Step by Step with EBSCO Academic Search Complete

EBSCO Academic Search Complete is an all purpose database that offers a large number of full text articles on nearly every subject imaginable. This handout takes you step by step through both basic and advanced searching.

1. Before you touch the keyboard, think carefully about your topic. Most topics for college level papers have two main ideas in them. If your topic does not have two ideas, then you may want to narrow it down. A good example of a paper topic is: the health effects of using a cell phone.
    
2. The main ideas in this topic are cell phone and health.
    
3. To put these ideas together in a way that EBSCO Academic Search Complete understands, your search statement becomes "cell phones" AND health. The AND is not a word but a logical operator that tells the computer to look for all articles that deal with both health and cell phones. Here is how EBSCO Academic Search Complete sees your search statement. The overlap between the circles is your search results.

    

   

4. To search EBSCOHost Academic Search Complete, scroll down to the A to Z Database List on the library web page and select A.



5. Academic Search Complete is near the top of the list.





6. The database opens when you click on it.
    
7. Type your search statement in to the box in Basic Search. Don't forget to check off the Full Text box and include the AND.

   

   

   To remove tiny articles, scroll down and set Number of Pages to greater than 2.

8. Click the Search button to launch your search.
    
9. EBSCO presents results ten(10) at a time and you can move among them with the scroll bar and move between pages with the, Previous, Next, and Page Number links.
    
10. EBSCO also hides subject headings beneath the Subject Thesaurus facet half way down the left side of the page. Click the small, light, gray arrow to see the headings.
     
11. To see an article's abstract and full text where available, click on its blue title.
     
12. To see an article that is a PDF file or PDF Full Text, click on its PDF icon.

• To print an article, click on EBSCO's print icon.
• To email an article, click on EBSCO's email icon and fill out the form.
• To save an article to a folder you can open at home, login to your personal EBSCO account and then click on the folder icon.
• To copy and paste persistent link to your article or search click the Permalink icon. Then copy and paste the long URL. Note: EBSCOHost breaks apart long, GALILEO, URLs when sending them automatically.

12. To end a seach in EBSCO Academic Search Complete, click the Home icon in the browser's top row or close your browser.

EBSCO Academic Search Complete Advanced Search

If you are visually oriented, want more space and flexibility, or plan to try several related searches, then EBSCO's Advanced Search is for you.

1. Instead of using an AND between ideas in a search statement, in Advanced Search, you fill separate rows with your ideas, one row per idea.
    
2. You can also put two or more synonyms for one idea together using OR, a logical operator joins synonyms as a single idea.
    
3. In Advanced Search, fill in the multibox.

    

   

   Select Full Text, and click Search.
    

4. If you want to modify an Advanced Search, edit one or more rows in the Advanced Search multibox near the top of the screen.