Library Guides: Learning Objects: Perform a Search

Refining your results

Once the result list is displayed, there are a number of ways to refine/limit the search.

The Refine your results section allows you to limit your results to only full text online or only scholarly articles.

You can also limit the date range of the publication of the results.

Click on Show More to view all of the options available.

Limiting your results by source type

Once the result list is displayed, there are a number of ways to refine/limit the search.

Limit your results to a particular publication type by selecting the check box beside the relevant source type.

Limiting your results to a specific location

Once the result list is displayed, there are a number of ways to refine/limit the search.

Limit your results to physical resources available at certain campuses or within certain collections by selecting the check box beside the collection.

Databases related to your area of study

Most databases subscribed to by the Library are searched by Library Search.

If you are not finding the results you were looking for when using Library Search you may like to search these databases individually:

Locating specific resources

This table lists how you can locate different resources:

Resource	Search
book / book chapter	Perform a search using the book title OR a unique phrase from the book title [often in italics or underlined in a reference list]. *Tip*: If the book title contains a common phrase or is short in length, include an author's name in the search.
journal article	Perform a search of the article title OR a unique phrase from the article title. Tip: Not all journals articles can be accessed using Discover It!. If there are no results for your article title search, go to the e-Journals & e-Books webpage and perform a search on the *journal* title [often in italics or underlined in a reference list]. Go to the journal web page and browse for the volume and issue required.
conference paper	Perform a phrase search of the conference paper title OR a unique phrase from the conference paper title. Tip: Conference papers can be difficult to locate. If the paper is not available through Discover It!, try a Google search for the paper title or conference name as many conferences have a website. The website may include links to the full text of the paper.
newspaper article	Most Australian newspaper articles are not found through Discover It!. Go to the Newspaper Source Plus or Factiva databases and perform a search for the article title. Tip: Further assistance on finding newspaper articles is available.
standard	Australian Standards and Handbooks are not found through Discover It!. Go to the Standards Australia database. Tip: Further assistance on standards is available.

Google Scholar library links - instructions

CQUniversity staff and students can set preferences within Google Scholar to identify whether scholarly literature found in a Google Scholar search is held in the CQUniversity Library Collection.

To set preferences, follow the instructions below:

Go to Google Scholar - http://scholar.google.com.au/
Click on Settings.
Click on Library links.
Type CQUniversity Library into the search box and click on the search icon.
Tick the box that mentions CQUniversity Library - Full-text@CQUniversity
Click Save.

Go back to the Google Scholar search box, begin your searching, and click on the Full-text @ CQUniversity link to access the full text of articles.

Note: Google Scholar does not index all the scholarly literature that is available in the Library Collection. The Library Collection can be searched via several options available on the Library website.

Quick search guide

From your search results list, you can refine your search, view sources, print, save or export your results.

Refine Results

Review Results

Manage Results

View these options when you click on a result from the list.

All results in the results list are available from CQUniversity Library in print and/or electronic format.

To access results:

Click on PDF, HTML or Online Access links to open the full text of articles or ebooks.
Click View Catalogue Record to check the availability and location of print books, DVDs etc.
Click on to view full text article in another database.

Search for information on a topic using keywords

You can search across the Library's Collection from the Library home page.

Type your keywords into the the Library Search search box.

Make sure to include relevant search strategies when entering your keywords.

Depending on the keywords used, the results list could be quite lengthy.

Use the filters located on the right of the screen you can further focus your search, by publication year, resource type and more.

Finding CROs for your course

To find Course Resources Online for your course, simply enter the course code into the Discover It! search box.

The list of Course Resources Online will be displayed.

Click on Online Access to view the article.

Finding online journal articles using a citation

You may have a journal article citation (reference) and want to access the article online.

e.g. Van den Heuvel, SG, Geuskens, GA, Hooftman, WE, Koppes, LLJ, & Van den Bossche, SNJ 2010, 'Productivity loss at work; health-related and work-related factors', Journal Of Occupational Rehabilitation, vol. 20, no. 3, pp. 331-339.

The easiest way to check whether a journal article is available is to search for the article title using Library Search.

Enter all or part of the article title in the search box. Use double quotation marks around the title to limit the number of results.

If the journal article is found, the results list will display the journal article record. Click Get it to view your options for accessing the full text.

Article linker

The Library has access to a wide range of journal articles which may be available online or in print (or both).

Sometimes, an article will not be available in full text in the database being searched.

If the full text of the article is not immediately available, the Article Linker icon should be displayed near the citation/abstract.

Selecting this icon will initiate a search across other databases for the article.

Note: Not all databases use the term Article Linker. More full text options at CQU Library or Open URL may be used to find full text.

Selecting the Article Linker button will open a new window, with one of three possible responses:

The article will open directly in the new window.
A page will appear providing a choice of databases which hold the full text of the article.
A page will appear stating there is no online access to this article:

To check if the article is available in print, click the link By Journal / Book Title to initiate a search of the Library Catalogue. If the Library has access to the journal, then the journal title should appear in the Search Results list:

To find out which issues are available, select the appropriate journal title and view the Holdings page.

If the article is not available online or in print, one of the following options may be pursued:

Search for information on a topic

Searching for information using Discover It! can be carried out directly from the Library homepage.

Make sure to include any of the search strategies (e.g. phrase searching, use of Boolean operators) you think will help to find more relevant information.

A sample search is shown below.

You then click on the the Search button and you will be presented with a list of search results in a new window.

You can practice a search using the box below:

Depending on the search terms you use, the list could be long.

By using the filter Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals located on the left of the results screen, you can limit your results to articles from this particular type of scholarly journal.