Research Skills for Architecture, Design & Planning
In academic writing it is essential to show the sources of your ideas, to reference factual information, and to demonstrate that you have researched, read, and can base your argument on, the key literature in your field.
Searching for information in journal articles is one of the best ways find research materials.
As a starting point for your assignment, some journal articles may be listed in your course outline, and may be available via the Library's electronic Reserve.
See Find articles on your reading list.
However, it is likely that you will need to find more readings, by conducting your own research.
See: Find articles on your topic
For a thorough literature search, and to find specific academic references in international sources, it is necessary to use the Library's bibliographic databases.
The Library subscribes to databases from Australian and international providers. These databases are used to find:
Find articles
A literature search is the first task for most assignments.In academic writing it is essential to show the sources of your ideas, to reference factual information, and to demonstrate that you have researched, read, and can base your argument on, the key literature in your field.
Searching for information in journal articles is one of the best ways find research materials.
As a starting point for your assignment, some journal articles may be listed in your course outline, and may be available via the Library's electronic Reserve.
See Find articles on your reading list.
However, it is likely that you will need to find more readings, by conducting your own research.
See: Find articles on your topic
Find articles on your reading list
- Search the Reserve Collection - Course readings, lecture notes etc
- Use: Library catalogue - quick search to find:
- Unit of Study code - eg ARCF 9012
- Unit of Study name - eg Urban Design Studio
- Lecturer's name - eg Hill Glen Dr
- Title of article - eg Model housing and housing ideology in Australia
Find articles on your topic
Very few journal articles can be found by using the Library catalogue. There are selected articles from your course readings on the Library catalogue, but the catalogue is not designed as a comprehensive search tool to find the contents of all journals and serial publications.For a thorough literature search, and to find specific academic references in international sources, it is necessary to use the Library's bibliographic databases.
The Library subscribes to databases from Australian and international providers. These databases are used to find:
- a wide range of Australian and international sources
- published and unpublished materials that may or may not be held at University of Sydney Libraries
- up-to date academic research
- very specific academic papers
- backfiles of historical material
- the entire reference or citation of an article
- in many cases, the full text of each article
- technical terms
- title
- author
- names of institutions, organisations, place names, geographic areas, etc
- specific dates or date ranges
Next
Go deeper - more information
- Reserve - course readings
- How to interpret reading lists [2pp. pdf] - summary document
- Searching [3pp. pdf] - summary document
- Find journal titles