional body for Play Therapists in the UK.
Child Trauma Academy
CTA is a not-for-profit organization based in Houston, Texas working to improve the lives of high-risk children through direct service, research and education.

Google and Google Scholar

Google and Google Scholar are particularly useful when searching for grey literature, e.g. organisational reports, working papers, government reports and information, statistics, conference papers, patents, blogs, webpages etc.

Google Scholar is a search engine for a variety of scholarly and grey literature - however Google Scholar has a broad scope, does not distinguish between peer-reviewed and non-peer reviewed sources and the algorithm can bias the results that are shown to you. Take a look at our evaluating information webpage to help you check the quality of resources.

Asking the right questions in the right way

You can get the most out of search engines like Google and Google Scholar by asking your questions in the right way. You will usually find help pages, FAQs, or guides to searching on individual search engine homepages. But here are some common tips to keep in mind:

Try to keep your search queries simple

Carefully choose your keywords, and remember to think about alternate terms that could be used

If you need to search on a single term, make the term as specific as possible

Enclose "exact phrases" in quotation marks

Leave out common words, such as the, and, in and at

Search tools usually look for word variations, including single and plural terms e.g. Australia will match to Australian, Australia's, Australians etc.

Use domains to limit your search to material on specific websites, e.g. .gov.au for Australian government sites

For further information on searching Google, please check out the below handout.

Complex Google searching

Tip

If you are going to use Google Scholar in your searching, please follow our instructions to Connect your Google Scholar with Deakin Library, this will allow the Find it @ Deakin button to appear in your search results so you can go directly to the article full-text (PDF).