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Opposing Viewpoints

The database makes it easy to place limits on your search results so that you can zero in on the types and characteristics of articles you need.

By setting limiters before you search, you'll save yourself lots of time, since you won't have to sort through articles that don't fit your requirements in your results list. 

For example, if you're required to use scholarly journals, you can weed out anything that's not a scholarly journal by checking just one box. 

Click on the tabs above to find different ways to limit your search.

he databases contain citations and full-text articles.

A citation is only a little bit of information about the article - the title, author(s), where it was published, and perhaps an abstract (a summary or description of the article). A citation will not give you much information, and it is not acceptable to use just the abstract as a reference source.

Sometimes you can tell based on the article description in your results. Something described as a "brief article" does not contain the full text:

 

 

If you see an article like the example below, you are looking at a citation, not a full-text article:

Therefore, in order to make sure you can read the entire text of articles in your results, you should limit your search to full-text articles. You can do that by using the Advanced Search option to search for articles. 

Click on the Advanced Search link under the main search box at the top right:

 

 

On the Advanced Search page, enter your keywords as usual. Then just check the box for Full Text Documents before you hit Search:

 

 

Remember, if you find an article in the database that does not have the full text included, but you think you'd like to read that article, contact a librarian. We can order it for you - for free - through interlibrary loan.

It's hard to find scholarly journals online, even using Google Scholar, since most journals are not available in full text for free online. Luckily, the library's subscription databases contain thousands of journal titles and millions of individual journal articles.

You can find the scholarly journals a couple of different ways in Opposing Viewpoints. If you browse for a topic, or search using keywords, you can easily pinpoint the journals on your results page. Just click on the Academic Journals link, or on "View All" in the Academic Journals section:

   

You could also limit to Journals if you perform an Advanced Search:

 

 

On the Advanced Search screen, simply check the box for "peer reviewed journals" before you hit Search:

 

 

One of the strengths of databases is that they allow you to set conditions on the characteristics of the articles you want, including document type, publication date, and so much more. 

We call these conditions "limiters," and by setting limiters before you enter your search terms and hit 'Search,' you can save yourself a lot of time sorting through articles that don't fit your requirements. 

Scroll down for an explanation of each limiter you'll find on the Advanced Search screen in Opposing Viewpoints. The sub-pages underneath this tab describe two of the most useful limiters (Full Text and Peer Reviewed Journals) in depth.

To get to the Advanced Search screen, click on the Advanced Search link underneath the search box at the top right of the Opposing Viewpoints homepage:

 

 

 The Advanced Search has three blank fields for entering keywords (more about this on the Basic vs. Advanced Searching page underneath the Advanced Search Tips tab). Underneath those lines, you have several other options to limit your search results:

 

 

1. Full Text

 

Not all articles in the database are available in their full version. Sometimes you get just a citation - a little bit of information about the article, but not the article itself. Check this box to make sure every article in your results list will have the full text attached. 

If you don't check Full Text, you might find a great description of an article, but not the full article. You will need to read the full article for your research, so contact a librarian to find out how you can a copy of the full text (we can often get it from other libraries through interlibrary loan). 

For more information on Full Text, see the sub-page underneath this tab titled "Limit to Full Text."

2. Peer Reviewed Journals

 

There's a good chance your teacher has suggested or required that you use articles published in peer reviewed journals. You might also hear these journals referred to as scholarly journals, academic journals, scientific journals, refereed journals, professional journals, or simply "scholarly sources."

The database makes it easy to limit your results to articles published in scholarly journals. When you check this box, any results published in newspapers, magazines, or other non-journal sources are hidden from your results list, and you're left with just journal articles.

For more information on how scholarly journals are different from popular media sources like magazines and newspapers, check out this slideshow, or take a look at the sub-page underneath this tab titled "Limit to Journals."

 

3. Publication Date

 

This limiter allows you to specify a date range for your search results. You might use this if you are required to use articles published within the last 5 years, or another time limit.

In this case, you can set the first date range to 5 years ago, and leave the second date range alone, since it will always display the current date: 

  

 All your search results will have been published between July 2007 and the present.

 

Or you might use this box if you want to find primary sources, which are usually published at the time an event occurred. For example, if you want to find articles published in the immediate aftermath of 9/11, you could set your date range this way:

 

 With this date range set, all your search results will have been published the week after the events that occurred on September 11, 2001.

4. Document Type


The Document Type limiter lets you specify the type of result you want. You have many choices in this menu. 

Many of these document types you will probably never use. Some of the more helpful ones, though, might be article, book review, or Viewpoint essayIn order to get as wide a variety of sources in your results as possible, though, you should leave this menu alone. 

Simply select the document type you want from the menu and click the Add button. This will keep a running list of document types you select in the box to the right. You can select as many document types as you'd like. 

 

5. Content Type

The Content Type limiter allows you to specify the type of source you want your search results to come from. 

You might use this if your professor only wants you to use published periodical sources, in which case you'd want to select Academic Journals, Magazines, and News

Or if you're looking for a specific kind of media, liek videos or audio clips, you could limit your search that way. 

 

6. Content Level

You might have already seen symbols that describe the difficulty of an article - a green circle for Basic, a yellow square for Intermediate, and a red triangle for Advanced.  Don't let a red triangle scare you off, though! Difficulty is determine by vocabulary and other factors, but it's pretty subjective.

You might use the Content Level limiter if you don't want any Basic content - just check Intermediate and Advanced, and any content described as "Basic" will be removed from your search results. 

 

7. Lexile Range

Lexile Range is similar to the Content Level limiter. Lexile measures are used in schools to match a student's reading level to the difficulty of the text. If you only wanted to find articles within a specific Lexile Range, you could do so with this limiter.

For college students, Lexile Ranges aren't too helpful, so we recommend you do not change anything here.

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