Monash University Library has scholarly/academic books held in print format at our campus libraries, online, or both.
Reference works include dictionaries, encyclopedias and handbooks, and are useful guides for:
- finding definitions of social work terms and brief factual information
- overview of social work theories and frameworks.
How do I know if my sources are scholarly/academic?
- not a general interest book
- written for an academic audience
- extensive referencing
- published by reputable scholarly or university presses
- authors are subject matter experts usually affiliated with a university
When researchers want to make the findings of their work public, they may publish articles in scholarly/academic journals.
- issues contain a collection of articles written by different authors
- published weekly, monthly or quarterly, depending on the publication
- articles are usually focused on recent research and are usually peer-reviewed
Some recommended journals:
The video below is an explanation of peer-review by the publisher Wiley.
Not sure if your journal is academic or peer-reviewed? Use Ulrich's below to search your journal title. The entry in this database will give you the details of your journal, including whether it is peer-reviewed or not.
- Ulrichsweb : global serials directory. This link opens in a new windowUlrichsweb is an authoritative and easy to search source of detailed information on more than 300,000 periodicals of all types: academic and scholarly journals, e-journals, peer-reviewed titles, popular magazines, newspapers, newsletters, open access publications and more, from around the world. It covers more than 900 subject areas. Ulrich's records provide data points such as ISSN, publisher, language, subject, abstracting & indexing coverage, full-text database coverage, tables of contents, and reviews written by librarians.
- Browzine This link opens in a new windowUse BrowZine to easily find, read, and monitor thousands of scholarly journals available from Monash University Library, or through Open Access publishers, covering all disciplines.
Searching individual journal titles will find articles that have been published within those selected titles.
To make your search more efficient searching across a large number of journals in your field it's better to search within relevant databases.
- compiled of hundreds of different journal titles
- may include newspapers, book chapters and conference papers
- can be subject area focused or cover a range of subject areas
- allow searching by author, subject , or keywords
Try different relevant databases for Social Work from our complete list. Or perhaps try the databases listed below.
- Social science premium collection (ProQuest) This link opens in a new windowThis collection provides access to databases covering the international literature in the social sciences, including politics, sociology, social services, anthropology, criminology and education. Featured databases include IBSS, PAIS, Sociological Abstracts and Worldwide Political Science Abstracts. Together, they provide abstracts, indexing and full text coverage of journal articles, books, book chapters, dissertations, working papers and more, including deep indexing and full text from over 1000 important social science journals.
- APA PsycInfo (Ovid) This link opens in a new windowAPA PsycInfo is an electronic bibliographic database that provides citations with abstracts to the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. It contains more than 2 million records spanning 1806 to the present. Journal coverage includes material selected from approximately 2,000 periodicals. Chapter and book coverage includes worldwide English-language material published from 1987 to the present; however, there is a substantial number of records covering books published earlier.
- Informit search This link opens in a new windowSearches only Informit full text databases
Provides access to specialised databases across a wide range of subjects, including Australasian political, economic, legal, social, aboriginal, health, family, technical and cultural studies. ...
Content sources include authoritative publishers and peak research institutes from across Australia, New Zealand and the Pacific. - Violence & abuse abstracts (EBSCOhost) This link opens in a new windowThis database includes bibliographic records covering essential areas related to violence and abuse, including family violence, sexual assault, emotional abuse, and other areas of key relevance to the discipline. Records are carefully selected from the most important sources within the discipline.
Most online journals and databases allow you to set up alerts to new articles on your topic. Your search strategy will be saved and you'll receive a notification when new articles matching your search criteria are published or indexed. The PDF below describes how to set up alerts in popular health databases including PubMed and Scopus.
- Guide to using Saved Searches and Email Alerts in Selected DatabasesPrintable PDF of Guide to using Saved Searches and Email Alerts sheet for the key MNHS database platforms (CINAHL, Cochrane Library, Google Scholar, Informit, OVID – Medline, PsycINFO & EMBASE, Proquest – Health & Medical, PubMed, Scopus & WoScience). - updated Mar 2022
News articles can be a good source of information on recent events, policies, developments, and their impact on the local populations, public perceptions, and responses. However, newspapers are not acceptable academic sources unless as objects of research. You can access our databases that index newspapers such as The Herald Sun or The Age:
Try Factiva, which requires a bit of assistance to use effectively - see our sample search
- Factiva This link opens in a new windowFactiva provides full text access to Australian newspapers, and newspapers and news wires from around the world. Besides newspapers, the database allows users to browse through a collection of global content sources from 200 countries – including continuously updated newswires from Dow Jones and Reuters, journals and magazines, websites, blogs, and multimedia. Factiva also includes brief company and industry profiles, financial information for listed companies worldwide, and global coverage of financial market data.
- Newsbank newspapers : Australia and the world. This link opens in a new windowSee: Access world news : research collection
- Trove This link opens in a new windowThe Australian National Library's Trove service helps users find and use resources relating to Australia. It provides integrated access to over 45 million items from a range of the National Library's collaborative services and from elsewhere. Metadata is aggregated from Australian sources including: The Australian National Bibliographic Database - containing location information from more than 1,200 Australian libraries, The Picture Australia program, The Australian Research Online program, The Music Australia program, The Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts, and The People Australia program, and some overseas sources.
- LexisNexis capital monitor This link opens in a new windowCapital Monitor is currently unavailable. The Library is working to resolve access.
Capital Monitor provides parliamentary, political, legislative, regulatory and judicial news and information to its subscribers almost as soon as it is available. The team are located in the Press Gallery within Parliament House in Canberra where they filter news and information before distributing it by e-mail to subscribers according to their monitoring briefs. All content is updated on Capital Monitor's comprehensive database which allows you to conduct keyword search anytime, on any jurisdiction and for content from 1996 onwards.
- Australian Bureau of Statistics This link opens in a new windowThe Australian Bureau of Statistics (ABS) web site provides comprehensive access to Australian statistical and reference information. There are statistics on the following themes: economy; environment and energy; industry; people; and regions. Included are statistical publications on agriculture, demography, finance, labour, manufacturing, national accounts, prices, service industries, social trends, trade and transport.
- Australian Institute of Health and Welfare (AIHW) - Governments and the community use our reports and data in discussing, debating, and making policy decisions on health, housing and community services matters.
Also, see our Statistics library guide
Grey or gray literature is a term that usually relates to unpublished (in the traditional sense) research material. Such material is often a good source of up-to-date research and may provide additional information to inform your understanding of a topic. Searching the grey literature may also ensure comprehensiveness of searching that is desirable to avoid publication bias. As with other types of information, it is necessary to critically evaluate grey literature to ensure that it is of high quality.
AACODS checklist for evaluating the quality of grey literature.
Check out our guide below.
Searching the Grey Literature by ISBN: 9781538100646Publication Date: 2018-06-13Searching the Grey Literature is for librarians interested in learning more about grey literature. If you have ever been asked for a grey literature search but didn't know where to start, this book will help you craft your search successfully. If you are an expert searcher but find that your library patrons are unfamiliar with the vast body of grey literature, this book may be a useful teaching aid. Those that are both new arrivals and established professionals in the field of librarianship will learn much about grey literature from reading this book, and hopefully acquire new search skills and knowledge. Although a wide range of different types of librarians or information professionals may find the content of this book useful, those working in the areas of health or social science will benefit the most from the book's content. Searching the Grey Literature discuss different aspects of grey literature, including an introduction to grey literature, the value of grey literature, search sources for grey literature and how to conduct needs assessment before beginning a grey literature search. Search techniques for identifying grey literature documents, selecting and evaluating grey literature search sources and best searching practices are also discussed in detail.
Search tip: use Google to search across multiple Australian, state, territory and local government website pages by including site:gov.au (or site:vic.gov.au to limit to Victorian bodies) in your search
Example:
- australia.gov.au
- vic.gov.au
Archived websites
The Australian Web Archive includes content from the following collections. All content is accessible through a single search service through Trove. Content can be searched by website URL or by keywords and phrases.
- The PANDORA Archive
- The Australian Government Web Archive (AGWA)
- AGWA example search - Department of Health
- AGWA example search - National Disability Insurance Scheme (NDIS)
- Whole Australian (.au) domain collection
Since 2007 the National Library of Australia, in partnership with the Internet Archive, has been selecting, collecting and archiving copies of Asia/Pacific websites through a service called Archive-It.
NEW! The Australasian Legal Information Institute (AustLII) has just released 253 Commonwealth Royal Commission Reports from 1902-2020.This is a library project funded by the Australian Research Council (ARC).
- Trove This link opens in a new windowThe Australian National Library's Trove service helps users find and use resources relating to Australia. It provides integrated access to over 45 million items from a range of the National Library's collaborative services and from elsewhere. Metadata is aggregated from Australian sources including: The Australian National Bibliographic Database - containing location information from more than 1,200 Australian libraries, The Picture Australia program, The Australian Research Online program, The Music Australia program, The Register of Australian Archives and Manuscripts, and The People Australia program, and some overseas sources.
- OECD Library This link opens in a new windowThe OECD Library is the online library of the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development, featuring its books, papers and statistics, and is the gateway to OECD's analysis and data. It also contains content published by the International Energy Agency (IEA), the Nuclear Energy Agency (NEA), the OECD Development Centre, PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment), and the International Transport Forum (ITF). It presents all content so users can find - and cite - tables and databases as easily as articles or chapters in any available format.
- APO - Analysis & Policy Observatory An open access research database of over 20,000 publications sourced regularly from over 2,500 government, NGO, academic and media organisations and journals in Australia, New Zealand and internationally.
- Australian Institute of Criminology The Australian Institute of Criminology (AIC) is Australia's national research and knowledge centre on crime and justice. The Institute seeks to promote justice and reduce crime by undertaking and communicating evidence-based research to inform policy and practice.
- Closing the Gap Clearinghouse (AIHW) The Australian Institute of Health and Welfare in collaboration with the Australian Institute of Family Studies was funded from 2009 to 2014 to deliver the Clearinghouse. The Clearinghouse was a Council of Australian Governments’ initiative jointly funded by all Australian Governments.
- Indigenous Mental Health & Suicide Prevention Clearninghouse The Clearinghouse brings together information about Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander people's wellbeing, mental health and suicide prevention.
- Communities and Families Clearinghouse Australia (CAFCA) aims to provide policy-makers and practitioners with practical, easy-to-use resources for developing and using rigorous evidence to improve program performance. The Communities and Families Clearinghouse Australia provides policy-makers and practitioners with clear, actionable information on programs that work, along with advice and information about research and evidence-based practice.
- Indigenous Justice Clearinghouse The aim of the Clearinghouse is to promote discussion and disseminate relevant Indigenous justice information to government policy makers and those working in the Indigenous justice field.
- Rainbow Health Victoria A a library of research and resources to help individuals and organisations to develop services that are inclusive for LGBTIQ staff and clients.
- nzresearch.org.nz Discover and access New Zealand’s most comprehensive selection of research papers and related resources. This site include peer-reviewed and other research from universities, polytechnics, and research organisations throughout New Zealand.
- The Family Violence Clearinghouse (NZ) Clearinghouse services, data summaries, issues papers, timeline, bibliographies, newsletters, conferences, seminars.
- Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui Te Pou o te Whakaaro Nui is a national centre of evidence based workforce development for the mental health, addiction and disability sectors in New Zealand.
- The HubThe Hub contains social science research undertaken, commissioned or partly funded by central government in New Zealand. We define 'social science research' as the systematic study of human action and interaction, and may include qualitative and quantitative research.
- Social Care Online (UK) Social Care Online is the UK's largest online database of information on all aspects of social work and social care. It includes legislation, government documents, practice and guidance, systematic reviews, research briefings, UK grey (informally-published) literature, reports, and journal articles. The database is updated daily and contains over 160,000 records from the 1980s onwards.
- National Criminal Justice Reference Service (US)National Criminal Justice Reference Services contains summaries of the more than 200,000 criminal justice, juvenile justice, and substance abuse resources housed in the NCJRS Library collection.
- CIRRIE : Center for International Rehabilitation Research Information and Exchange. This link opens in a new window Database of international rehabilitation research, with content focusing on research outside the United States, published between 1990 and the present. The database may be searched by subject, author, country, title, year and other parameters.
NB. A 'clearinghouse' is an organisation that provides research, data and other information relating to a particular issues in order to raise awareness and facilitate discussion. This information can support a range of people and organisations including activists, service providers, researchers and government agencies.
- Counseling and psychotherapy transcripts, client narratives, and reference works This link opens in a new windowA searchable collection containing real transcripts of therapy and counseling sessions and first-person narratives illuminating the experience of mental illness and its treatment, as well as reference works to contextualize the primary material. New material is added on a biweekly basis. There are diaries, letters, autobiographies, oral histories, and personal memoirs along with the full text of therapy and counseling sessions themselves.
- Counseling and therapy in video This link opens in a new windowCounseling and Therapy in Video (Volume I to IV) provides faculty and students with a first-hand look at the realities of working with clients and the challenges associated with putting theoretical concepts into practice. These collection provide a thorough grounding in dozens of therapeutic methods and diagnoses, insight into the human condition, and training in skills such as reflection and empathy while working with specific populations such as veterans and teens.
- Informit Edu TV This link opens in a new windowFor teaching use only
You can access Informit EduTV through Monash University library or remotely. If you access Informit EduTV through Monash University library you will be automatically logged in and have full access to the videos. If access is outside Monash library, you must now register by clicking the Register link at the top of the Informit EduTV screen and enter your details. Please use your institutional email address and not your private email address. Please note that this resource is for teaching use only.
Informit EduTV is an online TV streaming resource for Australian tertiary institutions. Content includes documentaries, drama and series from free to air TV channels and selected pay TV channels, complemented with study guides, and videos are accessible via computer, tablet or smartphone. There is an archive of programs from 2006, with up to 80 new programs added weekly. Pay TV documentaries are included from The History Channel, National Geographic, NITV, BBC Knowledge and Discovery and more. - Psychotherapy.net This link opens in a new windowSearchable database of streaming video files on psychotherapy. Videos are searchable by therapeutic approaches, therapeutic issues, expert therapists, population, and titles. It allows viewers to go straight to the heart of clinical practice as practised by today's leading practitioners in North America. The database features demonstrations and counselling sessions with participants on a host of therapeutic topics. This is a resource for teaching and training in psychotherapy practice and for education about psychology.
- Kanopy This link opens in a new windowTo log into Kanopy:
- Click on 'Log In to Monash'
- Enter your Monash credentials in the popup window
- Click on 'Skip' for "Create Your Account"
Kanopy is an on-demand streaming video service for educational institutions, providing them with a dedicated and customizable website through which their users can stream films. The service includes features such as captions, transcripts, clip creation, and playlist creation. Kanopy works directly with filmmakers and film distribution companies to offer award-winning documentaries, training films and theatrical releases including titles from Criterion Collection, Universal Paramount, The Great Courses, New Day Films, California Newsreel, Kino Lorber, PBS, BBC, Media Education Foundation, Ronin, Documentary Education Resources, and more. More than 20,000 films and documentaries are available, and many cover a wide range educational disciplines.