Using Subject Terms

Databases each have a set of controlled vocabulary they use to organize and search content; they are called Subject Terms. If you can't figure out what keyword will find you articles on your topic, you can search that collection's Subject Terms instead of keywords to find the most relevant articles on a topic. 

• Select Subject Terms (in Academic Search Complete) or the Thesaurus (in ProQuest and browse for the Subject Term used by the database.
• Type in your keyword, click Browse, and then read through the suggested Subject Terms.
• Click on a term for an explanation of what it means.
• Change OR to AND to combine relevant subject terms. I suggest building your search slowly. Start with one Subject Term and refine that search with additional keywords or subjects.

Examples

• As shown in the image below, instead of the common expression "blended families," Academic Search Complete uses the Subject Term: STEPFAMILIES.

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Additionally, the Subject Terms list can also help you identify key subtopics, as in the example below. 

• Click on Subject Terms at the top banner to find the terms used to organize articles on a subject.
• Type in your keyword and click Browse.
• Below your term, you will see a list of subtopics for the subject term.

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• To use Subject Terms in a search, check the box next to a term and click Add if you are in the list of Subject Terms.
• You can change OR to AND to add another subject term.

Be a power researcher!

Full Text

ProQuest, Academic Search Complete, and other research databases include article abstracts and citation information without full text. This is useful to you as a researcher!

You may check the box for Full Text only results, but if you leave it unchecked, you will learn about highly relevant articles that you can track down elsewhere, whether in another GRC database or in WorldCat.

You can borrow articles we do not have in full text for free through Interlibrary Loan.

To track down the full text:

• In your results list, click on Check for Full Text in other sources. That will either:

  • Link directly to the article in another Holman Library database

OR

• Provide a link to InterLibrary Loan. Click on the InterLibrary Loan link to borrow the article from another library. Articles are generally available electronically and they will be emailed to you quickly.

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Citation "Mining"

Effective researchers "mine" or look through the references of a relevant book or article to find additional sources for their own research. This can be a productive technique!

To track down sources from a references list:  

• Type the title of the source into search box of the library's One Search Tool.
• Put the title in "quotes" to keep all the words together. If the title is very long, you might do best with just the first part.
• If we have it, you'll find it easily this way. If we don't have it, you can use InterLibrary to borrow it for free.

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