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research [n.]
[mass noun] 1. the systematic investigation into and study of materials and sources in order to establish facts and reach new conclusions 2.
[as modifier] engaged in or intended for research
[verb] 1. investigate systematically 2. discover or verify information for use in [a book, programme,
etc.]
- Origin : late 16th century : from obsolete French recerche [noun], recercher [verb, from Old French re- [expressing
intensive force] + cerchier ‘to search’.
This page looks at general information covering advice, resources, tools and research using the internet.
The First Page looks at both Australian and international Research sites and links to Help with research at Primary, Secondary and Teriary levels.
There is also information on Plagiarism which can be found on this page and includes prevention tools and copyright information.
Other Information
- Evaluation of Information Sources
‘Contains pointers to criteria for evaluating information resources, particularly those on the Internet. It is intended to be particularly useful … [f]or informing users as to the qualities they should use in evaluating Internet information’.
Research Advice
- A+ Research and Writing
[For High School and College Students] - Action Research for Teachers
‘This guide for classroom action research was created by teachers for teachers. The resources here were designed to support reflective and systematic improvement of teaching’. - Advice for Students : 10 Steps Toward
Better Research
‘To help students get up to speed on basic research skills, here’s 10 tips to help you find, organise and use the information you need to put together a decent research paper’. - Collected Advice on Research and Writing
Annotated links to all aspects of written work, especially for secondary and tertiary levels. Listed under topic headings. - Glossary of Research Terms
Alphabetical directory. From Abstract to Wildcard. - Guidelines on Good Research
Practice
From the Wellcome Trust. While applying to research funded by them, it is also applicable to all research. - How to be a Winner
‘Advice for students starting into research work’. - Research and Teaching
Portals covering ‘education’ to ‘meta-analysis’ and diverse topics in between. - Research Beyond
Google
[119 Authoritative, Invisible, and Comprehensive Resources]
‘Got a research paper or thesis to write ? Want to research using the Internet ? Good luck. There’s a lot of junk out there. Using Google or Wikipedia may lead you to some results, but you can rarely be sure of accuracy. And what’s more, you’ll only be searching a fraction of all of the resources available to you’. Points out a range of other valuable sources to use. - Research-It !
Guide to research. - ResearchPaper.com
- Research Methods Glossary
Research terms, from ‘audit trail’ to ‘variance’. Clear explanations of each. - Seven Steps of the Research Process, The
- Virtual Training Suite - Free Internet Tutorials to Develop Internet Research Skills
‘The Virtual Training Suite is a set of Free Internet tutorials to help you develop Internet research skills for your university course’.
Research Resources
- About
Collections created by experts. Find information on almost any topic. Start with a major category and work down levels to the exact thing you want. - Beyond Information Gathering
Good introduction. ‘Discusses ways to encourage teachers to move towards a pedagogy that embraces problem-based learning in an information rich environment - the Internet’. - Bloomsbury Research Centre
17 000+ reference books ‘to search on a wide range of subjects including literature, art, myth, human thought, quotations and thesaurus, or browse each book at your leisure’. - CSIRO Sustainable Ecosystems
[Library Services]
‘CSE Library Services plays an integral role in supporting the research and information needs of staff located throughout Australia. Our objective is to ensure our researchers have the information they need, whenever and wherever they need it’. - Digital Library Of The Commons
‘The DLC provides free and open access to full-text articles, papers, and dissertations. This site contains an author-submission portal; an Image Database; the Comprehensive Bibliography of the Commons; a Keyword Thesaurus and links to relevant reference sources on the study of the commons’. - Educational Video : The Top Cultural & Educational Video Sites [Open Culture]
‘We have compiled a list of 46 sites that feature intelligent videos’. These come from around the world. A related site is Intelligent YouTube Channels. Again, the collection is sourced from right around the world. - Find Articles
Articles from magazines and journals, not only education but also other areas. - Infomine - Scholarly Internet Resources
Access 110 000+ academically valuable resources, mostly at tertiary level, though a section for K-12. - Informit
E-library, Plus Text and Indexes. Some available, others by subscription. The e-library covers ‘Australia’s e-press, provides full text, cover to cover, access to journals, monographs, conference proceedings, and other research material’. - Internet Public Library, The
Reference material and links to major subject areas. -
Journalist’s Toolbox, The
Primarily for journalists. ‘Features more than 17 500 Web sites helpful to the media and anyone else doing research’. Use the ‘Search Box’ or ‘Open the Toolbox’ links on the right hand side below the title, or access the updates on the remainder of the page. -
Lexis-Nexis
Access information on law and government. Fee-based. - Library of Congress, The
The US Library of Congress. An extensive library information and tools to help you access it and other areas. Research Tools via the bottom pull down menu or at Library of Congress Research Tools.
Excellent ! - Proquest
‘Proquest provides global access to one of the largest online content repositories in the world’. Fee-based. - Qualitative Research Web Sites
From The Qualitative Report Journal, an online journal. A series of links from ‘Action Inquiry Network’ to ‘ZMET’. - Refdesk
Created by Bob Drudge and offering a gateway to resources both reference and subject oriented. - Reference.com
Similar to Google version of DejaNews. Find information on nominated topics, see all postings, post your own, etc.. - Repositories of Primary Sources
‘A listing of over 5 000 websites describing holdings of manuscripts, archives, rare books, historical photographs, and other primary sources for the research scholar’. Done in regional groupings. - RingWorld
Go to the major category, then the categories within it and choose a method of accessing the individual rings. - Social Science Research Network [SSRN]
‘Devoted to the rapid worldwide dissemination of social science research and is composed of a number of specialized research networks in each of the social sciences’. - SUNSite
From the University of California, a huge archival collection. More importantly it has research tools to help find things. - Thor : Virtual Reference Library
Reference material listed under a series of headings. From dictionaries to zip codes. - W3 Virtual Library
Probably the biggest and best collection of information on the net. It subsumed the Argus Clearinghouse. Work through categories to a specified level.
Research Tools
- Abbreviations
If you want to know abbreviations for just about anything, or discover what an abbreviation means, this is the spot. As well, you will find All that JAS : Journal Abbreviation Sources, which is ‘a registry of Web resources that list or provide access to the full title of journal abbreviations’. - Internet Resources for Institutional Research
Links to a variety of resources for research in higher education. - Power Reporting
Online research tools as well as a number of obscure databases. - Sciweavers
‘Sciweavers is an academic bookmarking network that aggregates links to research paper preprints then categorises them into proceedings. The links of a given proceedings are sorted according to our traffic to help researchers quickly discover top ranked papers’.
Software :
- Cogitum Cociter
Free software to select and record excerpts from web pages. You have a log showing excerpt, date, title and web page details.
Excellent ! - Omnicodex
‘Omnicodex is a simple way to collect, store and collate information. It was designed to help researchers and scholarly writers keep track of their information’. Freeware. - Outline
Software
A large range listed as either commercial or Freeware. If you can’t find one to suit from this list, you are not really trying. Scope to suggest further options. - Research Manager
Software to manage research. Expensive. - ScholarCite
‘ScholarCite is a Free program that helps you write standards compliant literature references. ScholarCite is very intuitive. Simply fill out some fields, and press “Write”. The ScholarCite auto-generator then creates a bibliography entry for your works cited list’. Freeware.
- Web-ezy
‘This program has been designed to help you develop your library and information skills’. Southern Cross University.
Research Using the Internet
- A Guide to Critical Thinking
[About What You See on the Web]
‘Sometimes, it takes special skills just to find something on the Web. To use the Web well, however, you need to do even more. I offer for your consideration the following six suggestions when examining Web pages’. - Evaluation of Information Sources
‘Contains pointers to criteria for evaluating information resources, particularly those on the Internet. It is intended to be particularly useful … [f]or informing users as to the qualities they should use in evaluating Internet information’. - The Good, The Bad & The Ugly
OR ‘Why It’s a Good Idea to Evaluate Web Sources’. - Virtual Training Suite
‘Free Internet tutorials to develop Internet research skills’.