Guides: BIO 498/555: Environmental Physiology: Home

Workshop Agenda - Monette October 2020

1. Developing Search Terms

2. Using Boolean Operators

3. Search Limiters/Modifiers

4. Search Syntax

5. Searching in Academic Search Premier, JSTOR, and Google Scholar

Search Strategy Demo 10/22/20

Academic Search Premier

This multi-disciplinary database has records for nearly 18,000 periodicals - journals, magazines, and newspapers - of which nearly 16,000 are peer reviewed. It provides full text for more than 5,000 journals, and you can use Journal Finder to locate articles that do not have a PDF readily available.
- Basic Search: Preform a basic search by entering keywords into the search bar then clicking on the green "SEARCH" button.
- Advanced Search: Click on the blue "Advanced Search" link below the search bar to add filters and multiple keywords before you begin searching.
- Boolean Logic & Filters: All EBCSO hosted databases allow you to narrow and expand your search using Boolean operators and filters. Access them in the advanced search option or on the left side of the results screen.
- Citation Tool: Access the citation tool by clicking on the title of an article or record, click on the file icon labeled "Cite" located in the "Tools" bar, then select the correct citation style from the dropdown menu.
- Saving Records: All saving options can be seen by clicking on the title of an article, viewing the detailed record, then looking at the righthand bar labeled "Tools." EBSCO allows users to print, save PDFs, email articles and create permanent links to the record.
JSTOR
Contains a comprehensive backfile (current issues not available) of scholarly journals, current open access articles, and select current scholarly journal subscriptions spanning more than 20 disciplines including business & economics, education, science, history, and language & literature - all in full text
PubMed
PubMed indexes and abstracts more than 24 million citations for biomedical literature from MEDLINE, life science journals, and online books. Citations may include links to full-text content from PubMed Central and publisher web sites.

Tips

Search Tips

WestSearch may be good place to start to find a few full-text articles to start you off.

Limit your results to peer-reviewed.
This source prioritizes content we have in full-text. You will need to go deeper than that.

Google Scholar can be used for discovery and targeted research.

Google Scholar has some huge advantages like links to bibliographies for articles and links to related articles.
Set up your Library Links in Google Scholar to get the most out of it (if you are working off-campus.)
The links to WCSU full-text will usually take you right to the article, but you can drill down if they don't.
Use Journal Finder to double-check those with no links or citations from bibliographies.

Direct search in databases

Many of the databases are pre-limited to full-text. Be sure to uncheck that box to get abstracts and citations.
If you see a certain database title come up repeatedly in WestSearch and/or Google Scholar, try a direct search in that resource.

Direct search within a journal

Journals are best accessed by title using Journal Finder, but you can find them in WestSearch as well.
If you see a certain journal title come up repeatedly in WestSearch and/or Google Scholar, try a direct search in that journal.

Mine bibliographies for resources.

When you find a good article, examine the bibliography and track down the articles by finding the journal in Journal Finder.

Interlibrary Loan (ILL) Requests

Keep ILL open in another tab to make it easy to copy and paste citation info for requests.
Be sure to check Journal Finder before making requests!

Stay Organized

Consider creating a spreadsheet with the citation info for articles you find with added notes.
Try a reference manager to manage your reasearch. I like Mendeley and can help get you started.