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Article The Deakin Library blog

August 6, 2025

Library Research News: August 2025 Edition

In this issue 

Elements upgrade delivers improved usability

On 19 August, Elements will be updated to Version 7.0. Due to the upgrade, Elements will be unavailable from 5pm, 19 August, with access estimated to return at midday, 20 August. Please note this window is dependent on testing and subject to change. It is recommended to avoid scheduling training sessions or other activities reliant on Elements during this time. 

This upgrade will bring significant changes to navigation in Elements, with the current menu that expands across the top of the screen being replaced by a left-side fold-out menu. There will be some adjustments for users navigating to edit their profile, manage publications and configure their settings. The new menu will include a handy search field, making it easy to find menu items and system functionality users are looking for. 

Other notable changes include: 

Elements is the system for registering and describing the research outputs of Deakin’s research staff. Elements is designed to reduce the amount of time and effort researchers spend on managing their publications. It does this by harvesting published outputs from online data sources. Find An Expert, Deakin’s staff profile system, is a module of Elements, so all research outputs in Elements are displayed there. They are also fed into Deakin Research Online (DRO), Deakin’s research repository. 

Please contact your librarian if you have any queries or notice any irregularities after the upgrade. 

The Education Research Index secures ERIC for the future 

ERIC’s future is secure, and the index will continue to cover Australian journal titles via ProQuest’s free Education Research Index.  

As previously reported by the Library, ERIC is used regularly by anyone researching education from the early years right through to tertiary education. It had come under threat from funding cuts linked to the United States Department of Education and the US Department of Government Efficiency. 

As a response to these cuts, ERIC initially informed libraries it would be discontinued, before later clarifying that it intended to reduce the number of titles it indexed. The index would begin to focus on research coming from the United States, which threatened the visibility of research from Australia and elsewhere.  

In response to this uncertainty and global advocacy from libraries, ProQuest have undertaken to maintain the full ERIC index in a new product, including those journals that had been earmarked for removal. The index remains free for public use. 

The Library has reviewed this indexation and can report the Education Research Index is a suitable replacement for ERIC.  

What does this mean for you? 

Importantly, this means journals (including many Australian journals) that have previously been indexed in ERIC will remain visible to popular aggregator platforms such as Google Scholar and Library Search. 

If you’re a researcher who has used the ERIC database in the past, we’d advise you to use the Education Research Index in place of ERIC.  

Our analysis shows that this new product matches all titles indexed by ERIC. The Education Research Index is suitable for general research and systematic reviews. 

For more details, please contact your librarian.  

Explore your OpenAlex profile 

The Researcher and author profiles help guide has been updated to include new support for managing your OpenAlex author profile. 

Use the guide to learn how to: 

OpenAlex is a free, open-source index of scholarly works, authors, institutions and other research entities. Your OpenAlex profile offers an overview of your academic contributions and affiliations. 

Visit the OpenAlex author profile page in the Researcher and author profiles help guide to get started or contact your librarian for further information.  

Hot tip: Copyright module for graduate researchers 

Need help understanding your copyright obligations? Whether you’re working on a literature review, data analysis or a non-traditional research output, using other people’s work comes with specific obligations.  

The Library has a self-paced online module specially designed to support research staff, graduate researchers and supervisors in understanding key copyright considerations.  

The module explores how to stay across your copyright responsibilities and highlights issues to address early to help avoid larger problems arising when it comes time to publish.  

To access the module: 

  1. Go to the Deakin Safety and Research Integrity Training site and click ‘Enrol in Site’. 
  2. Once you have enrolled, click ‘Open Site’ or access the site. 
  3. Scroll down and select ‘Copyright for Research’ to begin the module. 

Visit Copyright for research for supporting information and resources. If you have a specific copyright query, please contact the Copyright Team at copyright@deakin.edu.au.  

Event roundup 

Our series of graduate researcher workshops kicks off next week, with the following workshops now available to book: 

Advanced Literature Searching  

Tuesday 12 August, online, 10–11.30am  

Systematic Literature Search for STEMM  

Tuesday 9 September, online, 10am–12pm    

Research Data Management  

Tuesday 14 October, online, 10–11.30am   

Publishing and Open Access   

Tuesday 11 November, 10am–12pm   

Responsible use of genAI in research  

Tuesday 2 December, 10–11am  

You can also explore previous workshop recordings below.   

All Library events can be discovered on the Library’s What’s On page. Additional professional development for researchers is also available via Deakin eResearch: training and events.  

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Library Research News is a regular publication from the library, publishing library-related news for Deakin researchers. To stay in the loop, please subscribe to Article.  

To access library research services, please contact your librarian or navigate to Research via the library website. Scholarly Services Librarians bring discipline-specific expertise related to the following key areas:  



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