Embedded Resources by Rebecca Gagne

Which library databases should you use?

How to Start a Search

Step 1: Think about your research topic/question

Step 2: Extract the main keywords/concepts

Step 3: Input each of the words into the search lines. Click 'Search'!

• Example Research Question: How does social media affect mental health?
• Search Terms: Social Media (and) Mental Health 

Bonus Step: Select search limiters (left side of screen)

• Full Text
• Scholarly/Peer Reviewed

Your search page will look similar to the screen below

Boolean Operators are words and symbols that allow you to broaden or narrow your search terms when using the search bar in the library's databases. Below are the most commonly used, however, some databases will have additional operators unique to them.

• AND or &: used to retrieve results containing all of the words that it separates.
  • For example, the search statement search AND seizure will retrieve only results that contain both the words search and seizure
• OR: used to broaden a search and to retrieve records containing any of the words it separates
  • For example, the search statement search OR seizure will retrieve results that contain the word search or the word seizure, but not necessarily in the same document
• NOT: used to narrow a search and to retrieve results that do not contain the term in your search
  • For example, the search statement search NOT seizure will retrieve results that contain the word search, but not the word seizure 

Explicit Search - Using Quotation Marks " "

• used by placing the exact phrase you are looking for within quotation marks to retrieve results containing that exact phrase
• For example, the search statement “fourth amendment” will retrieve results that contain the exact phrase “fourth amendment” without retrieving results that use both words in different orders.

Truncation

In many cases, there will be multiple suffixes to a single root word that you'd like to search. Most databases allow the * to be used in place of the ending for a word in order to capture all forms.

For example, a search for "nation*" will return all forms of the word - including nations, national, nationalism, nationalistic, etc. 

Avoid adding the plural "s" to a word where possible, and use the truncation symbol when you search should allow for multiple forms of your search terms.

Publication Date

The databases offer a variety of options to refine your results, typically found on the left hand side of your results page. Consider limiting your results by their publication date. Chances are, you do not want articles written more than a few years ago.

The JWU library has two style guides:

MLA Style Guide

APA Style Guide

If you need more in depth guidance on formatting visit the Purdue OWL. 

Need to talk to someone and seek guidance in real time?

• If you are an online student, you can go to the online writing center for information about how to contact a writing coach. 
• If you are a PVD campus student you can schedule an appointment with the writing coach through uSucceed. 

If you use the library's databases for your research, you can copy and paste pre-generated citations - look out for the option as it may appear differently in each interface but is generally represented by an icon of quotation marks.

If you need to cite a resource not located in a database, I recommend using the OWL as a reference. You can also reach out to me or JWU Library for help with citations!

The Academic Success Center is open for in-person and remote appointments by zoom!

Whether you're just getting started or need final editing advice, writing tutors are kind and trained to help you at any stage of the writing process. Visit the Academic Success Center website for more information.

Top Tips for Working with the Academic Success Center:

1.    Book an appointment by phone: 401-598-1485  
2.    Visit us live on the first floor of the Yena Center

For 24/7 at no extra charge tutoring support and academic success coaching, log into JWULINK to use tutor.com and schedule a session.

Look for the link in jwuLink, type tutor.com in the search bar.  It will be the first link to come up! Log in to your account with your JWU credentials and then, it will auto-populate with your name and you're ready to go!

Government sites and resources

There are a few ways to limit your Google search to make your results more effective. Of course, a Google Scholar search will bring you lots of academic results, and it is a great place to start. The problem is that accessing the full text of those resources may require a subscription - if you run into this problem, please email me so I can help you locate the article in our subscriptions.

Below are some tips for making your Google search a better one:

1. Domain Limiting

If you don't know the difference between .org, .edu., .com, .gov, read this first.

Google allows you to limit your results to those articles appearing only on websites with certain domains. For example, to return results only from government sites, you would type your search string followed by "site: .gov"

You can search any website using this technique - just enter the entire address after "site:"

2. Explicit Phrase

If you are searching for content about higher education, consider that this is actually a phrase (consisting of more than one word), and search for it explicitly using quotation marks. As in "higher education."

3. Related Search

If you find a website that has really great content, and you want to find something else that is similar, perform a related search by typing - related: yourwonderfulwebsite.com