Scholarly databases like the ones your library subscribes to work differently than search engines like Google and Yahoo because they offer sophisticated tools and techniques for searching that can improve your results.
Databases may look different but they can all be used in similar ways. Most databases can be searched using keywords or fields. In a keyword search, you want to search for the main concepts or synonyms of your keywords. A field is a specific part of a record in a database. Common fields that can be searched are author, title, subject, or abstract. If you already know the author of a specific article, entering their “Last Name, First Name” in the author field will pull more relevant records than a keyword search. This will ensure all results are articles written by the author and not articles about that author or with that author’s name. For example, a keyword search for “Albert Einstein” will search anywhere in the record for Albert Einstein and reveal 12, 719 results. Instead, a field search for Author: “Einstein, Albert” will show 54 results, all written by Albert Einstein.
Attribution:
Academic Writing I | Lisa Ford, Tompkins Cortland Community College
Self-assess your basic knowledge of using the Western database by searching the following prompt:
Task 1: Find three scholarly articles about the effects of social media on mental health.
Record the title, author(s), journal, and publication year for each article
Task 2: Search for a recent (past 5 years) peer-reviewed study on climate change and its impact on agriculture.
Note the database you used and the keywords you searched. (The next module will provide information regarding using keywords.)
Now, try the tasks again, using a more specific prompt. You can also try to use various databases and analyze the differences in your findings. What do you notice?
