Wherever and however you choose to search, these tips will improve your results:

• Add the name of a country, language group, state, region or city to the search box. This is because you want to find material that relates to Australian Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples.

• You don’t have to settle for the first search results that you find. Search more than once, with slightly different words in the search box.   

• Ask, Is this resource appropriate and respectful? The Indigenous Knowledges Attribution Toolkit (PDF, 27 pages) will help guide your critical evaluation.  

• When you find a resource that is relevant and recent, look for its list of references to discover more. This is called citation mining. 

Most academic literature is published in journals and databases owned by commercial businesses. Historically, academic literature has excluded Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander perspectives. It is beginning to change but more work is needed.

Grey literature has emerged as a powerful counterbalance to past cultural bias. Grey literature is the name given to material published by non-commercial, not-for-profit groups. For example:

• Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations

• non-government organisations

• research groups

• advocacy groups

• government agencies

Grey literature includes many types of expert publications:

• reports

• research

• data

• statistics

• interviews

• videos

• digital libraries

• guidelines

Is grey literature written by experts?

Many – but not all – non-commercial publications are:

• written by experts
• peer-reviewed
• published by Aboriginal Community-Controlled Organisations (ACCOs)

Always check by looking for the following information on each resource as well as the "About us" (or similar) page of a website: 

• biographical details and affiliations of the author(s)
• statements about any peer-review process
• details about website owners, authors, researchers and/or organisations

How to find relevant grey literature

Most of the Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander resources in this guide were found by searching Google or a similar web browser. 

1. Type keywords in the search box that describe your topic, separated by a space. Press enter to search. 
   For example, type:  Indigenous Australia health 
    

2. Scroll through the first few pages of your search results, looking for relevant hits. 

3. If you don’t find what you need, go back to your search box and change something. Then search again.  

• Add or remove a word 
• Check your spelling  
• Consider adding words that are more specific

For example, type: Indigenous Australia eye health infants 

4. When you know an expert website and want to find out what it has on your topic, add the website name or acronym to your search box.
   For example, type: Indigenous Australia eye health infants AIHW

LibrarySearch is the name of the search engine on the RMIT University Library webpage. It searches our Library’s collections including books, e-books, and online journal articles. LibrarySearch does not search the web. You will find different search results to those you may have found in Google or a similar web browser.

1. Log in for full access.

2. In the search box, type keywords that describe your topic, separated by a space. Press enter.

3. Refine your search results using the left panel. 

For example:

• Type:  Australia Aboriginal Torres Strait Islander justice law

• Under the heading 'Refine my results', select a date range and peer reviewed journals. Click 'Apply filters'.

Image: Copyright © Ex Libris. Used under licence.

Your Library subject guide will direct you to the most relevant databases for your area of study. 

Look for the Library Essentials section on the Library homepage and go to Subject guides. Then select your RMIT College, School and/or discipline.