Among the skills we’ll address today....  Constructing a search for scholarly articles (Where? How?)  Working with your search results  Locating the full text of articles  Citing your sources in a References list Library Research

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A diverse set of tools is ready for you at the Swilley Library site...

Each tab leads to a page with specialized information. For example:  How do I create citations using the APA format?  How do I create a literature review for my own paper? Use the blue tabs on the top row here for specific topics.

Thousands of articles are available to you through databases. The databases you choose to search will determine your results. The databases I recommend you search first: Education Journals (ProQuest) OmniFile Full Text Mega Edition (Wilson) ERIC (and a suite of other databases) (EBSCO) How do you access these databases to search for articles?

I do not recommend that you start your search by going first to the GALILEO search page. Working with a search results list from GALILEO is not smooth or efficient. I do recommend you start your search at the Swilley Library website. Then log in (top right). Then go to a database.  

Pull-down Many of the databases listed for the subject “Education” offer you scholarly journals you’ll use for your coursework. Six databases at the end of this list are for children and their research

These three databases are good places to start searching. Click on the name of the database to search for articles.

Generally, you’ll do a keyword search. Choose your terms with careful thought. Results of your first search may be wide-ranging. You could begin to narrow your research focus by seeing what’s available in the results list. We’ll see in a few minutes how you can discover some alternative terms that may yield better results. You may also decide that you need to modify your search because the results you’re seeing are not relevant to your inquiry.

  Quotation marks will lock separate words into a single phrase. An asterisk is a wildcard so that all forms of the word can be found.  

   Regardless of the database you’re using, be sure to establish some limits to your search – especially to “peer reviewed” or “scholarly.”

Academic Search Complete ERIC Professional Development Collection PsychINFO Sociological Collection PsycARTICLES EBSCO is not a database. It’s a company offering many databases. Here are just a few of them.... all You can search all the EBSCO databases at one time. Here’s how...

You might start by going to ERIC (as described earlier). With just a few clicks you can search many EBSCO databases simultaneously. How?

Check the boxes for Education Databases and Psychology/Sociology Databases. Now you’ll be searching about 15 databases rather than just one.

If you need to adjust your search terms.... ERIC offers a good Thesaurus These may be relevant alternative search terms. Look for the “Descriptors” or “Subject Terms” assigned to an article. Try using those “standard terms” as your revised search terms. A. B.

In ProQuest, look for “Subjects” at the end of each article record to see the standard terminology that you might use instead of what may not be effective. Results lists from the Wilson databases offer related terms that you might try if you need to refine your search. If you need to adjust your search...

Working With Your Results List When you have a list of results (articles) from your search, it’s important that you can discern publication information. Authors’ last names Journal where article is published Volume and issue number where this article appears Date of publication Page numbers of the article

You may discover other good articles by exploring this article’s References and the other documents that cite this article. If you’d like to find more articles with related content....

Finding the Full Text of the Articles You Want One choice you have as you construct your search is to limit your Results list to only what is available in full text from the database you’re searching. That’s always convenient. But it reduces your choice of articles.

ProQuest Education Journals Wilson OmniFile ERIC Not limited to this database’s full text content If you limit your results to what this database offers in full text Number of articles retrieved How do you weaken your search results when you limit the results to only what one database offers in full text?

It’s not hard to see if the library provides a different database with the full text of a given article, even if the database you’re searching does not provide the full text.    Click to see if a different database has the full text of this journal on this date.

One record from a Results list... Click to see if any other database offers this journal on this date. Yes! Now you can click on the name of this database. You’ll see a “home page” for this journal. See the list of years and click on the year you need. Then click on the specific issue with the article. 

 Other databases also offer a link to show if we have access to this article through a different database. Linking software, however, isn’t always perfectly reliable. Therefore... it’s important that you know how to search for any journal.

Identify the exact journal you need, by title and date. Click on the name of the database which has the journal on the date you need. Then you’ll see a “home page” for that journal and you can select the specific issue and see the article. Do we have access to the full text of (Journal X) on the date I need? If we don’t have the journal or book you need, complete an Interlibrary Loan request. There is a form on the Swilley page; click the “Using the Library” tab to complete it.

Doctoral dissertations can be a great source of information! To access them.... Dissertations and Theses is a database from ProQuest. Search it the way you’d search any other database. As you identify relevant dissertations, you might want to examine their References lists to find sources you could use. Tracking down articles? Use the Journals tab on the home page to find them.

Another source of scholarly articles... An Advanced Search is much more powerful...

Sometimes you’ll find full text this way! Sometimes you’ll find full text this way! Limit by date...

Link to full text Links that lead you to articles with related content.

Books in the Mercer Libraries may be very valuable to you. Strongly recommended An advanced book catalog search enables you to specify the date range of books you might use. You can also limit your results to books that are at Swilley Library today. You can specify a particular format (electronic books, audio-visual material, etc.)

Citing Your Sources Using the APA Format We saw the Education Subject Guide earlier. This tab leads you to information about citing. is “bibliography management” software the library provides you to keep track of your references and to format References lists. You can access RefWorks from the Databases tab, or from the Education Subject Guide.

If you don’t yet feel like an expert at searching for scholarly information.... Please don’t hesitate to contact me or another librarian when you need some assistance with articles, books, or other resources. Peter Otto Swilley Library Reference Desk: Any chance I can find my resources if I look outside?