Research Guides: Introduction to Research: Finding Resources

Database Searching Tips

Are you able to search

For only Scholarly/Peer-Reviewed Sources?
By year of publication?
By subject?
For cited sources?
Subject-specific features?

Use advanced search strategies

Use Boolean Logic - "AND" to combine terms, "OR" to compile a list of synonyms or similar concepts, "NOT" to eliminate a term
Search for word variations by using the asterisk* to truncate the root word, ex. librar* searches for libraries, library, librarian
Notice Subject Terms assigned to describe an article and use them in your search

Once you find your articles

Can you save them to a folder to review, email, or print later?
Can you select a bibliographic style manual for the citations?
Are there links to works cited?
Is there an indication if this article has been cited?
Is there full-text attached?
Can you link to full-text in another source?

Most databases will have a Help section explaining its features

Best Bets Databases

These databases are good for a variety of topics and are good places to start. Take a look at their descriptions and see if they're a good fit for your research topic!

Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new window
Index, abstracts, and full text for many scholarly publications and news sources covering all academic areas of study.
Academic Search Complete, designed specifically for academic institutions, is the world's most comprehensive scholarly, multi-disciplinary full-text database, with more than 5,300 full-text periodicals, including 4,400 peer-reviewed journals. In addition to full text, this database offers indexing and abstracts for more than 9,300 journals and a total of 10,900 publications including monographs, reports, conference proceedings, etc. This scholarly collection offers full text coverage of information in many areas of academic study including: archaeology, area studies, astronomy, biology, chemistry, civil engineering, electrical engineering, ethnic & multicultural studies, food science & technology, general science, geography, geology, law, mathematics, mechanical engineering, music, physics, psychology, religion & theology, women's studies, and other fields.
Communication & Mass Media Complete This link opens in a new window
Index, abstracts, and full text for journals in communication and mass media
Incorporates CommSearch (formerly produced by the National Communication Association) and Mass Media Articles Index (formerly produced by Penn State) along with numerous other journals to create a research and reference resource in the communication and mass media fields. CMMC offers cover-to-cover (“core”) indexing and abstracts for over 300 journals, and selected (“priority”) coverage of over 100 more, for a combined coverage of over 400 titles. Furthermore, this database includes full text for nearly 200 journals. Many major journals have indexing, abstracts, PDFs and searchable citations from their first issues to the present (dating as far back as 1915). CMMC contains a sophisticated controlled vocabulary and comprehensive reference browsing (i.e. searchable citations for all peer-reviewed journals covered as “core”).
JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Archive of the full-text of core scholarly journals in all disciplines.
Our subscription focuses on history, business/economics,education, language & literature, music, political science, and sociology
PsycINFO This link opens in a new window
Abstracts and citations to the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences
PsycINFO is an electronic bibliographic database providing abstracts and citations to the scholarly literature in the psychological, social, behavioral, and health sciences. The database includes material of relevance to psychologists and professionals in related fields such as psychiatry, management, business, education, social science, neuroscience, law, medicine, and social work.

It is a resource devoted to peer-reviewed literature in behavioral science and mental health, and contains over 3 million citations and summaries dating as far back as the 1600s. Ninety-nine percent of its content is peer-reviewed. Included is information on the psychological aspects of related fields such as medicine, psychiatry, nursing, sociology, education, pharmacology, technology, linguistics, anthropology, business, law and others. Journal coverage, which spans from the 1800s to the present, includes international material selected from around 2,500 periodicals in dozens of languages
PubMed This link opens in a new window
Find journal articles covering all aspects of medicine, including life sciences, nursing, veterinary medicine, and the health care system using the National Library of Medicine's PubMed search interface to MEDLINE
Nexis Uni This link opens in a new window
Provides full-text articles from U.S. and international newspapers, wire services, business sources, legal journals, state and federal laws, medical articles, and reference sources.

Finding Information Resources

In many of your college courses, you will be asked to use scholarly (or peer-reviewed) resources. In this context, "Scholarly" means that an article was written by an expert in that field, and published. Most, but not all, scholarly resources go through what's known as "Peer Review", which is the process of putting an author's work through the scrutiny of other scholars & experts in their field.

There are scholarly books, but most often, your professor will be expecting you to use an article that was published in a peer-reviewed journal. But where to find these scholarly journal articles? Beeghly Library provides access to hundreds of scholarly articles through its many academic databases.

You can also search for journal articles right from the library's home page using the main search bar search!

Searching for Information 101

This video shows you how to perform your search successfully in library databases & Google to get the resources you need!

Searching for Information in Academic Search Complete

Academic Search Complete is a multidisciplinary database that addresses a variety of subjects areas. It is the most popular database here at Heidelberg and is useful for a large variety of topics! Since most of our databases are provided by a company called EBSCO, once you master using Academic Search Complete, you can successfully use many of our other databases because they look and function exactly the same!