HOW TO SEARCH LIBRARY DATABASES

If you have any questions regarding this extra credit exercies don't hesitate to contact your friendly reference librarians. You can email us at refdesk@uwgb.edu. Additional contact information can be found on the Research Assistance Page.

Create a search strategy.

Put your research idea in the form of a question (or at least a really good statement):

What is the relationship between levels of lead in the environment and behavior in children?

Select the key terms that best define your research:

My definitive terms are lead and behavioral problems and children. But there are other terms I can use. Try making a chart of useful terms that you can search, revise it as you do your research.

lead	behavior	children
lead poisoning	delinquency or delinquent	child
lead exposure	violence or violent	youth
	aggression or aggressive	adolescents

There are many tools for finding related terms. Databases often contain an online thesaurus. Also, read about your topic and collect background information. Run a search and look at the subject headings used in a relevant article. Revise your search.

Put your terms in a search statement:

(lead exposure or lead poisoning) and behavior and (child* or youth or adoles*)

Most databases have an advanced search feature that lets you enter your terms, combine synonyms with or and concepts with and . Also, notice that many of the terms in the example have the same root word but a different ending. Most databases will let you put in a wildcard or truncate (*) the term to allow various endings with one root word.

Search, examine the results and revise.

Depending on the database, you may have to revise this search and make the lead term more specific: lead levels, lead contamination, lead exposure or lead poisoning. Question your strategy, spelling, or database choice if you get unexpected results! Ask someone for help! Especially a librarian.

Check the complete record of a good article and use the subject terms for a new or revised search.

This is the basics of good search construction. It is a technique that can be used in any database.

Scholarly vs. Popular Articles

WHAT IS A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

A scholarly journal contains articles and letters written by scholars to report results of research and other scholarly activities. For most academic papers, scholarly articles are excellent and prefered sources for supporting your arguments.

WHAT ARE SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

Scholarly journals are usually published or sponsored by a professional society or association.
There may be a list of reviewers on the first few pages. This type of journal is known as a "juried", "refereed", or "peer reviewed" journal. In such journals, all articles are reviewed by experts before publication so the journals tend to be considered among the best in their fields.

Some Differences between Scholarly and Popular publications:

	SCHOLARLY JOURNAL	POPULAR MAGAZINE
Audience	Professionals, Professors, Graduate Students	The masses, folks without a college degree in the subject
Language	Field-specific language/jargon, requires reader to be in touch with other research in the field.	Written in everyday language accessible to any generally knowledgeable reader.

WHAT ARE THE CHARACTERISTICS OF AN ARTICLE IN A SCHOLARLY JOURNAL?

Some Differences between the articles in Scholarly and Popular publications:

	SCHOLARLY ARTICLES	POPULAR ARTICLES
Author	Author's credentials in the field are established (e.g., institutional affiliation, maybe degrees, etc.)	Authors may not have special qualifications for writing article; credentials are not given
Bibliography	Yes.	Probably not.
Research	Usually based on original research or new applications of others' research.	The author is usually a reporter; he or she will have done research for the article, but not "original" research the actual lab work, math, or theoretical analysis.

Since popular and scholarly publications make up so much of the research world for college and university courses, we will focus on their characteristics. Magazines and journals are specific examples of popular and scholarly information sources, respectively. Click on the questions below to review the most important characteristics of these publication types.

APA CITATION STYLE
Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association, 5th edition

Link to the Diane Hacker Website for additional information on APA style. http://www.dianahacker.com/resdoc/p04_c09_o.html

More information can also be found at http://www.apastyle.org/

Follow these color codes:
Author(s) Date Title of Book Title of Article	Title of Periodical
Volume Pages Place of Publication Publisher	Other Information

Magazine or Journal Article from a Database: Mershon, D. H. (1998, November/December). Star trek on the brain:
Alien minds, human minds. American Scientist, 86(6), 585. Retrieved
July 29, 1999, from PsycInfo database.

Journal Article: where the page numbering continues from issue to issue: Dubeck, L. (1990). Science fiction aids science teaching. Physics
Teacher, 28, 316-318.

Journal or Magazine Article: that start each issue with page one
(for magazine articles, include the month and day - see below): Wilcox, R. V. (1991). Shifting roles and synthetic women in Star trek:
The next generation. Studies in Popular Culture, 13(2), 53-65.


Newspaper Article: Di Rado, A. (1995, March 15). Trekking through college: Classes
explore modern society using the world of Star trek. Los Angeles
Times, p. A3.

Book: Okuda, M., & Okuda, D. (1993). Star trek chronology: The history
of the future. New York: Pocket Books.

Book Article or Chapter: James, N. E. (1988). Two sides of paradise: The Eden myth according
to Kirk and Spock. In D. Palumbo (Ed.), Spectrum of the fantastic
(pp. 219-223). Westport, CT: Greenwood.
: Lynch, T. (1996). DS9 trials and tribble-ations review. Retrieved
     October 8, 1997, from Psi Phi: Bradley's Science Fiction Club
     Web site: http://www.bradley.edu/campusorg/psiphi/DS9/ep/
     503r.html

How to Access Library Databases

Connect to the library's home page at http://www.uwgb.edu/library. Select "Articles and Databases" beneath "HOW DO I FIND."

Next, select the Databases by Subject Link.

Open the "Great place top start (General) Subject Page

Select the first database on the list -- Academic Search Premier from EbscoHost. If you only learn how to use one database during your college career (and I hope that won't be the case!) it should be this one. ASP is very "interdisciplinary" and contains a wealth of peer reviewed / scholarly articles on almost any subject / discipline.