Glossary

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This glossary defines selected words, phrases and acronyms used in Pilot: your information navigator. Online dictionaries, thesauri, encyclopaedias, and directories may be found in the ECU Library's Catalogue, for example:

English language dictionaries:
Macquarie Dictionary, Oxford English Dictionary

Subject specific encyclopaedias:
Encyclopedia of human nutrition
Encyclopedia of management
Encyclopedia of software engineering
International encyclopedia of the social and behavioral sciences

Find terms beginning with:

P

Paraphrasing

A restatement of a text or passage in another form or other words, often to clarify meaning.

Parenthesis

Either or both of the upright curved lines, ( ), used to mark off explanatory or qualifying remarks in writing or printing or other expression; considered or treated as a collective entity in a mathematical operation. Plural: parentheses.

PDF

Portable Document Format. The extension of the file is .pdf. This format was developed by Adobe ® Systems for ease of document sharing on the Internet and for easy printing of documents. It retains the original layout of the document when converted to a PDF file.

Peer reviewed

An article that has been read and critiqued by the author's peers.

Periodical

Contains scholarly research articles, papers, or reports. See: Journal.

Periodical collection

Holds periodicals in various formats - paper, microfiche, video, all shelved by subject. This collection is not for loan, unless otherwise indicated, and has the collection prefix 'P'.

Phrase searching

Phrase searching refers to the use of inverted commas to force a search tool to find terms in a phrase only. For example: "acquired immune deficiency syndrome".

Plagiarism

The act of using another person's work without crediting that person through a citation and reference.

Primary source

These are original materials, which have not been filtered through interpretation, or often even evaluation by a second party.

Publication

A copy of a printed work offered for distribution.

Publisher

A person or business engaged in publishing periodicals or books or music.