There are lots of different types of information and places to find it. Some examples include:
Most modules have a Resource List (reading list) which tell you the key books, journal articles and other resources you need to use. You can find this on each of your modules on GCU Learn. Some of the source types might be new to you.
Resource Lists are a starting point. You won't always to be told what to use.
This guide will help you identify key source types, the benefits of each and where to find them.
Academic books are written by subject experts. You don't read them from start to finish. Use the contents page at the start of the book or the index at the end to find the topic you are looking for. Academic books can be in print or as e-books. The content is the same. You can search an e-book to find what you need.
Popular books are updated and republished regularly. These different versions are called editions. Depending on your subject, you might need the most recent edition of a book.
It takes a long time for a book to be written and published so you will also need to use other more recent sources such as journal articles and reports.
You can use books to:
Our main source for finding books and e-books is Discover. You can search for a particular title or a general topic. See our Discover video guides.
Journals are academic magazines that focus on a specific subject area. These are made up of shorter journal articles. They are published more frequently than books, for example monthly or four times a year.
Journal articles are short but complex and take time to read and understand. Like books, they are written by subject experts such as academics, researchers or professionals.
There are two main types of journals:
There are also different types of articles:
Many academic journals are peer-reviewed. This means that articles are checked and approved by experts in the same field (peers) before they are published.
You can use journal articles to:
You are expected to use journal articles in your work as they are a key source of academic information.
There are many ways to find journal articles. Where you search depends on how much information you need, how much time you have and what you are studying.
This short video describes the main sections in most journal articles.
Conferences are meetings where academics and researchers present and discuss the latest ideas and developments in their subject. They are not always research-based - sometimes they focus on projects or practice in an area. The text of these presentations are sometimes shared as conference papers.
It is not always possible to get the full text of a conference paper - sometimes you can only find a short abstract.
You can use conference papers to:
Some presentations at conferences will become full-length journal articles in future. However, writing and publishing a journal article takes a long time and can be expensive, so in some cases information will only exist as a conference paper.
Conference papers can be published in journals, collected in a book or uploaded onto websites. Sometimes the content is only a short abstract or isn't available at all, so you would need to contact the author directly. In other cases the content is a poster presentation which is not available to view.
You can also check social media if you are looking at a particular organisation - conferences often have hashtags on Twitter where attendees share ideas and content.
Construction contracts including the FIDIC Red Book and the JCT suite of contracts, as well as related guidance, can be accessed through the Construction Information Service. You can also often find relevant books and articles by searching Discover or databases like Westlaw or Lexis+.
Legislation and case law are the two primary sources of Scots law. As a GCU student you have access to specialist legal databases. They are updated daily and make it easy for you to connect the legislation to the case law as well as easily find analysis of the law and how it is being interpreted in the courts.
For more information about finding legal sources, click 'Law resources and contracts' on the menu on the left hand side of this page.
Sources of technical standards and regulations vary accoring to sector. A major publisher of UK, European and international standards, including the Eurocodes, is the British Standards Institution. Others include government and professional bodies - these may be available from the organisation websites or from databases like the Construction Information Service (e.g. BREEAM, CIBSE).
Reports are published by many organisations including companies, institutions and charities. They often contain up-to-date information that isn't covered in academic sources like books or journal articles.
Older reports may be available in print, but nowadays most reports are published online. Your best options are to either use Google or, if you know the particular organisation, find their website directly.