Skip to Main Content
USC logo

NUR121: Healthcare and the Professions

Getting Started

Library services and resources will be essential for you to complete this and most other courses you do at USC. This page introduces the Library and its many services and provides some hints on doing assignments.

Use the other tabs on this Guide to see information to help you complete each of your assessment tasks.

Many more relevant resources can be found in our full discipline Guides:

Starting an Assessment

Before searching for information, make sure you understand the task.

Task
1. Analyse the task to identify keywords and topics, then develop a search strategy

Look up
2. Find the meaning of words in a textbook or dictionary

Books
3. Find academic books to broaden your knowledge of key concepts and terminology

Articles
4. Find academic journal articles and current research

Cite
5. Save the citation of any source you plan to use

Self-paced library tutorials

Explore our interactive tutorials to develop and test your research skills.

All about textbooks

Why use text books?

Text books are a great place to begin your research as they provide details about:

  • the history or overview of a topic
  • changes and major developments
  • key theories and approaches for a discipline
  • discipline specific terminology and definitions

Duration 1:51

Search strategy

After you have analysed your topic and found learned new terminology from some text books, it is time to think about your search strategy to find journal articles. There are several tools you can use to make your search more efficient. Visit the Search effectively guide or watch the video Online Research: Tips for effective search strategies. In summary:

  • place OR between alternative keywords for a single topic
  • place AND between the different topics
  • use truncation * to find alternative endings to words
  • use "phrase searching" to find exact phrases

Duration 3:04

All about journal articles

What are scholarly journal articles?

Journal articles are considered scholarly if they:

  • are written by academics and qualified professionals in the discipline
  • are published in reputable journals, usually peer-reviewed journals
  • use discipline specific vocabulary
  • include in-text citations and a list of references at the end
  • include an abstract at the beginning
  • weigh and present all evidence fairly

© University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia | ABN 28 441 859 157 | CRICOS Provider No. 01595D