You can find journal articles in databases. For example, PubMed, PsycINFO and GoogleScholar. Sometimes they are open access. This means any person to freely access published research through online journals and databases. Searching with key terms helps make the search more efficient.
| Where to search: | It is useful for: | Watch out for: |
| Databases |
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| Google scholar |
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1. What do you want to find out? What is your research question? What is the main idea? What are some key words?
2. Connect your search words. Use OR for the search to include either words e.g. kidney OR renal. Use AND for the search to include both words e.g. Australians AND kidney
3. Use tricks: * helps search for similar words with different endings. “” helps search for common phrases
4. Look at the results. Filter by year or timeframe, type, subject or language
For example: You want to understand the impact of dialysis on young adults in Australia. You might start with the following:
Impact* (for impact or impacts) OR effect* (for effect or effects) OR influence* (for influence or influences) OR result* (for result or results)
AND
Dialysis OR hemodialysis OR peritoneal dialysis
AND
young people OR young person* (for young person or young persons) OR young adult* (for young adult or young adults)
AND
Australia* (for Australia and Australians)
*Module 7 The Research Cycle will explain further how to create a good research question.