Finding library resources
Once you've planned your search, you are ready to start looking for relevant resources. This page outlines how to locate e-books, print books and journal articles and unpacks terms such as scholarly journal and peer review.
Finding e-books
E-books can be a great place to start your research. They may provide in depth, long form research, an overview of the research in your topic or chapters discussing specific but related research topics.
Deakin College students have access to a select range of electronic resources. To browse e-books only, select the ‘e-books’ limit from the filters on the A-Z databases page.
Using e-books
The easiest way to read an e-book is to access and read it online without downloading it. If you are going to be using the e-book when you have no internet access, you may wish to download the e-book. Each e-book platform can look a bit different, but most have similar features.
Finding Print Books
Use the Catalogue to search for print books in the Library. Select the ‘print books’ option from the drop-down selection to refine your search. You can request a book from any campus by clicking the ‘REQUEST IT’ button.
Finding Journal Articles
Journal articles are written by experts on very specific topics of research. The articles are published within journals, which are scholarly publications that are released regularly throughout the year. You can access journals from databases and Google Scholar.
To search for journal articles visit the A-Z databases page. From this page you can search for databases relevant to your subject area, or use one of the popular multidisciplinary databases. Once you have selected a database to search you can then use keywords from your research topic to search for and find relevant articles.
Finding Scholarly Resources
What is a scholarly journal?
A scholarly journal is a publication in which experts in a field submit articles. This is one of the primary means through which many disciplines discuss new findings, ideas and research.
What is a scholarly article?
Scholarly articles can also be referred to as academic or peer reviewed articles. They have been through a formal review process prior to publication to ensure they are academic in nature and meet specific criteria. They are written to inform or report research to a scholarly audience, and therefore tend to use technical language.
Many of these articles have been through a peer review process. They contain an abstract along with a list of references or other readings.
What does peer review mean?
Evaluation of scientific, academic, or professional work by others working in the same field. To get more familiar with this concept you can explore the peer review guide.
For help finding a particular journal or journal article, try these instructions for finding specific articles and books
How do you decide if a journal is peer reviewed?
Here are some tips to help you identify a peer reviewed journal:
- These journals will always include a statement to identify themselves
- Most databases have a search option to limit the search results to peer reviewed /refereed / scholarly articles
- Look for information about the journal when searching databases
- Still in doubt? Find out more information on the journal by going to the journal's website
Video: Peer Review in 4 minutes
Click the play button below to watch the video on Peer Review in 4 minutes (03:41).