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.**
Session taught by Jill Anderson
on March 12, 2021
Philosophy Librarian Jill Anderson covers:
A peer reviewed journal article is an article that has been reviewed and chosen for publication by the author's professional peers. These peers are scholars in the field, who sit on the editorial board of a journal which is usually published by a professional organization or a university press. Peer reviewed articles can also be known as scholarly or refereed articles.
button in the article's record. Clicking this button will check for full text availability in GSU's other databases and also search the library's catalog to see if we have the journal in print or on microfilm. You will see one or more of the following results: To see if the GSU Library provides access to a particular periodical (newspaper, magazine, or journal), follow these steps:
This search will give you more information about our holdings of this journal/magazine/newspaper.
This search does NOT take you directly to individual articles in that periodical, but if a "Full Text Online" result appears, you can click there to search in the journal.
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. "Wom*n" will bring up "woman," "women," and "womyn."
* * * * *
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.
Go to the Library's Databases by Name page to locate databases in other subject areas or disciplines.
You can also used the Databases by Subject dropdown on the library's homepage to sort our databases by discipline/subject area.
If you've got a citation to look up and you're not sure what discipline it falls into, you can try these options, which cover many different disciplines at once:
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
1. For off-campus access, enter your Campus ID and Password at the prompt.
2. Use the Advanced Search option within the database you are using to achieve the best results.
3. Keep your search terms brief and concise.
4. Check your spelling. Library databases do not correct spelling errors.
5. If your first set of search terms doesn't retrieve any results, try using synonyms that describe your topic.
6. You can search for different forms of a word (different word endings of the same word), by typing the first few letters followed by an asterisk. Example:
7. Use double quotation marks around two or more words to search as a phrase. Example:
8. Use the connecting words AND and OR to narrow or broaden your search. Examples:
9. You can create more complex searches by using the words AND, OR, NOT, in combination with parentheses. Example:
Ask a librarian for help if you can't find what you need!
BrowZine is a service provided by the University Library that lets you browse, monitor, and read scholarly journals in your subject areas. It works by consolidating academic journal articles from GSU Library subscriptions with Open Access collections and organizes them into an easily browsable newsstand format.
The web version is listed in our A-Z database list under "B." You can also download the free app for your mobile devices.<
With BrowZine, you can:
If you set up a free personal account, you can also:
View an introductory video here: Staying Current with BrowZine For more information about how to download BrowZine, see our BrowZine Research Guide
