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Using Academic Information

Reflect

Imagine this...

You look at your assessment task and the assessment criteria says that you must use at least five academic journal articles and one book in your essay.

What would you do?

Can you identify a journal article citation and a book citation?

When you find a journal article or a book, do you know how to tell if it is academic?

 

Learn

How can I tell the difference between a journal article citation and a book citation?

This short video will show you how to identify the elements of a journal article citation and a book citation.

Journals and journal articles

What does an academic journal article look like?

To determine whether a journal is academic look at the following features:

I have a journal article citation, how do I find the full text?

Use the Library search engine to search for the title (or some words from the article title) and author of journal article you need. Under 'Refine your search', limit 'Source Types' to 'Academic Journals'

Books and eBooks

What does an academic book look like?

To determine whether a book is academic look at the following features:

I have the citation for a book or a book chapter, how can I find the book?

Use the Library search engine to search for the title and author (or some keywords from the title) of the book or eBook you're interested in. Under 'Refine your search', limit 'Source Types' to 'Books'.

 

Apply

You now know how to recognise an academic information resource. The following activities will show you what to do when you want to find a journal article title or a book title from a reference list.

Learn how to find a journal article title using the Library search engine - Guide on the Side

Learn how to find a book title using the Library search engine - Guide on the Side

Note: These activities will open in a new browser window, and are best completed on a laptop or desktop computer.