| 1. Choose a topic and decide what information
is needed |
- Write down a few key words for the topic.
- Identify related terms or narrower concepts.
- Identify names of companies, countries, legislation or individuals that
relate.
- Subject encyclopedias in the Reference section can provide basic information
on a topic.
- Determine what types of articles are needed; for example articles with
statistics and reports or articles with biographical information.
|
| 2. Choose which database to use and
how to search |
- Citations for articles can be found in both databases and print
indexes.
- Most databases do not contain citations to articles prior to the 1980's.
Online databases started including full-text articles in
the 1990's reference
Books or print indexes will give you a deeper historical background
on your subject.
- Determine which databases are appropriate for the topic by selecting
a database from article databases.
Note which publication years are covered in the database.
- Most databases have the option of limiting a search to "refereed" or
scholarly journals. Additional information about magazines
vs. journals can help you select materials.
- Most databases have two main types of searching: keyword and subject.
Keyword searching is useful when combining terms or to obtain specific subject
headings. [e.g. asthma in children; purchasing cell phones] Subject searching
is useful if there is a clear topic [e.g. Kenya; dyslexia].
|
| 3. Print or email results |
- Full-text of the article, if available in the database, can be printed
or emailed.
- Citations and abstracts can be printed or emailed. (A citation will contain
the title of the article, the author, the name of the journal, the date
of publication as well as the volume, issue and page numbers. An abstract
is a brief summary of the article.)
- Use Journals, Magazines & Newspapers to
determine if the library owns or has access to the full-text
of a journal.
- Use Interlibrary Loan if the library
does not own or have access to the journal.
- Guidelines for correctly citing sources,
including online journal articles have been developed for you by library
staff.
|
| 4. Evaluate each article |
- Determine if the article provides the data that you need.
- Is the article thorough and does it provide enough background information?
- Is the article at the level that you need?
- Are the sources of information provided in a bibliography or footnotes?
Look at these for additional sources of information.
- Is the article current?
- Is the article long enough? Lengthy articles in scholarly journals generally
contain complete information about research that is reported.
- Is the article simply a review of a book or is the article information
about the topic?
- Is there a bias to the article?
- If necessary, repeat the search in other databases for additional articles.
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