sail through databases

© University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland, Australia. CRICOS Provider No. 01595D

Sail through databases 2014


Goals of this session

• Journals and Databases

Learn about

• Too many results? Too few results?• Spelling challenges?

Search – tips & tricks

• Informit – Australian database• Factiva – newspaper database• Scopus – citation database

Explore some databases


Features of journals

Published regularly

The latest research

May have a narrow focus

Articles by different authors

Formal, abstract language

Peer reviewed by experts


What’s this got to do with databases?

Databases are collections of• journals• newspaper articles • conference papers

Databases are searchable • like the internet


Search strategy

keywords search tools search strategy


Our topic

Literature Review:

Teenage mental healthcan be improved by exercise

What are the keywords?


Brainstorm keywordsteenage

adolescents

young adults

teens

youth

juvenile

mental health

mental illness

psychology

intellectual

emotional well-being

anxiety

self-esteem

exercise

sports

active

workout

fitness

movement

athletics


Search tools

Search tools tell the search engine how to combine your keywords,

to find relevant search results


AND OR NOT

AND – all keywords joined by AND will appear in resultsOR – any keywords joined by OR may appear in resultsNOT – excludes a word from the results

Use OR between alternative wordsUse AND between the different keywords

teenager AND mental AND health AND exercise

teenager OR adolescent OR youth


More search tools

Truncation: psycholog* = psychology, psychological

Wildcards: vigo?r = vigor or vigour

Phrase searching: “young adults” more specific than young adults

Brackets – lets you group search combinations

Subject field search – target your searches


How it works together


Keywords + Search toolsteenage*ORadolescen* OR“young adults”ORteensORyouthORjuvenile

“mental health”OR“mental illness”ORpsycholog*ORintellectualOR“emotional well-being”ORanxiety OR anxiousORself-esteem

exerciseORsportsORactivityORworkoutORfitnessORmovementORathletics

AND AND


Your search might look like this

(“young adults” OR teenage* OR youth OR adolescen*)

AND (psycholog* OR “mental health” OR well-being)

AND (exercise OR active OR sports)

NOT (obesity OR ADHD OR disability)


Most databases have an…

Advanced Search

You can combine search tools with your keywords

Check each database to learn about its tools Look for search tips or search hints or help


Find Databases – Library website

Find databases by subject or name

Subject guides recommend databases


Three ways to find a database

Complete A-Z List

Find all databases for a particular

subject area

Select a letter (Database name)


The complete list of databases

Subject area

More information and tutorials

Database name is the link


Informit – Australian databases

A+ Education

AANRO (agriculture)

AGIS for Law

APA-FT for current affairs

AUSPORT

Engineering Collection

Health Collection

Humanities & Social Sciences Collection

Indigenous Collection

Literature & Cultural Collection


The complete list of databases

Select Informit


Informit – Simple Search


Informit – Help


Informit – Search Hints


Informit – Advanced Search


Informit – Select a field

Search for your keywords in selected fields


Informit – AND Phrase OR

All terms = AND Exact phrase = “ ” Any term = OR


Informit – AND OR NOT

Use multiple rows to refine your search


Informit – Advanced Search

Add more rows

Refine by date


Create your search in Informit

DO NOT select Full Text Records Only


Summary of your search


Select Full Text (PDF, external, link)

Link to full text


Expand your search

Increased results

Change to Any field

It will search for your keywords in all fields


What if you want to find…

Newspaper articles


Find newspaper articles


Factiva - Newspapers

Only 3 concurrent users

Search for newspaper articles, news wires, and market information

You will need your search strategy


Factiva Search Options

ANDOR

NOT“Phrase”

Use AND OR NOT truncation* “phrase searching” (and brackets to group parts of the search)


Factiva Search Form - A

Enter main keywords and search for last 2 years… OR


Factiva Search Form - B

Use the features of the form and search tools to create a better search


Factiva Free Text Search

(teen* or adolescen* or “young adult*” or youth) and (exercise or sports or active or fitness) and

(“mental health” or psycholog* or well-being)


Limit by Source Type: Newspapers


Limit by Region: Australia


Factiva Free Text Search


Factiva Results screen

See the next 100 headlines Modify your search


Read the article

Back to search results


Please logout when you are finished


Scopus – citation database

High-level research, especially for health sciences

Finds articles that are available in other databases

See if other authors have referred to that article

Find other articles and books written by an author


Go to S for Scopus

http://ezproxy.usc.edu.au:2048/login?url=http://www.scopus.com


Scopus Document Search - options

Limit by year range

Add more words to your search


Field searching


Document Type searching


Your search in Scopus


Read the Abstract first!Hover mouse to reveal this link


Select Link to Full Text

Articles may be in different databases


You can’t access this article


Be flexible with your search strategyteenage*ORadolescen* OR“young adults”ORteensORyouthORjuvenile

“mental health”OR“healthy mind”ORpsycholog*ORintellectualOR“emotional well-being”ORperceptions

exerciseORsportsORactivityORworkoutORfitnessORmovementORathletics

AND AND


AuthorityWho are the authors?

With whom are they affiliated?

Evaluate information


Online database tutorialsSelect More details for tutorials


Need more help?

Subject Guides and How to Guides


What we have learned about

Using AND OR NOT

Using * ? “phrase search”

Building a search

Australian databases

Citation databases

Newspaper databases


Librarians – here to help you

At the Information Desk

Phone 54302803

[email protected]

How to Guides

Attend a class