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Use Off-campus login to access electronic resources when you are not on UCT grounds.
Search engines and databases better retrieve most relevant items when we search by keywords combined with Boolean Operators (AND OR NOT). Boolean Operators tells the search engine how the keywords are related to each other.
Before you start searching for books and journal articles to use for your assignment, you should be able to tell the difference between the various types of sources on your reading list.
Book reference: Author/s or Editor/s, Year of publication, Title, Edition, Place of publication, Publisher.
Example: Mohr, P. 2015. Economics for South African students, 5th ed, Pretoria: Van Schaik.
Chapter in a book reference: Author of Chapter. Year of Publication. Title of the Chapter. Title of Book (in italics). Editors of Book. Place of Publication. Publisher. Pages.
Example: Ruiters, M. 2009. Collaboration, assimilation and contestation: emerging constructions of Coloured identity in post-apartheid South Africa. In Burdened by race: Coloured identity in South Africa. M. Adhikari, Ed. Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press. 104-133.
Journal article reference: Authors. Year of Publication. Title of Article. Title of journal (in italics). Volume and Issue Numbers, Pages.
Example: Luckett, K. 2009. The relationship between knowledge structure and curriculum: a case study in sociology. Studies in Higher Education. 34(4): 441-453.
Primo is UCT Libraries one-stop searching platform for all resources that provides brief information about physical and electronic resources. Primo enables you to search, select and locate library resources.
For more detailed guide refer to Primo guide page.
Primo
The following databases have biological journal articles.
In order to retrieve the most relevant resources when searching, follow the following simple steps.
Example:
Topic search: The use of microorganisms in the food & agricultural industry
Concept 1 |
Concept 2 |
Concept 3 |
microorganism | food | agriculture |
bacteria | vegetable | |
fungi | diary | |
meat |
Concept 1: microorganisms OR bacteria OR fungi
Concept 2: food OR vegetable OR diary OR meat
Concept 3: agriculture
Similarly you can conduct your article search in the above listed databases.
Ones you get a good article, you can also check its reference list at the end of the document for more sources.
Learn effective searching strategy to retrieve relevant resources from the How-to Videos box.
Journal article: is scholarly literature often a product of research or critical review of topic area published in scholarly journals.
Scholarly Journal: a magazine that publishes scientific articles.
Databases: Organized collection of journals, books and other resources in a digital format.
Database Platform: a collection of databases that enables searching across several databases.