How to Search for Scholarly Journal Articles
After reading this tutorial, you will be able to find several scholarly articles on almost any topic. You will know how to choose relevant databases in your field of study and to use advanced search techniques.
Databases
From the Savage Library Homepage, click on E-Library. At the bottom of the E-Library page is a list of Resources by Subject. Click the subject you are studying (such as Education), and a list of databases relevant to your research will come up. Some of the databases are public domain, which means that anybody connected to the Internet may use them. Other databases in the list are available only by subscription.
Authentication
If you are logged in to your WOL account and are using a computer on campus, you will be granted access to all of the Savage Library's online databases automatically. If you are using a computer off-campus, it is necessary to authenticate that you are a student or faculty member of WSC before you will be allowed access to the subscription databases. Authenticate by using the yellow remote access bar at the top of the Web page.You must enter your name and your library card number, the 13 digit barcode number on the back of your Mountaineer/library card.
Searching Techniques
Full-Text Article Access
Most of the databases have a mix of full-text articles and citations, some with abstracts. In order to access only full-text articles, click on the botton that specifies full-text only. If you would like to obtain an article that is not instantly available in full-text, fill out an Inter-Library Loan (ILL) request form.
Field, Truncation and Boolean Searching
Advanced searching techniques are easiest to perform when selecting the advanced search option of a database. It's best to start with a very broad search and then narrow down the results. You might get over 1,000 hits and then narrow them down to the best 20. Start your search with common words (unless you are sure of the technical terms used for your research) and enter them into the full-text field. Place separate words into each of the search windows and combine them with the Boolean operators AND, OR, or NOT. If you are searching for a phrase, such as special education, place the words in quotation marks. (e.g. "special education") Here is a great tutorial on Boolean Searching. You may also truncate a search term by using an asterisk * along with the word root in order to find all of the variations of your search term. For example, femal* will find female and females. Here is an excellent (and funny) tutorial on Truncation.
Narrowing Your Search Results
After you have run your initial search, select an article from the results page that looks useful to you. Read the abstract of the article and note important technical terms used. Try re-running your search using these technical terms. This time, instead of searching the full-text field, change to the abstract or subject field. This will retrieve all articles that are similar to the first article you selected. Additional narrowing of your search may be acheived by limiting the results to the past 3 years or less, adding an additional search term, or specifying only:
- full-text articles
- scholarly periodicals
- peer-reviewed articles
- articles with citations
Learning Exercise
Remember, there are many ways to narrow your results by using the filters mentioned above. Begin with a broad, full-text search, then narrow it down by using technical terms that you find and re-running the search in the abstract field. Click on all of the relevent filters that are offered on the search page. Try it yourself by searching a database with coverage on a full-range of topics, Academic Search Premier. Click the Ebsco Host icon to proceed.
