FINDING JOURNAL ARTICLES

How to Search Databases for Peer-Reviewed Journal Articles

 HOW TO COMBINE KEYWORDS

   USE BOOLEAN LOGIC

• The operators AND, OR, NOT are selected via their appropriate boxes

or

• The operators AND, OR, NOT may be inserted as part of a search string -- when using the operators as part of the search string, type the operator in upper case (however, this does not work as it should in Infotrac)

• To group use (...) as needed. Some databases default to phrase search while others may default to an AND search.

MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPER & JOURNAL DATABASES

• Select preferred package of databases:
  from YRDSB's Trillium Databases (Home access requires password)

  • including Ebscohost's Canadian Points of View

  or directly from
    - InfoTrac by Thomson / Gale - includes all our Gale ebooks (Home access requires password)
   - or -
              from Vaughan Public Libraries - Online Databases (VPL membership required)

• Select appropriate database(s) within preferred package

• Choose "Advanced Search" tab

• Ensure Fulltext selected

• type keyword(s):

  • combine keywords needed with AND operator

  • search most important keywords in Subject field (or broaden search to default fields if necessary)

  • use truncation as required

  • cluster similar concepts if necessary to optimize on line limitations

  • check assigned subject headings of highly relevant articles for alternate keywords

  • no one perfect strategy -- play around for the one that works best for given search

Infotrac articles may be emailed directly to user

eg./

You may also wish to check some of the "Free" periodicals sources on the same MAGAZINE, NEWSPAPER & JOURNAL DATABASES page

• Commercial Database Packages (eg./ Infotrac, etc.- see adjacent cell =>)
• Free Databases (eg./ FindArticles.com, etc.- use the same search strategies as in the commercial databases)
• Advanced Internet Search (eg./ Google Advanced Search, etc.)

ALWAYS USE ADVANCED SEARCH FOR BEST RESULTS

Google Advanced Search (click on below example for details)
Google will search for various related words based on its singular form (eg./ journal, journals or article, articles)

COMMERCIAL DATABASES - FEATURES: for Journals in:

INFOTRAC:

• Ensure Academic OneFile  and Expanded Academic ASAP are chosen -- but also select others as required. (Infotrac organizes "articles found" under separate tabs for each source type: Academic Journals, Magazines, News, etc.)
• *** To use Boolean operator "OR" in INFOTRAC chose "Search ... within these results" ***
• Search Alert option available
• Citation Tool included

VAUGHAN PUBLIC LIBRARY:

Ensure Academic OneFile is chosen -- but also select others as required.

Easybib.com

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