SCOM 1500: Public Speaking: Articles

Steve Rhodes CC-BY-NC-SA

Databases tell you about articles that have appeared in periodicals.

Periodical (n.):
A magazine or journal issued at regular or
stated intervals (usually weekly, monthly, or quarterly).
Source: Oxford English Dictionary

This video includes:

How to complete a search in Academic Search Complete:

• How to understand key parts of an article's record in Academic Search Complete
• How to use subject terms for searching
• What "author-supplied keywords" are
• Why you should use both subject terms and keywords for searching
• How to access articles using the "Find It @ GSU" button, including
  • How to place an Interlibrary Loan request using this button
  • How to use this button to locate other databases with that article

This video includes: 

How to complete a search in Academic Search Complete:

• How to understand key parts of an article's record in Academic Search Complete
• How to use subject terms for searching
• What "author-supplied keywords" are
• Why you should use both subject terms and keywords for searching
• How to access articles using the "Find It @ GSU" button, including
  • How to place an Interlibrary Loan request using this button
  • How to use this button to locate other databases with that article

This video includes:

• How to look at references in an article to find more articles
• How to use Advanced Discover to look up an article in a reference
• What "Times cited in database means"
• How to use Google Scholar to find articles that cite a particular article

Note: there was a recording glitch that resulted in a bit of extra video at the end and another glitch when Kaltura refused to edit out the last bit; captions will tell you when the instructional part has ended.

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, influencer* will bring up both "influencer" and "influencers." (You could also use influence* which would bring up "influence" and "influences" as well as "influencer" and "influencers".

Using covid-19 OR coronavirus helps you cover your bases -- the "OR" there mean that you're asking for articles that use any of the terms linked by the "ors" (depending on the intent, an article might exclusively use one term or the other term -- linking the search terms with "OR" means you'll get articles that use either term).

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A database's Advanced Search option will also let you limit your search in a number of ways, including:

• Limit by year of publication (helpful if you need the most current scholarship/literature)
• Limit to scholarly/peer-reviewed articles (this is often just a box you can check)
• Limit by language (if you read a particular language or languages, you can select those; you can also limit your search to just items in English)

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.

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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.

Communication is interdisciplinary!

Don't forget to check related research guides to find additional databases for your topic. To see all of our databases, use our A-Z list.

   to search names as a phrase | ex: "anderson cooper"

   as a wild card | ex: wom*n

AND between words to NARROW results | ex: media AND healthcare

OR between words to EXPAND results | ex: African American OR Black

These databases focus on specific social-science disciplines. To search more broadly, try the databases in the "Interdisciplinary Articles Databases" box.

You can also use the dropdown "Find by Subject" box in the Articles / Databases tab to identify relevant databases by subject.

Subject-specific research guides can also help you find more databases for your topic.