Guide no. 49 Ten tips on how to search EBSCO databases Tutorial

Guide no. 49Ten tips on how to search

EBSCO databases

Tutorial

Knowledge is Empowerment

Let’s learn the ten tips in how to search EBSCO databases from Academic Search Premier. The tips can be applied in all EBSCO

databases, with some exceptions (1-7) in Nursing Reference Center database, see tutorial Searching EBSCO Nursing Reference Center-Assessment

Module

6. Select a field– All text– Author– Title– Subject Terms

7. Choose Databases• Business• Health Sciences• Education• Nursing

8. Use of Subject Terms

9. Sign in / Alert / Save – Create your own folders– Save your searches– Save your articles

10. Citations– APA

1. Improving Search Results• Also search for related

words• Also search within full

text• Expanders

2. Limiters• Full Text• Peer Reviewed• Publication Date• Geography• Gender• Age

3. Booleans Operators• And• Or• Not

4. Phrases

5. Stop Words


Let’s review how to access the databases. Select USU Library (1). Click on Online Databases (2), Select “View

Full Text Databases” (3). Select Academic Search Premier (4) and register in EBSCO (5).

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• Ask the USU librarian for• ID & Password. From your USU

• email to [email protected]

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Request your ID & Password from the Librarian [email protected]


Let’s click “help”, then look for the red circle and learn about the first 3 tips: improving search results (1),

Limiters (2) & Boolean Operators (3)

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1. Improving your Search Results

• By marking the "Also search within full text of the article," you will expand the search.

• By marking the "Also search for related words" expander EBSCO's thesaurus will find synonyms, alternate spellings and plurals for your search terms

• Try unmarking one or more limiters. Limiters narrow your result list—depending upon the limiters you've chosen, you may have created too narrow of a search.

• These searches are not designed to yield significant results if you enter long phrases or questions in everyday English


Expanders let you broaden the scope of your search.

• Example: A search for Neoplasm with the Apply Related Words expander applied would also search for Tumor, Tumour, Tumors, Tumor's, Tumours, and Tumour's.


2. EBSCO Limiters

• Full Text – Click to limit results to articles with full text.

• Image Quick View – Click to limit results to articles that contain Image Quick View images available.

• Cover Story – Click to limit results to articles that were featured as cover stories.

• Peer Reviewed – Limits search results to articles from peer-reviewed journals. Peer-reviewed journals are publications that include only those articles that have been reviewed and/or qualified by a selected panel of acknowledged experts in the field of study covered by the journal.

• Date Published – Use this option to search for articles within a specified date range.

• See EBSCO Click “Help”, under “Searching” click Limiters

•


3. EBSCO: Booleans

• And combines search terms so that each search result contains all of the terms. For example, travel and Europe finds articles that contain both travel and Europe.

• Or combines search terms so that each search result contains at least one of the terms. For example, college or university finds results that contain either college or university.

• Not excludes terms so that each search result does not contain any of the terms that follow it. For example, television not cable finds results that contain television but not cable.

And Or NotEach result contains all search terms

Each result contains at least one search term

Results do not contain the specified terms

The search Heart and lung finds items that contain both heart and lung

The search heart or lung finds items that contain either heart or items that contain lung

The search heart not lung finds items that contain heart but do not contain lung.


4. Using Punctuation in EBSCO databases. If you enter phrases with punctuation, the search engine searches for the term both with and without the punctuation.

• For example, if you enter television: talk show, the search engine finds results with television talk-show, television talk show, and if synonyms have been activated, TV talk show.

• If you enter hyphenated words in a search, the search engine automatically searches for the word in both hyphenated and non-hyphenated forms. For example, entering coca-cola will find both Coca Cola and Coca-Cola.


5. Stop words in a Search

• Using Stop Words:articles, pronouns and

prepositions (such as the, for, of and

after)• Stop words are

always ignored, even if they are enclosed in quotation marks.

• For example, if you entered company of America, the search engine would find company of America, company in America, or company for America.

• The stop word or will be replaced with any word. For example if you searched for sink "or" swim, the results could include sink don't swim

• . For example, if you searched for company of the America, the search engine finds any two words in the place of the stop words.


6. Select a field

• Choose the search field from the optional Select a Field drop-down list. For example, search only:

– All text = will look for the term in the title, abstract & text

– Author = will search author’s last name & name

– Title = will search the title of the article or the title of the journal

– Subject Terms = will search the word only in the subject term list


7. Choose Databases: select the databases

related to your information need by clicking on each box.

You can search EBSCO databases simultaneously all in one search.

Click Choose databases•The above example is for searches related to Nursing and Health Science•If the search is related to history, art, literature, science, select Academic Search Premier, it is multidisciplinary and one of the best•If the search is related to education, select Academic Search Premier, ERIC (education database) and PsycArticles•If the search is related to business, select Academic Search Premier, Business Source Elite, PsycArticles & Regional Business News •If the search is related to nursing, select all except business & Regional Business News•If the search is related to business in healthcare, select all, except ERIC.


8. Use of Subject Terms

In order to know the vocabulary used to identify the document, we need to search the

Subject Terms. Click on Subject Terms.

Type your word

or words and click

Browse

Click in the

subject term of

your interest

To learn more about subject terms, please go to tutorial: Research Topics & Terms


9. Sign in, Save and Alert

For more information see tutorials:•Searching Medline Register Ebscohost Alerts•Create Alerts & Files in EBSCOhost

We invite you to use

EBSCO server to

save searches &

create Alerts. You will receive the latest of your topics of interest


10. APA / MLA Citations

Click for Citation

Please add: Retrieved from

Medline with Full Text, EBSCOHost.

For more information see tutorial:

US University Guide to APA Style emphasis in electronic sources


Remember to check SUBJECT TERMS not only

for Academic Search Premier, but for all the

EBSCO databases. Your results will be relevant and VERY

DIFFERENT then just using your own vocabulary.


Let me know if you need assistance

Catalina Lopez

clopez@usuniversity or

(619) 477 6310 Ext 2017

THANKS

Documents

Guide no. 49 Ten tips on how to search EBSCO databases Tutorial