What are Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles?
- Scholarly or peer-reviewed or refereed journals are academic-quality publications, which disseminate research findings. Journals have a consistent cover title, are published at regular intervals, and contain specific, up-to-date articles, written by experts. Students are expected to use these journal articles when researching an assignment.
By contrast, trade publications are published to keep professionals up-to-date and magazines are published for the general public. These do not go through a peer-review process.
- Ulrichsweb This link opens in a new windowUse the UlrichsWeb database to check if a journal is peer-reviewed / refereed.
Instructions: To find journal articles on a topic
- Type your topic or keywords into the search box and click search.
More than one keyword can be linked together using the search operator AND - eg: management AND innovation AND leadership requires the results to contain all three words in the article. - Another common search technique is the use of speech marks " " for a phrase - eg: "human resource management"
- Once the results are displayed, using the filters on the left, limit the results shown to items held by ECU - select Edith Cowan University
- Under Content select peer reviewed
- Select a date range if required - eg: Last 5 Years will ensure the currency of your journal articles
- Select the article title, or 'View full text' button, to link to the journal article in the database where it is held.
- Once the article displays, you will need to locate the PDF download button to save or print that article.
Instructions: To find a specific journal article
- Insert one of the authors' surname and the journal article title (in "speech marks") in the search box.
- To access the full text of the journal article, select the title or 'View full text' button to link to the journal article in the database where it is held.
- Once the article displays, you will need to locate the PDF download button to save or print that article.
Due to publisher restrictions, the ECU Library Search may not find all relevant articles contained within the business databases. It is strongly recommended that you also search within a number of the databases and compare your results. For more instructions and recommended databases, see the "Databases - Journal Articles" box below.
1. Break your topic into concepts.
e.g. Social entrepreneurship in the Tourism and Hospitality industry.
Concept = Social entrepreneurship
Concept = Tourism
Concept = Hospitality
2. Consider alternative keywords:
Concept = Social enterprise, social innovation
Concept = Travel
3. Use truncation to search for variations of words:
touris* (tourist, tourism)
4. Use inverted comas for phrases:
"social media"
5. Use AND to narrow the search:
AND hospitality
"social entrepreneurship" AND touris*
6. Use OR to broaden the search:
"social entrepr*" OR "social innovat*"
7. Beware of differences between British and American spelling and terminology - use a ? wildcard:
organisation / organization = organi?ation
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Searching using Boolean OperatorsThe Boolean search operators are AND, OR and NOT, and always in capital letters. Use these operators to create a very broad or very narrow search.
What are Databases?
Library databases are collections of searchable information sources (books, journal articles, conference papers etc.)
- some databases index only items published by the publisher (e.g. Emerald)
- some databases are compiled by companies who select a variety of published materials (e.g. Proquest)
- some databases index each journal title from cover to cover (e.g. Emerald)
- some databases pick out only what they consider key articles (e.g. informit)
- databases vary in the topics, publication titles and publication types indexed
Because of the different resources available in all the different databases, you should use a variety of other library databases to fully research a topic.
Databases - Citation and Abstract
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Web of Science This link opens in a new window
Web of Science is a multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, and provides both author and journal metrics (performance analytics) of the literature indexed in the database. -
Scopus This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary abstract and citation database of peer-reviewed literature, and provides both author and journal metrics (performance analytics) of the literature indexed in the database.
Databases - Journal Articles
Not all databases can be searched using ECU Worldsearch. In some instances, it will be more appropriate to search databases individually. Many of the databases covering business disciplines are listed below - take time to explore these and find the ones best suited to your needs.
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ProQuest Central (Current ECU Students & Staff) This link opens in a new window
International multidisciplinary database indexing a selection of journals in all subject disciplines. It is useful for a broad cross-disciplinary search, rather than in-depth in a subject. -
Emerald Insight This link opens in a new window
Covers Accounting, Finance, Economics, Business, Management, Education, Engineering, Health & Social Care, Library Studies, Marketing, Sociology, Tourism & Hospitality, and Transport. -
Business Collection This link opens in a new window
Covers Accounting, Career Development, Commercial Law, Corporate Governance, e-Business, Economics, Employment, Human Resources, Labour, Management, Marketing, Occupational Health, Taxation, and Unions. -
APAFT (Australian Public Affairs Full Text) This link opens in a new windowCovers Australia's Political, Economic and Social Affairs on topics such as Current Affairs, Economics, Humanities, Law, Literature, Politics and Social Sciences.
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ScienceDirect Journals & Books This link opens in a new window
A Web database for scientific research that contains the full text of more than 2,500 scholarly journals including over 250 fully Open Access publications. Covers Physical Sciences and Engineering, Life Sciences, Health Sciences, Social Sciences and Humanities. -
Taylor & Francis Online Journals This link opens in a new window
Publishes more than 2,500 journals and over 5,000 new books each year, with a books backlist in excess of 120,000 specialist titles. As well as scholarly journals and books, they also publish eBooks, text books and reference works. -
WARC This link opens in a new window
Offers advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world's leading brands. WARC also publishes leading journals including Admap, Market Leader, the Journal of Advertising Research and the International Journal of Market Research.
Watch this quick overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB5mNDFVIvw
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Wiley Online Library This link opens in a new window
Hosts the world's broadest and deepest multidisciplinary collection of online resources covering life, health and physical sciences, social science, and the humanities. -
SAGE Journals Online This link opens in a new window
SAGE publishes more than 1000 journals and over 800 new books each year, spanning a wide range of subject areas. Their growing selection of library products includes archives, data, case studies and video. -
Springer Nature Link Journals and eBooks This link opens in a new window
Provides access to millions of scientific documents from journals, books, series, protocols, reference works and proceedings. -
Cambridge Core - Journals & eBooks This link opens in a new window
A multidisciplinary database, coverage includes: Art, Chemistry, Computer Science, Drama and Theatre, Economics, Education, Engineering, Law, Medicine, Music, Psychology, and more...
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Oxford Journals This link opens in a new window
Oxford publish over 300 journals in the humanities, social sciences, law, science, and medicine, two-thirds of which are published in partnership with learned and professional societies.
Databases - Industry, Markets and Company Information
Use the following databases to find country-specific industry reports and customisable statistical data reports:
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IBISWorld This link opens in a new window
Australian and global industry analysis for a range of industries, services and products, containing Industry Market Research, Industry Risk Ratings and Company Research.
Watch online tutorials: https://help-ibisworld-com.ezproxy.ecu.edu.au/en/
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MarketLine This link opens in a new window
Provides data and up-to-date information on companies, industries and countries across the world.
Click here for the MarketLine user guide and video tutorials.
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SAGE Business Cases This link opens in a new window
Access more than 4,200 authoritative cases from over 100 countries covering entrepreneurship, accounting, healthcare management, leadership, social enterprise, and more. -
DatAnalysis This link opens in a new window
Contains company data and up to date financial data for all ASX (Australian Securities Exchange) listed companies, updated daily from relevant ASX announcements. Search by using the ASX code or all or part of the company name.
Watch the DatAnalysis tutorial.
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WARC This link opens in a new window
Offers advertising best practice, evidence and insights from the world's leading brands. WARC also publishes leading journals including Admap, Market Leader, the Journal of Advertising Research and the International Journal of Market Research.
Watch this quick overview: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nB5mNDFVIvw
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Gartner This link opens in a new window
Global research and advisory company delivering strategic advice and best practices. -
Business Market Research Collection This link opens in a new window
Contains company, industry, economic and geopolitical market research from three sources, including Hoover's Company Records, OxResearch from Oxford Analystica, and Snapshots. -
World Development Indicators (WDI) This link opens in a new windowThe primary World Bank collection of development indicators, compiled from officially-recognized international sources. It presents the most current and accurate global development data available, and includes national, regional and global estimates.
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WorldData.AI This link opens in a new windowCurated data from global sources. Sign up using your ECU email to access, search and download data from over 3.3 billion datasets.
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World Bank - Data CatalogIncludes the following & many more:
* World Development Indicators & Africa Development Indicators
* Global Development Finance
* Research Datasets and Analytical Tools -
Regional Economic Reports (IMF)These reports discuss recent economic developments and prospects for countries in various regions, as well as regional policy developments and challenges, and provide country-specific data and analysis.
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SNIPER (Searchable Networked Intellectual Property Electronic Resource) This link opens in a new windowProduced by the Library at IP Australia. Contains journal articles, conference papers, and other documents about issues in intellectual property. It provides a knowledge base to support policy, awareness and research in intellectual property matters.