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ENG 180 & 280: Database Articles

English & Linguistic Databases

Finding Database Articles

Here are the basics steps using databases to search topics, sort results, and save content to write with.

Search

1. Go to the databases on the library homepage.

2. Enter keywords to the blanks. Nouns work best.
Example: student athletes

Adding quotations ensures phrase terms appear together in order in the results.
Example: “student athletes”

3. Put terms together by adding each idea to a blank. At the end of each blank is AND. The AND between terms means they both have to appear to satisfy the search conditions. When AND is between words (like it is between the search blanks), all the words must be somewhere in the results.
Example: student athletes AND community colleges

Sort

1. Limit the Results.
Limiting results helps reduce clutter, focus results, and adjust results to meet research and assignment requirements. You can limit results by type of material, by date, by subject and by oldest, newest, and relevance, and Subjects (aspects of a broader topic).

2. Check the settings for scholarly material. This may read peer reviewed academic journal, or refereed journal. Check this so the only type of results returned are scholarly research articles.

Scholarly

 

 

Many library databases include a box that you can check to filter out the non-scholarly articles. While these tools are useful, they are not foolproof. It's a good idea to evaluate each individual article you use to make sure that it comes from a scholarly publication.

3. Sort the results by Date. The last 5 or 10 years will give the most current research. In some cases, like history, you may want to see what the reaction was in in the field in earlier research, other fields like medicine you might want the most current.

4. Identify and / or select subjects. A subject heading applies the most focus to the search, results are fewer but should be the most relevant. You usually click a link to all items on a subject, or search for a subject from the search blanks at the top. You can also use the subject as additional keywords you can add.

5. Sort Relevance. At the top of the list there is usually also control for sorting the list by oldest, newest, or relevance. If the top results seem off, you can sort the list by switching to relevance to get items aligned with your topic appear closer to the top.

6. Search and review results. After adding the settings do the search and review the results.

Save

Figure out what to save
1. Read the titles. If your terms are bolded in the title, it is probably useful. When you find an article title that seems to fit, click to open the detailed record.

2. Read the abstract. This will summarize the research explain the purpose and tell who was involved and what happened.

3. Get the Full text of the article. You should see a link to download the full text if its available and tools or link to save the citation. This will often be under the title on the result list, or inside the detailed record of the title where the abstract is.

4. Get the citation.  Also in the detailed record, you will find the article citation. There is usually a tool on the side or top of the screen. After you open the citation tool, find the citation for the subject you are studying. For example, APA for psychology, or MLA for English. Paste the citation into a document or email it to yourself!

ILIAD Confirmation

When you request an article through ILIAD you get an email notification when your item is available. The time to get the materials varies, but because many items are in electronic form it can be really quick! This actual request below was filled in just a few hours, so if you don't find the articles in our database, make sure to take advantage of this alternate resource!
 


Cordes, Christopher
The item you requested


ILL Request Number: 207287567
Title/Journal Title: Computers in human behavior.
Author: Elsevier Science (Firm)
Article Title: Exploring the influences of profile perceptions and different pick-up lines on dating outcomes on tinder: An online experiment.
Article Author: Dai, Minhao
Volume: 117
Issue/No: april
Issue Date: 2021
Pages: 106667

is available at: https://worldcat.org/ILL/AE/ZeAefJuo8

GIVES A PASSWORD

Use this case-sensitive password: zzm6yKpA

You may also access from your account at 
https://926.account.worldcat.org/profile.

 



* Once a document has been uploaded, it is available for 30 days or 5 views, whichever comes first. If you have any questions, please contact the Interlibrary Loan staff at your library.