All guides: HDR students: Library overview

Library overview

Find books, articles, and more...

Here are some of the most popular databases:

Google Scholar search results include resources from our Library's online collections.

Update the Library links setting to RMIT. Search results will then show FindIt @ RMIT access to the resources.

We explain the access in more detail, give you some tips on how to interpret search results and what to do when there are access issues.

If you need help getting started with your research, our subject guides will help.

Select your study area:

Help and support

The Library offers individual research consultations and enquiry assistance to work with you on your research needs.

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Research Spotlights

The Library hosts a series of webinars across a range of research engagement topics to support the RMIT community.

Visualise Your Thesis

An academic competition that challenges HDR candidates to showcase their research in a visually compelling manner.

Explore competition details

Research and writing skills

These modules will assist in developing and extending the skills required in the contemporary research environment.

Explore the modules

Three Minute Thesis

An academic competition that challenges HDR candidates to explain their thesis and its significance in just three minutes.

Explore competition details

Research Plus

The program offers a huge range of workshops, seminars and short courses to build research knowledge and skills.

Explore the program

Shut Up / Sit Up and Write!

Offered online and as an in-person get-together where you can prioritise writing over everything else. 10am - 12noon.

Thursday 4th July - 094.03.005
Thursday 1st August - 094.03.010
Thursday 5th September - 094.03.010

Resources and training

Literature searching

Literature reviews
This guide provides information for completing a literature review, and will link you to resources, techniques, and approaches to conducting your literature search and writing a literature review.
Strategies and resources for searching the literature
The module will explore key resources to use when literature searching, and the features of developing an effective search strategy.
Conducting a systematic review
The module provides an overview of the key components and the process you need to follow when conducting a systematic review. Briefly covered are developing the research question and the protocol, aspects of searching, performing the analysis, and reporting findings.

Research writing

Developing an effective research proposal
The module explores the nature, purpose, and key component structures of research proposals. We have also discussed some strategies for writing effective research questions as well as the ‘what’, ‘why’ and ‘how’ sections of a proposal.
Writing a literature review
the module explores the nature and functions of a literature review; the process of conducting it, including taking notes using annotated bibliographies; different options for placing your literature review within your thesis; how to structure your literature review, including using matrices to organise ideas within its body; and how to style your literature review through language expressing authority in argument and a critical stance on the literature.
Becoming a research writer
The module explore the way research writers use premises and claims to build arguments in academic writing. We also covered the importance of positioning your own work by identifying the gap in the field and we looked at the significance of thesis statements and why they are essential in research.
Managing yourself and your research
The module provides strategies and resources to develop fundamental skills in time management, goal setting, research planning, cultivating supervisory relationships and maintaining a healthy work-life balance.

Managing references

Reference managers
An introduction to three common Reference Managers - EndNote, Zotero and Mendeley. Also provides a comparison guide and instructions to help get you started.
Choosing a reference manager
The module will explore the features of three popular reference managers – Endnote, Zotero and Mendeley – and help you decide which one is best for your research practices.
Referencing
Easy Cite provides information and examples on a variety of referencing styles used at RMIT.
Document Delivery
Make a request for material not held at RMIT University Library.
Copyright advice
Contact the Library if ever in doubt over material you are using.

Publishing

Strategic publishing
Information on applying strategic measures when considering publishing, promoting and tracking your research.
Open access publishing
Introduces open access, its benefits, the different models, Article Processing Charges, policies and resources, and Open Access at RMIT University.
Read and Publish Agreements
Details of agreements the Library has signed with a number of scholarly publishers to support open access publishing.
Research Repository
Search the Repository, submit your accepted manuscript, increase visibility and impact of your research.
Figshare
A data publishing platform for RMIT researchers and Higher Degree Research students to store, manage, share, and discover research.
Publishing a journal article
The module explores a range of strategies and tools that can help in the process of selecting where to publish your research.

Profiles and impact

Researcher profiles and ORCID
Maximise the visibility of your research outputs by discovering how to establish a researcher profile.
Research metrics
Information and resources to demonstrate impact using research metrics.
Altmetrics
Information and resources for using altmetrics to demonstrate research impact.
Social media for researchers
Introduces platforms and provides tips to maximise social media usage. It covers relevant university policies and guidelines, as well as copyright information.
Setting up your researcher profile
The module provides an overview of commonly used researcher profiles and how to establish and maintain them.
Are you being cited?
This module will introduce you to the traditional and non-traditional ways of measuring research impact.

Research skills training

Research guides
A series of guides that will help you get started with research skills and concepts.
Library Media Hub
Access Library webinars and videos covering a variety of topics relevant to students, teachers and researchers. Login required.
Researcher Capability Development modules
RMIT's Researcher Capability Development offers a series of self-paced modules on topics ranging from data management, networking for researchers, grant writing, publishing, impact literacy and more.
Research Plus online modules
Access to self-directed modules through Canvas that cover developing your career, research with Indigenous Peoples and Knowledges, writing for publication and much more!

Indigenous knowledges

Research with Indigenous Peoples & Knowledges (Workday, login required)
Created by Vice Chancellor's Indigenous Postdoctoral Research Fellow Eugenia Flynn this course provides an introduction to theory, background and approaches to research with Indigenous Peoples and knowledges. It is aimed specifically at Higher Degrees by Research (HDR) candidates and supervisors intending to, or already engaging in, research and collaboration with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people and communities and/or Indigenous Cultural and Intellectual Property, such as Indigenous knowledges, languages, cultural heritage material, stories and perspectives.

Library subject guides

HDR students: Library overview