Not all sources are worth using. Finding good ones means knowing what need, how to search, and how to choose.
Know what you need
Start with your assignment brief. It often indicates what kind of evidence is expected, and which source types are appropriate.
Most assignments expect peer-reviewed journal articles — research written and assessed by other specialists before publication — but depending on your discipline and the task, books or grey literature may also be relevant.
Identify the key concepts in your topic before you search, and the source types most likely to address them.
Search effectively
Break your topic into its key concepts and generate alternative terms for each — synonyms, spelling variants, and related phrases. This will help you in choosing keywords for your searches. Use AND to connect different concepts and OR to connect alternatives.
Use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase.
For example:
machine learning
This finds sources using the words ‘machine’ and ‘learning’ but not necessarily together. Most of those results will not be relevant.
“machine learning”
This finds only sources where those two words appear together. It gives you more focused results.
The Discovery Service searches across the Library's databases in one place. Your subject page may list specialist databases for your discipline.
When you find a useful source, check its reference list for more useful sources.
Choose what to use
Not all sources have the same academic value. Use the categories below to make quick decisions about what to read.
| Higher academic value | Variable or contextual value | Low or no academic value |
|---|---|---|
|
These are usually expected in academic work:
|
These sources vary in reliability and suit some tasks more than others:
|
These are rarely suitable as core academic evidence:
|
Before selecting a source, apply a quick filter of the following questions.
Ask yourself…
- Is it academic?
- Is it directly relevant to my task?
- Does it connect to other key sources I am using?
- Will it help me answer the assignment question?
Based on these questions, decide whether to use it as key evidence, use it cautiously noting its limitations in your writing, or discard it.
Our information literacy pages offer further guidance on evaluating information.
Page last edited: 7 August 2026
Next review due: 7 August 2029