Easy to remember:
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What Does It Do? |
Search Examples |
| AND |
narrows your search, |
medical care AND ethnic* finds information on medicial care that specifically pertains to ethnicity
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| OR |
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steroids OR anabolic finds information with the word steroids or information with the word anabolic |
| NOT |
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steroid use NOT wrestling finds information on steroid use, but excludes information about wrestling |
2. Use truncation symbols (usually ? or *) in library catalogs and databases to capture all forms of words (ethnic* will retrieve ethnic and ethnicity).
3. Keep searches simple using keywords to capture core ideas. Search on ethics AND medical care AND immigrants rather than: Do immigrant communities receive an adequate standard of health care?
4. Use a variety of search words. (see: Identifying Search Words). Try different searches to find different results:
5. Become a power internet searcher! Use advanced search techniques to get better results from your internet searches
Using the Advanced Search feature in a database allows you to use more than one keyword or phrase (search terms) in order to get more relevant search results. Here's a screenshot from the ProQuest database that explains what I mean:
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| How can you tell the difference between types of periodicals? |
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Popular magazines |
Trade, industry and professional journals |
Journals of commentary and opinion |
Scholarly & research journals |
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AUTHOR |
Usually a staff writer or journalist. Sometimes the author's name is not provided. |
Writers with subject knowledge or practitioners and professionals. |
Great variety: specialists, journalists, organizational members, others. |
Primarily experts, often university researchers, whose credentials are usually included. |
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AUDIENCE |
Written for the "average" person who doesn't have in-depth knowledge of a topic. (popular) |
Multiple levels of readers: general public to practitioners and professionals. (mostly popular) |
General audience, high school and up. (popular) |
Aimed at professionals, researchers, scholars, or others with more in-depth knowledge of the topic. (scholarly) |
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CONTENT |
Entertainment, opinion, current topics, quick facts. |
Trends, forecasts, news and events in the field; products, book reviews, employment, biography. |
Commentary on social and political issues, specific viewpoints, book reviews. |
Research, analysis, scholarship. Often includes abstract, research methods, conclusion, bibliography. |
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LENGTH |
Shorter articles providing broad overviews of topics. (popular) |
Short newsy items to longer, in-depth articles. |
Varies: short, pithy, articles to more in-depth discussion. An issue may be devoted to a particular topic. |
Longer articles providing in-depth analysis of topics. (scholarly) |
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APPEARANCE |
Glossy, color pictures, advertisements. |
Ads related to the field or profession. Charts, tables, illustrations. |
Varies considerably. Some have graphics and advertisements. |
Dense text, usually with graphs and charts, fewer specialized, advertisements. |
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CREDIBILITY |
Articles are generally evaluated by staff editors rather than experts in the field. |
Articles reviewed by editors from professional associations or commercial/trade organizations. |
Publications support a particular viewpoint or specific interest group. Opinionated. |
Articles reviewed by a "jury" of experts--"peer-reviewed" or "refereed"—before publication. |
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EXAMPLES |
People, Essence, Hispanic, Good Housekeeping, Out, Time, Vogue, Sports Illustrated |
RN, Library Journal, Professional Builder, Contractor Magazine, Restaurant Hospitality |
National Review, America, Harper’s, New Republic, Commentary, Progressive, Atlantic |
Journal of American History, Nature, Journal of Business, Lancet, Bioscience |
Adapted from ACC Library Services Libguides.