The biggest difference between an academic database and Google is the way we search. In Google, you can type a whole question or a whole sentence and results will return that are relevant to your search. While in an academic database, you need to hone in on a few key words or SEARCH TERMS to return relevant results for your research. How do we find those SEARCH TERMS? We can show you how!
Brainstorm SEARCH TERMS from your RESEARCH QUESTION by picking it apart, focusing on the words that represent the main idea. When you have a search term that contains more than one word, you will need to put it inside quotation marks, so it looks for that exact phrase and not each of the individual words.
Examples:
Topic Question: Do girls who consume more media have lower self-esteem and poor body image?
Main Idea Words: girls | media | "self-esteem" | "body image"
OR
Topic Question: Do college students who listen to classical music while they study have better test scores?
Main Idea Words: "college students" | "classical music" | "test scores" | studying
Use synonyms or closely related terms to expand your list of search terms.
For example, if your SEARCH TERM is media, these are additional words or phrases you may want to search as well:
Since library databases are not like searching the Web, you don't want to search complete sentences or include any "the", "when", "if", etc... Only use your SEARCH TERMS. For a better understanding of how to use your SEARCH TERMS look at the examples for using AND and OR below.
Good Search: girls AND media AND "eating disorders"
Bad Search: Does media cause girls to have eating disorders?
Good Search: "college students" AND "classical music" AND "test scores"
Bad Search: Does classical music help college student's test scores?
Boolean operators are used to connect and define the relationship between your search terms and phrases. The three Boolean operators are: AND, OR, and NOT.
AND is used when you want two or more search terms to appear in the results.
i.e. girls AND "eating disorders" ; pollution AND "greenhouse gases" ; teens AND alcohol
OR is used when you have an alternative term that is interchangeable with another. In this scenario, you are okay with either term appearing in the results, or both.
i.e. girls OR "young women" OR females AND "eating disorders" ; pollution OR "climate change" AND "greenhouse gases" ; teens OR teenagers AND alcohol OR drinking
NOT is used when you continue to get search results containing irrelevant information, that you would like to exclude.
i.e. If you are doing a search for information on Jamaica the country and you keep getting results for Jamaica, Queens, you might change your search string to: Jamaica NOT Queens AND culture
Sample search strings using Boolean Operators:
ex. 1
Topic question: Is there a correlation between greenhouse gas emissions and climate change?
Keywords: "greenhouse gases" ; "climate change" ; "global warming" ; pollution
Search strings:
"greenhouse gases" AND "climate change"
"greenhouse gases" OR pollution AND "climate change" OR "global warming"
ex. 2
Topic question: Do college students who listen to classical music while they study have better test scores?
Keywords: "college students"; "test scores" ; studying ; "classical music"
Search strings:
"college students" AND "test scores" AND studying
"test scores" AND "classical music"
| AND | All items retrieved must contain both terms in the search statement. Search results will include both terms. Example: "Climate Change" and "Plastic pollution" |
| OR | All items retrieved can contain either or both terms in the search statement, which is great for synonyms. Broadens search results. Example: "Climate Change" or "Ocean pollution" |
| NOT | All items retrieved cannot contain the second term in the search statement. It is helpful to remove results that are not useful. Example: "Climate Change" not "Oil" |
| QUOTATIONS | All items retrieved must contain the exact words within the quotations. It is helpful to find results on the exact subject you are looking for. Example: "Climate Change" "Critical Race Theory" , "Body Image Issues" |
| TRUNCATION | Truncation, or utilizing an * or @ symbol to tell a search engine to locate any variation of the word. Helpful to use to get more search results. Example: "Femini*" , "Child*" , "Rac*" |
Go to the worksheet and type 4-6 search terms or phrases that will help you find information so you can answer your research question. First look at your research question and type select key words or phrases. Then think of and type any other words that may have a similar meaning.
A library database is an online collection of reference and research information that is searchable. REFERENCE INFORMATION can include chapters, eBooks, dictionaries, encyclopedias, almanacs, directories, atlases, and handbooks. It also contains ARTICLES from scholarly journals, trade publications, magazines, and newspapers.
Before you can begin your research, you need to know which database(s) would be most useful for your topic. The library subscribes to over 200 databases covering a wide variety of topics. This may seem overwhelming at first, but there are a few simple ways of finding which database may be most relevant to you. To find the list of databases to which we subscribe and to learn more about them, visit the A-Z Databases page.
From your library's home page select A-Z Databases in the button menu.
You will see a list of all of our databases in alphabetical order. From here, you can sort the databases by subject area, i.e., criminal justice, history, or mathematics, or by database type, i.e., those containing images, articles, or e-books. Select the subject area that best matches your topic. Each database has an information button next to it. Once you've selected your subject area, use the information about the resource to determine if it is an appropriate resource for you.
When selecting by subject, the library will provide you with a list of "Best Bets" databases which should be more appropriate for your topic, as well as some multidisciplinary databases which could be helpful.
When in doubt, select one of the Library's multidisciplinary databases such as Academic OneFile, Academic Search Premier, or Research Library. These databases cover a wide range of topics, and are often linked to subject area databases.
You can also view one of the library's research guides, one of which you're using right now, which will suggest which databases could be useful for your topic.
Sample Guide:
Academic Search Premier (ASP) is designed specifically for academic institutions, and is the largest scholarly, multi-disciplinary full text database containing full text for more than 4,600 scholarly publications, including more than 3,900 peer-reviewed publications.
For more information on BASIC SEARCH techniques, check out our guide to SEARCHING.
Suppose your professor has given you an assignment to find an article discussing the ethics of cloning. Your first step is to determine your KEY TERMS. In this case they are CLONING and ETHICS.
If you perform a search for CLONING you would retrieve over 40,000 results as seen below. This is more than you could reasonably evaluate and chances are most of the results will not be on your topic.
Use AND to narrow your results. This time search CLONING AND ETHICS. Notice your results have dropped to 796 and they will be more focused on your topic. This search only returns articles dealing with both CLONING and ETHICS. If it is only one or the other you they will not appear here.
You could further narrow your results by adding more KEY TERMS such as HUMANS or ANIMALS if you wanted to be more specific. You could use something like CLONING AND ETHICS AND HUMANS. Just be aware the narrower you make your search the fewer results you will find. It is also possible to narrow your search too much. Always start out broad then narrow as you go along.
Now let’s refine our results even further. In the left side menu find the LIMIT TO options. From here you can limit your results to FULL TEXT results, SCHOLARLY/PEER REVIEWED results, or view results published in a particular time period. For more information on what SCHOLARLY/PEER REVIEWED means visit our Information Literacy Toolkit Guide.
Select FULL TEXT to limit your results to only those results where the full article is included.
We’re now down to 464 results.
You can also limit your results to a certain time period. In this case we will limit our results to the last five years. Click on the slide bar and drag it left or right to change the year.
You are now down to 38 results which are focused on your topic, available in FULL TEXT, and were published between 2009 and 2014.
Using these LIMIT options you were able to reduce the number of results from 796 to 38.
Let’s take a look at one of the results in our search. From the results screen you can see the TITLE, AUTHOR, and SOURCE of the article, in this case “The Ethics of Human Cloning in Narrative Fiction.” By Amit Marcus published in Comparative Literature Studies.
Click on the article TITLE to see more detailed information. Again you can see the TITLE, AUTHOR, and SOURCE. In addition you can now view the ABSTRACT. An ABSTRACT is a brief summary of the article which allows you to see what the article is about without having to read the whole thing. It is always a good idea to do this instead of reading, in this case a 29 page article, and finding out the article is not useful to you. The ABSTRACT and SUBJECT TERMS can also supply you with more KEYWORDS to use to modify your original search.
To access the article, click on the FULL TEXT icon on the top left of the page. This icon will either say PDF FULL TEXT, HTML FULL TEXT, or LINKED FULL TEXT.
Sometimes the results will not include a Full Text or HTML article. Instead they will say Check Journal Locator for full text. Click that link.
It will then take you to a page letting you know if the full text article is available through a different subscription and if so, a link to the Full Text article. If the Full text article is not available, click Request This Item, to fill out an Interlibrary Loan request.
Please see Requesting Interlibrary Loans for information about this process.
Academic Search Premier allows you to EMAIL an article to yourself along with that article's citation. To send an EMAIL click on the email button in the right side menu.
You will be presented with an email form. Enter the email address you want to send the article to. Make sure the PDF as separate attachment box is checked (if available) to ensure the FULL TEXT article will be sent to you.
Finally you have the option to send the CITATION you will need to cite this article in a paper. Choose the appropriate citation format and click SEND. Check your email to make sure the article came through before leaving the database.
Academic Search Premier also provides you with a citation if you need one. Click on the CITE icon in the right side menu.
Academic Search Premier will provide you with citations in a variety of formats. From here you can find your format and copy it to your paper. Always check to make sure the format is correct. This tool is not 100% accurate. If you use a citation management software there is an option to EXPORT the citation to your preferred citation manager.
Go to the worksheet and use Academic Search Premier to find a scholarly (peer-reviewed) article related to your research question. Then:
From the library home page, click the tab that says BOOKS, then enter your search term or phrase into the search bar. Click SEARCH.
To access books that are only available online (eBooks):
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You can also filter the results by scrolling down and selecting when the book was published:
Click on the title of the eBook to learn more information about this search result. Below is an example of what you will see. Click the SHARE button to get a permalink (link won't expire) you can email to yourself.
Click here for additional information on how to navigate the Discovery Library Catalog.
Sometimes during the course of your research you will find an article in one of our databases that our library does not have access to. This does not mean you are out of options. The library can request this article from another library and have a copy sent to your email. This is known as Interlibrary Loan or ILL.
Please see Requesting Interlibrary Loans for information about this process.
Note for Vancouver students:
Go to the worksheet and use the Discovery Catalog to find an eBook related to your research question. Then:
