Using the Swilley Library Website to Access Journal Databases

Refresher: How to Find Education Articles

Alternative Sources for Finding Full Text

Using Google Scholar

Verifying the Scholarly Status of a Journal: Ulrich’s Database

APA Format: References Lists and In-Text Citations

RefWorks: Storing & Organizing References, Creating Bibliographies

EDEL 810: Research Methodology

Several Ways to Access Databases

If you know the name of the database you want to use . . .

An Entry Point for Education Resources

http://swilley.mercer.edu

The information on the pages of this siteis organized by topic. I am always eager to hearsuggestions from students about other topics andresources that you would like to see here. Soon I’lladd pages to help you find statistical information,for example. Just let me know what you’d like to see here.

Here’s another entry point for accessing major databases.

The first page within this tab has links to two multidisciplinarydatabases – Research Library at ProQuest and Wilson OmniFile.

A sub-page has links to individual databases from the EBSCOcompany and advice about how to search more than oneEBSCO database at a time.

A Few Quick Reminders About Constructing Searches

The limits you put on a search will determine the value of your results.

I virtually never use this limit.Why wouldn’t I want to knowthe article exists, even if I have todo a little digging for full text?

Broad suggestions for related searchesif this set of results isn’t quite right.

No full text from this database. Click on the iconto see if Swilley Library has this article from adifferent database or perhaps in our print collection.

Good!

Clicking here open this . . .

So – Although full text is not available from the database we weresearching (ProQuest), we can see that a different database does have full text.Now click on the name of the database to drill down for the exact article.

Choose the right year, then the specific issue.

Other databases also provide a link to show whetherSwilley Library has access to the journal you need.

Beyond coverage in one or more databases, we may haveprint issues or microfilm for some years of this journal.

A very useful search function you should know about . . .

You might be pursuing a journal article you saw cited in a bibliography, not a database.

You might be dubious about the accuracy of the link-out system we just saw.

The Find a Journal tab is a reliable way to see if we have access.

Alternative Sources for Finding Full Text

On this page you’ll see a sequence of steps to pursue full text.

Establish a connection for exportingrecords into your RefWorks account.

This offers much greater search precision!

You can use Google Scholar for several purposes:

To search for the full text of a known article;

As a database, to identify articles and books on your subject;

To identify other works that cite a particular article or book;

To find other articles that may be similar in their focus;

To find (sometimes) a DOI if you open the record for an article.

This Article

doi: 10.1177/0895904803017003002 Educational Policy July 2003 vol. 17 no. 3 317-342

Clicking on the title of the article opens the “record” from the publisher.Look around the record . . . it may be small or inconspicuous . . . but you may see . . .

Is (Journal X) Considered “Scholarly”?

If you’re searching an academic database, you can limityour results to scholarly journals by using a checkbox.

However, if you’re pursuing an article you discovered in someother way (such as a bibliography), you need to learn about the journal.

This database … . . . informs you about journals.

There are choices for how you can search for the record of the journal you’re looking for.

This journal: no icon for“Refereed” so we have toconsider that it’s notpeer reviewed.

Click the title for information about the journal.

APA Format: References Lists and In-Text Citations

On this page you’ll see some “general guidelines, ” a link to

a sample APA References list, a reminder about the APA

Publication Manual, and a hint about websites that may help.

One way to know how to format something yourself is tolook closely at a published article in a journal and see howit formats a References list and in-text citations.

RefWorks is web-based software that enables users tosave article records, organize them in folders, andproduce References lists in a variety of citation styles.

It has agood “Help”file too. Youcan searchits index ortry a keywordsearch.

For off-campus access, use the “Group Code” you saw during the class.

Dissertations and Theses (at ProQuest)WorldCat (to identify books on a topic, whether Swilley Library has them or not)

Two more resources you may find valuable . . .

Access them like you would any database:

Thank you for your attention to all you’ve encountered in this presentation.Please feel free to call upon me when I can offer more assistance.

Peter Otto otto_pj@mercer.edu 678.547.6256