Secret techniques for Searching Article Databases
Tip 1: Phrase searching
Have you ever searched for the phrase America the Beautiful in an article database before? I know I have. It was a good thing I knew to put quote marks around words I want to show up together. This works in many of our databases including Academic Search Complete, Web of Science, PsycInfo, and even Google Scholar.
sample: "america the beautiful"
Tip 2: Truncation (for plurals and more)
I could spend extra time doing searches for minority or minorities, or I can use the * to make sure that both terms come up in my results. ACS and PsycInfo do this automatically, but Web of Science does not.
sample: minorit*
Tip 3: Boolean (And, Or, Not)
Use and between words to get both words (often done automatically), or to get either, and not to get one, but not the other.
Sample:
philadelphia and eagles
(philadelphia or pennsylvania) and eagles
(philadelphia or pennsylvania) and eagles) not football
Want more tips? Feel free to ask a librarian!
