About This Website

Publications.gov.au provides assistance to people searching for Australian Government publications and provides links to publications and other resources on the websites of Australian Government agencies.

The website includes a number of features that assist searchers with finding Australian Government publications, including:

A Search for a Publication which searches content found on Australian Government websites and in the National Library of Australia catalog of Australian Government publications held by Australian libraries.
Links to Other Publication Resources that assist in finding Australian Government publications.
A Find an Australian Government Website feature which provides links to Australian Government agency websites.

Publications.gov.au does not directly sell or otherwise provide publications to the public but aims to help users find publications and/or information on how to obtain the publication on the website of the publishing agency. Australian Government agencies are responsible for the production and distribution of the publications that they create.

The Publications.gov.au website is managed on behalf of the Australian Government by the Australian Government Information Management Office, a business group within the Department of Finance and Deregulation.

For further information on how to use this website please visit the Help page.

Contacting Us

The Australian Government Information Management Office recognises the insecure nature of e-mail and while every effort to maintain your confidentiality will be taken, we are unable to guarantee the privacy of information transmitted via this system.

If you do not wish to contact us via e-mail, you can write to us at the following postal address:

Manager Publications.gov.au
The Department of Finance and Deregulation
Australian Government Information Management Office
John Gorton Building
King Edward Terrace
PARKES ACT 2600
AUSTRALIA

Provide feedback on this website

We are always keen to receive feedback and ideas and suggestions on how we can improve this service. If you have any feedback or suggestions, please feel free to Contact Us. If you provide contact details we will acknowledge receipt of your feedback. We will carefully consider all suggestions for improvement for implementation in a future release of the website.

Request a website be re-indexed or notify us in advance of an impending major release

The Publications.gov.au index will be frequently refreshed. If you have substantially altered your website or are about to release a major update or have published a high profile publication and wish us to update the Publications.gov.au index, you may make the request via the Contact Us page. You must provide contact details so that we can confirm your request and subsequently notify you of any action that we take.

Request content be removed from the Publications.gov.au index

The Publications.gov.au index will be frequently refreshed. If for any reason you wish to remove content from the Publications.gov.au index you may Contact Us and we may arrange to remove the content. You must provide contact details so that we can confirm your request and subsequently notify you of any action that we take.

Suggest a publication be promoted in the search results for specified search terms

The Publications.gov.au index utilises advanced search result ranking algorithms to ensure the most relevant results appear at the top of the search results listing. If you believe a publication is not being returned with the correct ranking or is missing from the search results for the search terms you are using, you may Contact Us with the details of the publication and the search terms you are using. If you provide contact details we will notify you on receipt of your suggestion and subsequently of any action that we take.

Notify us of a broken link or technical problem with the website

If you find a broken link or other technical problem on our website please Contact Us with the details of the problem. We appreciate all notifications of this kind and will take action to correct broken links or technical problems as quickly as possible.

How we have designed this website

Design Principles

This website has been developed with functionality, usability and accessibility principles as the main drivers for design. The design incorporates customer feedback obtained through a user-centred design process. We are always keen to receive ideas and suggestions on how we can improve this service. If you have any suggestions, please Contact Us.

Navigation and accessibility

It is the Australian Government's aim to provide equitable access to publications and the variety of access approaches available on this website will allow you to choose the method of finding information that best suits you.

We have designed to keep navigation around the website as simple as possible. Because the website is mainly text-based and we have extensively used alternative text, known as ALT text (which describes the function and/or visual content of a graphic), we have not provided a text-only version of the website. The home page has been designed to help you find the information you need quickly and easily.

Publications.gov.au aims to incorporate good design practice by striking a balance between keeping the website simple and clean, yet logical and accessible. Publications.gov.au has been developed to display adequately on commonly used browsers. Special features have been included to enable effective operation by persons using assistive technologies. This website is designed to appear at its best on a screen configured for 800 x 600 screen resolution but will scale appropriately to both higher and lower screen resolutions.

If you would like more information, please Contact Us.

Governance Policy

This policy will be reviewed in response to information governance issues as they arise. This governance policy will attempt to provide guidance on issues relating to the Publications.gov.au website, but recognises that not all circumstances will be covered. Please Contact Us if you have an inquiry concerning these principles.

The following criteria will be the basis for selecting links to be included on this website:

Is the linked content authentic and current

Publications.gov.au will only link to content from those Australian Government and associated websites known to be sponsored by the Australian Government. Every effort is made to ensure the links maintained by Publications.gov.au are current and as complete as possible, however due to the consistent process of change on Australian Government websites there will inevitably be a small amount of out of date or missing content from the index at any point of time.

Is the linked content accurate

Links will be made in good faith in the expectation that this content is appropriately maintained by the author agency and is timely and accurate. However, no guarantees (including of accuracy) are given.

Who can link to this website

All Australian, State, Territory and Local Government websites may link to this website.

Non-government organisations that wish to link to any component of the Publications.gov.au service are asked to seek permission from the Publications.gov.au Manager via the Contact Us form.

Permissions

For permission to be granted, the requesting website must provide a reference point for information. Permission will be granted on the condition that the organisation:

immediately notify the Publications.gov.au Manager if a change is made to the requesting website which results in one of the first three points below applying or if the organisation suspects that the change may mean the fourth point below may apply; and
comply with any request from the Publications.gov.au Manager to remove the link from the requesting website.

Permission will not be granted if:

inclusion on the requesting website implies the Australian Government endorses the website or product;
the requesting website uses Publications.gov.au solely for commercial practices;
the content of the material is changed technically (e.g. the material is framed and users are unable to determine the location of the original material); and
linking to the website is deemed to be in contravention of government policy or not in the public interest.

Link graphic and html code

To create a link to this website please feel free to use the graphic and HTML supplied below.

<img src="/.../publications.gov.au.gif" width="150" height="25" border="0" alt="publications.gov.au">

If you have any comments on this policy, please notify the Publications.gov.au Manager via the Contact us form.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do I find a publication if I do not know the title and/or the publishing agency?

There are number of different ways to find a publication if you do not know all the details associated with the publication.

You can enter anything that you do know about the publication into the Search for a Publication on the home page and review the search results and associated descriptions to see if it is listed there.

From the home page, you can try and Find an Australian Government Website that may contain the publication and see if you can find the publication on that website.

Finally, you can also review the Other Publication Resources which is available from most pages on this website to see if any of those can further assist you in your search.

Further assistance on this topic may found on our Help page.

Why does the Search for a Publication search all content, not just publications, found on Australian Government websites?

Australian Government agencies are active online publishers. To ensure that the searchable index is as complete as possible AGIMO uses advanced web technology to provide a searchable index of all content found on Australian Government websites. The technology includes advanced search result ranking algorithms to ensure the best results are offered for Search for a Publication searches. Searching all content found on Australian Government websites provides additional evidence to the ranking algorithms and subsequently improves their performance.

Publications.gov.au administrators monitor the quality of the search results and are able to promote correct results for poorly performing publications searches.

The effectiveness of this indexing strategy will be monitored so that it can be modified in the future if necessary.

Future developments of the Publications.gov.au website will aim to further improve the performance of the search and to better differentiate between publications and other content within the index.

What is the difference between Publications.gov.au and other Australian Government and commercial search services?

The Publications.gov.au Search for a Publication includes a catalog of Australian Government publications held by Australian libraries. The library catalog is kindly provided by the National Library of Australia.

The Publications.gov.au Search for a Publication includes content found on Australian Government websites in all internet domains e.g. .gov.au, .com, com.au, .net, .net.au, .csiro.

The administrators for Publications.gov.au monitor the quality of the search results and may take action to improve poorly performing searches by forcing the correct publication result to the top of the search results, (known as featured results) for certain search terms. The Publications.gov.au featured results are focused on improving the performance of publications searches.

Additionally the Publications.gov.au website offers a number of other features that are not commonly available on other websites to further assist in finding publications. See the Help for more information on these features.

Ask a question not included here

If you have a question related to Publications.gov.au that is not answered here, please Contact Us.

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