1La Trobe University

Finding Resources for LST2/3VIC

Use these slides to learn how to:

Identify keywords from your topic

Search for a particular journal

Search using the Library Search tab

Search using the ProQuest Central database

Find more information

Photo: by Anon http://ediscoverytimes.com/concept-search-vs-keyword-search-in-ediscovery/ CC BY 3.0 AU http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/au/

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Identify keywords from your topicKey concepts are the focus of the essay question and what you need to write about. Identifying concepts will help you choose which words or phrases best describe your topic. This will allow you to create a good search strategy and find relevant resources.

Identify the key concepts from your topic:1. Victims are catalysts for far-reaching reforms in the criminal justice system. Critically discuss using at least one example.

2. Who is the ‘ideal victim’? How do stereotypes surrounding ideal victims affect the response of the criminal justice system when victims do not fall into these categories? Critically discuss in relation to a specific crime or breach of convention (e.g. rape, assault, seeking asylum etc.) and/or social determinant (e.g. gender, age, race, class etc.).

Think of alternate terms you should also search for. For the essay questions above, you might want to try:• Victims or “victims of crime”• Rape or “sexual assault” or “sex crime”• “hate crime” or “racial violence”• Assault or bashing• Gay-bashing or queer-bashing• Include Australia if you want to limit the jurisdiction

When searching for resources, always try different combinations of keywords, such as:• Victim and reform and “criminal justice system”• Victim and stereotype and gender and (rape or “sexual assault” or “sex crime”)• “ideal victim” and stereotype• “ideal victim” and (assault or bashing)• Race and (“hate crime” or “racial violence”)

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Search for a particular journal

1. Select the Journals tab on the Library’s homepage

2. Type the name of the journal into the search box

3. Click Go

4. At the results screen, select the online version of the journal

5. Select the Springer Online database to login to this journal

Tips:• When a journal is available from

different databases choose the one with the broadest access dates. For this journal, Springer Online has issues from 1993 to the current issue; the other databases have fewer years available.

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Search using the Library Search tab

Use the Search tab to find journal articles and books.

1. Select the Search tab on the Library’s homepage2. Type your search terms into the search box3. Click Go4. At the results page, use the options on the left to

limit your results to Scholarly resources5. Access the full text article by selecting the online

icon

Tips:• Place inverted commas around a phrase to search

for the words together, e.g. “ideal victim” or “victims of crime”

• If you get too many results to browse through, add another search term to reduce the number of results

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Search using the ProQuest Central databaseMake sure you know your search strategy before using a database. What are your keywords and which

alternate words should you use? See slide 2 for more information about keywords.

Login to ProQuest Central through the Library’s website http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/databases/terms.php?I=ARL22699

1. Type your keywords into each search box, with one key concept per line. In the example below I am searching for the concepts victim and stereotype and rape and gender. I have added “sexual assault” as an alternative to rape.

2. Always tick the Scholarly option to make sure your results are scholarly resources

3. Leave the search fields as Anywhere except full text – ALL and click Search

Search tips:• Place an asterisk at the end of a word

to search for alternate endings, e.g. victim* will also find victims, victimology, victimization, victimisation

• Place inverted commas around a phrase, e.g. “sexual assault” or “ideal victim” or “hate crime”

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Need more information?

Searching for Journal Articles – see the online Library Skills Module http://latrobe.libguides.com/findingarticles

Searching for information – see the online Library Skills Module http://latrobe.libguides.com/content.php?pid=171109&sid=1440892

Harvard Referencing – see the Academic Referencing Tool for examples http://www.lib.latrobe.edu.au/referencing-tool/harvard

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