Criminology and Justice: Assignment Research Example (CRI1103)

Research Process

• See the Starting your Research tab to begin the research process.
• See also Information Essentials on the Library website

Research Preparation

Make sure you understand the specifics of the assignment question/s. Check out the resources in the Reference Materials tab  to help tightly define your area. For example, 'The International Encyclopedia of the Social and Behavioral Sciences' or 'Halsbury’s Laws of Australia' are great ways to learn more about topics:

Search your subject-specific Dictionary / Thesaurus / Encyclopedia for Credible sources and alternative terms. See Reference Materials

Read over the entries, and look for keywords.

Use the entries for cross-references.

• Note the Keywords section; these are specific terms you may wish to include or exclude in your library searches.

E.g. "domestic violence" OR "intimate partner violence" 

• Follow linked articles and bibliographies as well
• Try Brainstorming/ Mind-mapping to better understand the connections between your subjects. For example, do you retrieve more relevant results with the term "domestic violence" or do you need a more specific term such as “intimate partner violence.”

Note: All ECU students have access to Lucid software through Canvas.

• Use subject-specific databases to search for your topic keywords. As demonstrated in Starting your research, combine your terms further for a more specific result.

E.g. "intimate partner violence" AND Australia

• Once you have identified some keywords, selected a relevant database to perform a scoping search 

See the Journals and Databases tab in the Lib Guide.

• Refine your results further, e.g. Peer review, Publishing date, Suggested Subjects, etc.
• In this example, the Subjects suggested and selected include: News media, Mass media effects, and Social media