SciFinder: Search References

Research Topic Search

This is the default search option when you first log in to SciFinder. Select the Explore tab, and under References, click Research Topic. 

Develop a Search

• Use plain English to describe your topic. SciFinder will parse it into different concepts.
  • Ex. "tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of cancer"
  • If you get only a few results, try rewording your search or switching words around.
• SciFinder will find plurals, words with the same root, and many synonyms for you. Typing "inhibitor" will also find "inhibitors".
• To search for less obvious synonyms, include them in parentheses.
  • Ex. "I am interested in the milk production of cows (bovines)"
• Don't use "and" if a preposition would be more exact.
  • Ex. "tyrosine kinase inhibitors in the treatment of cancer" is better than "tyrosine kinase inhibitors and cancer treatment"
• Don't use quotation marks to search for an exact phrase unless you're getting the wrong results; SciFinder Scholar usually recgonizes phrases as a single concept.

• In general, select the first one or two lines. Check how many references are found for each; if many references are found for the first result or very few references are found for most of them, you may want to broaden or narrow your research topic.
• The first result is the search phrase exactly as entered. This will often return only a few results.
• The second result has the two research topics ("conformation change" and "protein folding") closely associated to each other: in the same sentence, appearing close to each other in the abstract, etc. This and the first result will usually give the most relevant results.
• The third result has the two topics anywhere in the reference. This is often too broad, returning papers where the two topics aren't related to each other.
• The fourth and fifth results contain only one of the two topics. These are only useful if your search is so narrow that few or no results are found with the two together.

Find a Paper by Title

Select Journal on the right-hand side, and enter the article title in the Title Word(s) search box. If the title uses very common words, you may have to include an Author Name or Journal Name.

Find a Paper by DOI

Select Document Identifier on the left-hand side and enter one or more DOIs (Digital Object Identifiers) in the box, one per line.

Find Papers by an Author

Select Author Name on the left-hand side and enter the author's name into the search boxes. To find all works by an author, make sure to check for all variations of first/middle names and initials (ex. JJ Yang, Jenny J Yang, J Yang).

Get the Full Paper

Once you've found a relevant paper, you'll want to download it so you can read it. To download a paper, look for the Other Sources icon underneath the article's title. This link sends you back to an online record in the GSU Library's collection to let you know if we have it. If you have seen FindIt@GSU buttons on other websites, Other Sources is equivalent to that. 

If you're not sure whether or not a paper is relevant, you can also click on the paper title to read the abstract and other information about the paper. From there, use the Other Sources icon at the top of the page.

If we have one or more electronic versions listed as Full Text Online, select any one to go directly to the article. From there, look for a Download PDF link to save the article. If the library doesn't own a copy, you can use Interlibrary Loan to request a copy of the article.