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Searching for Literature

This guides covers the steps involved when searching for literature along with instructions and tips for conducting effective searches and managing your information.

Types of resources

There are many types of resources that you may wish to consult to support your research including:

  • Journals and journal articles
  • Books and book chapters
  • Conference proceedings and papers
  • Reports
  • Standards
  • Patents
  • Theses
  • Media sources including newspaper articles
  • Grey literature including policy documents

The resources you need to find will usually determine where you search. Different resource types can be found in different locations so it is useful to know the best places to search for this information.

As a general guide:

  • Search catalogues and databases for journal articles, books, theses, many conference papers and media content including newspaper articles.
  • Search Google or Google Scholar for government and organisational reports and many other types of grey literature.

Choosing where to search

Start your search for journals and journal articles in the library's Discovery catalogue.

Search by journal name, article title, author or a combination of terms and then refine by resource type.

See our Discovery Guide for more information and search tips.


You can also search library databases using more complex search strategies and good sources of high quality, multidisciplinary content include:

You will also find journals and journal articles when searching Google or Google Scholar but be wary of content that has not been formally published and may not be credible. See our tips on evaluating resources.

Start your search for books and books chapters in the library's Discovery catalogue.

Search by book or chapter title, author or a combination of terms and then refine by resource type.

See our Discovery Guide for more information and search tips.


Many library databases also include eBooks and a selection is listed below.

The eBooks at CSIRO guide gives detailed instructions for accessing and using the different eBook collections available to CSIRO staff.

Start your search for conference papers in the library's Discovery catalogue.

Search by conference title, the name or author of the paper or a combination of terms and then refine by resource type.

See our Discovery Guide for more information and search tips.


Conference papers can also be found by searching Google and Google Scholar and many library databases contain conference papers including the following:

Organisational and government reports can be found in a variety of sources.


Search tips

Searching Google and Google Scholar can result in lots of irrelevant resources, but there are some search tips available to help make your search more effective.

Search for a website

  • site:.dcceew.gov.au will limit your search to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water website.
  • site:.boeing.com will limit your search to the Boeing website.

Search for a domain

  • site:.org.au will limit your search to Australian organisation websites.
  • site:.gov.au will limit your search to Australian government websites.

Search for a resource type

  • filetype:.pdf will limit your search to PDF documents.
  • filetype:.ppt will limit your search to PowerPoint presentations.

See Google Advanced Search or Google Scholar Advanced Search for more search tips.

Access thousands of standards via CSIRO's subscription to Intertek Inform.

The Standards library guide contains detailed information about registering for an account, viewing and downloading Australian standards and requesting access to international standards.

Access a wide range of international patents via the following databases and websites:


Need help with patent searching?

Ask a Librarian can assist with general patent searching.

Contact the Intellectual Property team if you require in-depth patent searching assistance.

Find theses collections in many databases (list below), University repositories and the National Library of Australia's Trove catalogue.

The full text of these resources can often be obtained through the institutional repository of the degree conferring institution, or you may be able to obtain a copy by placing a request through CSIROs Document Delivery service.

Online media sources include news sites and newspapers, social media sites, online videos, streaming services, podcasts and audio recordings, apps, blogs and websites.

Start your search in our Discovery catalogue and refine by resource type (newspapers, video recordings and web resources for example) to see what is available at CSIRO.

Conduct a Google search for resources not held by CSIRO.


Need help?

Our Newspapers guide includes information on the Australian and international collections available at CSIRO and how to access them.

Our Search alerts guide includes selected examples of media sources, how to access them and how to set up alerts.

Grey literature includes some of the resources already covered in this section such as conference papers, theses and reports and also covers other content not controlled by publishers such as organisation and government policy documents.

This material is often best found via either the organisation or government website, or a Google search.


Search tips

Searching Google can result in lots of irrelevant resources, but there are some search tips available to help make your search more effective.

Search for a website

  • site:.dcceew.gov.au will limit your search to the Australian Department of Climate Change, Energy, the Environment and Water.
  • site:.boeing.com will limit your search to the Boeing website.

Search for a domain

  • site:.org.au will limit your search to Australian organisation websites.
  • site:.gov.au will limit your search to Australian government websites.

Search for a resource type

  • filetype:.pdf will limit your search to PDF documents.
  • filetype:.ppt will limit your search to PowerPoint presentations.

See Google Advanced Search for more search tips.