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Last Monday (12th of October, 2009) I had an appointemnt with Jim (Liason Librarian). I thought I would be seeing for only 10 minutes.. just to check how whether I was doing the right thing.... Off course I thought I was doing the right thing!!!

But it turned out to be... I was doing it the long winded way. And I wasn't even searching at the right places.

Let me summarize what I should be doing:

1) Start with general databases eg medline, scopus, web of science
2) Then go to to specific databes: psych info, family and society studies (worldwide and then Australia), MAIS, Meditext, APA-FT. For my topic, I should look at social science databases as well!!!
3) In terms of the keywords: also start with general, then specific
4) Use search terms like "mental health" and Muslim* (that's a better technique)
5) Look for alternative keywords (by looking at the keywords from relevant articles)
6) You can also look at 'cited by'
7) One more thing, you don't need to use Mesh subheadings. You can search by 'topic'. If you would like to refine the search, you can search the keyword in the 'title'

Does that make sense? Yes, it does to me.

Looking for past theses

Past theses are important source of information.
Below are important links:

Australasian Digital Theses Program

Melbourne Uni's Thesis: Supersearch - login - Information Services Digital Repository - Research collections (UMER) - Theses
PhdData.org
Proquest: Supersearch - login - find database - proquest (dissertation and theses).

I couldn't find the Index to Theses with Abstracts Accepted for Higher Degrees by the Universities of Great Britain and Ireland and the Council for National Academic Awards, as mentioned in postgraduate essentials.