You are asked to find a peer-reviewed article from an academic journal. What does that mean? Watch this video by Univesity of Washington Libraries for a better understanding of journals and peer-reviewed articles.
Search Roosevelt's Book Catalog
Search For Newspapers
Subject headings describe the content of each item in a database. Use these headings to find relevant items on the same topic. Searching by subject headings (a.k.a. descriptors) is the most precise way to search article databases.
It is not easy to guess which subject headings are used in a given database. For example, the phone book's Yellow Pages use subject headings. If you look for "Movie Theatres" you will find nothing, as they are listed under the subject heading "Theatres - Movies."
Keyword searching is how you typically search web search engines. Think of important words or phrases and type them in to get results.
Here are some key points about each type of search:
Keywords
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Subjects
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Definition: Rewriting in your own words.
Guidelines:
The following is an excerpt from Information Literacy Instruction: Theory and Practice:
The Copyright Act of 1976 includes an exception to copyright holders’ exclusive rights, called, “fair use”, and lists four ways to tell whether or not your use of a copyrighted item without permission is legally acceptable (West’s Encyclopedia of American Law, 1998). For ILI, the first factor, determination of educational as opposed to commercial use, is the most important part of the “test”. The other three test elements involve the type of copyrighted item, how much of the entire item you are using, and whether the copyright holder will lose income as a result of your use of his/her work (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2001, p. 212).
This would be plagiarism:
The Copyright Act of 1976 included an exception to copyright holders’ rights. It is called fair use. There are four ways to tell whether or not your use of a copyrighted item is legally acceptable. The first is determination of educational as opposed to commercial use. The other elements involve the type of copyrighted item, how much of it you are using, and whether the copyright holder will lose money as a result of using his/her work.
This would be paraphrasing with citation:
Fair use, an exception to The Copyright Act of 1976, was created to outline ways it is legally permissible to use copyrighted materials without permission. Four components were established to determine fair use. The first component is that the material is being used for an educational purpose and is not being used commercially. The second component considers information about the nature of the copyrighted material. the quantity of the material used, and whether or not the originator will lose money if you use his/her material (Grassian & Kaplowitz, 2001, p. 212)
Just the basics
Search below to find basic information about your topic-- definitions, history, etc. This is an excellent review before you look for scholarly articles.
You may have heard the term "database" before, but what does that mean? Watch this short video from NEIU Ronald Williams Library to have a better understanding of databases.
Reasons for Using Library Databases
Websites |
Library Databases |
There are ads |
There are no ads |
Materials can be written by anyone |
Materials are more likely to be written by experts |
Information may not be verified |
Information has been checked |
There is no guarantee info has been updated |
Sources are constantly updated |
Can feature any kind of writing |
Features only writing that has been published elsewhere |
Material has various intended purposes (to entertain to persuade, to sell) |
Purpose is to provide information |
Access is free |
Access is limited to library members, and those who pay significant subscription fees |
Articles may cost money |
Once accessed, full article text is free |
It may or may not be clear who the author is |
The author is clearly named |
(Palmer, E., 2015, p. 22) © 2015 by ASCD. Reproduced with permission
Palmer, E. (2015). Researching In A Digital World. Danvers, MA: ASCD.
Research 101: Building Keywords
Watch this video from Northwestern University before you begin using databases and you'll be better prepared. For more research videos from NU click here.
Boolean Search Terms
Explanation |
Example |
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AND |
Results (in blue) contain both terms Climate Change AND Cause |
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OR |
Results (all of both circles) contain either Climate Change OR Cause |
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NOT |
Results (in Turquoise) contain Climate Change NOT "Natural Cause" |
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***Note: Some web browsers have their own search terms.
Search Shortcuts
Explanation |
Example |
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PHRASE SEARCH (Using Quotation Marks) |
Looks for complete phrase exactly as it is typed |
“human cause for climate change" |
SITE: |
Focuses on specific domain types .com (commercial); .net (network); .org (organization); .gov (government); .edu (education) |
site: .edu. “human cause* for climate change” |
RELATED: |
Finds similar sites |
related: http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/may/most-scientists-agree-humans-causing-global-climate-change.html |
LINK: |
Finds sites that are linked to this site or have used this site as a reference |
link: http://www.mtu.edu/news/stories/2013/may/most-scientists-agree-humans-causing-global-climate-change.html |
FILETYPE: |
Focuses on specific domain types .com (commercial); .net (network); .org (organization); .gov (government); .edu (education) |
filetype: .pdf “human cause* for climate change” |
(Palmer, 2015, pp. 28-29)
Truncation and Wildcards
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Symbol |
Explanation |
Example |
Truncation |
* (Some databases might use: !, ?, or #) |
Helps to expand your search to include different word endings or other possible combinations |
Boy*= boys, boyfriend, boycott, etc. C*t= cat, caught, consent, etc. |
Wildcard |
! or ? |
Substitutes for a letter in a word. |
M!n= man, men Colo!r= color, colour |
How do you know if a resource is credible and reliable? Watch this video from Western University to pick up some ideas for evaluating websites and printed materials. For help with your research:
Evaluating Resources
Currency |
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Relevance |
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Authority |
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Accuracy |
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Purpose |
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(Palmer, 2015, pp. 28-34; University of Ontario, 2012)
Evaluating Resources [Video file]. (2012, January 13). In YouTube. Retrieved August 19, 2016, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EyMT08mD7Ds
Palmer, E. (2015). Researching In A Digital World. Danvers, MA: ASCD.
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