There are three ways that you can get to the library's databases,
from off-campus (as well as from on-campus):
If you are off campus, when you click the name of a database, you will be asked for your Campus ID and password. After that, you'll have full access to the database*. But in order to get that access, the database has to identify you as GSU faculty/student/staff.
*There are a very few databases that you can't access this way and are only usable in the actual library building). These are clearly marked in the database listings as ON CAMPUS USE ONLY.
**You can also connect Google Scholar to our online article holdings. Click here for more information on setting up this option from off-campus.**
Most databases have an Advanced Search option, which will let you search using multiple terms at once. For example:
An asterisk (*) is a truncation symbol that will bring up results using all the letters leading up to (or following) the * -- so, Islam* will bring up both "Islam" and "Islamic" etc. (See the Search Hints box, below).
* * * * *
A database's Advanced Search option will also let you limit your search in a number of ways, including:
For example, here are some options that often appear in Advanced Search:
Different subject databases may have other options as well, but most of our databases have these as Advanced Search options.
* * * * *
One box that you SHOULD NOT CHECK is the "Full Text" box.
Sounds backwards, I know, but here's why:
Many databases will give you only the citation for a particular article and not the full text.
But! We have lots of databases, and the article that you need may be in a different database.
If you find an article that you want, and it looks like we don't have full text, click the blue "Find It @ GSU" button. That button will point you to the article if it's held in another database, or will help you set up an Interlibrary Loan for the article. (Yes, you can place requests for articles via Interlibrary Loan during the coronavirus crisis -- article requests are handled electronically).
If you check the "Full Text" box in a database, you're actually saying that you only want articles which that particular database has available in "full text." You're shutting off that "Find It @ GSU" option.
to search names as a phrase | ex: "walter cronkite"
as a wild card | ex: wom*n
AND between words to NARROW results | ex: cat AND dog
OR between words to EXPAND results | ex: cat OR kitten
These databases are focused on humanities/social sciences areas, and are more likely to include articles that will focus on sociocultural aspects of your topic.
Atla Religion Database with AtlaSerials provides coverage from 1949 and retrospective indexing for major religion and theology journals.
Anthropology Plus is the worlds most comprehensive index covering the fields of anthropology (social, cultural, physical, biological, and linguistic archaeology, and related interdisciplinary research.)
Covers the literature in 54 American Anthropological Association's (AAA) peer reviewed journals, newsletters, and bulletins.
Provides indexing and abstracting of international publications in sociology and related disciplines in the social and behavioral sciences.
Unlike most other article databases, PsycINFO's Advanced Search page gives you the option of limiting your search by particular methodologies.
You can try limiting your search to methodology types that may allow for more sociocultural analysis.
Under "Methodology," try selecting for example
(you can select more than one methodology)
This isn't a foolproof way to get articles with more sociocultural emphases, but it may help narrow your results in APA PsycINFO more meaningfully.
You can find a full list of health/medical-related databases under "Public Health" in the Databases by Subject dropdown.
These databases are targeted more to medical practitioners, and are more likely to include evidence-based articles focusing on a technique or tradition's medical efficacy. These databases are less likely to include articles with a sociocultural emphasis.
You can try adding terms like "social" "cultural" "communication OR media" "spiritual* OR religio*" into your search to try to limit results to articles with more sociocultural/religious emphases. For example:
But those aren't foolproof techniques. Your best bet is to look carefully at both the title and the abstract to get a sense of the kind of approach a given article is taking.
This link opens in a new windowAPA PsycInfo is unmatched as a resource for locating scholarly research findings in psychology and related fields across a host of academic disciplines.
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