Industry sources are sources produced by organisations, experts, or professionals within a specific industry. These sources are especially useful for gaining insights into current and emerging trends, practices, standards, news and real-world applications in that industry. 

Industry sources:

• Are not scholarly and highly unlikely to be peer-reviewed although the author is usually a professional in the field.
• Contain industry-specific language.
• Are written by staff writers, industry professionals and experts from the related industry, who have various levels of authority.
• Aim to inform about current trends or industry issues.
• Contain information that may include personal opinions, or may be biased in support of an industry or company. 

The common types of industry sources include:

• Trade journals & magazines
• Industry statistics
• Industry associations and professional organisation websites
• Industry reports & market research
• Company reports & press releases
• Professional blogs and expert interviews

Where can I find the industry sources?

• Library databases (ProQuest, Gale, IEEE Computer Society Digital Library). Limit your results to magazines or trade journals.
• Company websites
• ABS Statistics for economic statistics
• Industry reports (e.g. IBISWorld industry reports available via State libraries)
• LinkedIn posts, business news sites, trade shows, panels, podcasts
• Industry portals 
• Google Scholar and Google (for industry publications and industry white papers)

Tip: You can try finding relevant industry association platforms and resources by using the Google advanced search feature. Search using the name of your industry and limit the search to the domain ".org.au" or ".gov.au" (limiting your results to websites for organisations or Australian government websites).

For example:

• film industry association site:.org.au 
• film industry association site:.gov.au

For information on how to evaluate information sources and how to identify scholarly and authoritative sources, go to Research: Evaluate Information