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Academic Search Complete

The databases contain full-text articles and detailed records of the articles. Full-text articles come in either HTML or PDF (scroll down for the difference) and include every word of the article. 

But a detailed record is only a little bit of information about the article - the title, author(s), where it was published, and an abstract. A detailed record only gives you information about the article, it is not a substitute for the article itself. It is not acceptable to use just the abstract as a reference source.

If you are looking at a screen like the example below, you are looking at a detailed record of an article, not a full-text article:

 asc detailed record

 If your article is available in full text, you'll see either an HTML Full Text or PDF Full Text link in the pull down menu under Access Options at the top of the detailed record, under the title, like this one:

asc access options

 If you want to make sure you can read the entire article for all of your search results, limit your search to full-text articles. You can do that before or after you search. We already have the full-text limiter set for you but sometimes it accidentally drops off.

If you want to limit before you search, click on the Full Text box just below the search box:

 

asc full text

 

Or if you forget to check the box before you search, you can limit your results to full text from your list of search results. The checkbox appears at the top of your results:

 

         

Check the box and it will automatically update.

 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.

Online Full Text (HTML) vs. PDF Full Text

Full text comes in two different formats: Online Full Text (HTML) and PDF. Sometimes you'll find an article with both full text formats:

 

 

Click on either the Online Full Text (HTML) or PDF link to open the full text. 

In a PDF, the article appears exactly how it looked in the print publication - as though someone scanned a copy of the article. The text formatting, images, and page numbers will be the same as they appear in the print layout:

 

 However, in the Online Full Text (HTML) view of the same article, only the text of the article is the same. It is like it's copied and pasted on screen, without the formatting and page numbers of the original that the PDF format retains.

 

    It doesn't really matter which format you read: the text of the article is exactly the same, regardless of the format. 

One place where format will make a difference, however, is if you are using MLA format to document your sources.

In MLA parenthetical documentation, the author's name and the page number on which you found your quotation or paraphrase must be noted after your quotation. Here's an example:

The author believes the first sentence of Updike's work is "an ideal evocation of the mundane" (Schwarz 181).

If you have an article in PDF Full Text, you should use the original page numbers of the print publication in your parenthetical documentation (in this example, page 181). If you have an article in Online Full Text (HTML), however, you will not have any page numbers - just a block of text - so you would omit page numbers from your parenthetical documentation:

The author believes the first sentence of Updike's work is "an ideal evocation of the mundane" (Schwarz).

When you search the databases, you can set conditions on the search results you get back, including their length, publication date, format, 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. 

The Advanced Search screen has more limiters than a Basic Search. To get to there, click on the Advanced Search link under the search box:

 

 

Scroll down for an explanation of each limiter you'll find on the Advanced Search screen in Academic Search Complete. 

  

1. Limiting to Full Text is discussed under the Full Text tab above.

2. References Available allows you to limit your search to articles that contain searchable cited references.

3. Limiting to Scholarly/Peer Reviewed is discussed under the Scholarly/Peer Reviewed tab above.

4. Publication date: Use this option to search for articles within a specified date range. Click the radio button next to your choice to activate. 

5. Publication, Publication Type and Document Type: These limiters allow you to search a particular publication, a particular type of publication (journal, magazine, newspaper, conference paper, blog post), or a particular type of document (case study, book chapter, interview, book review).

6. Language: This limiter allows you to search for articles written in a specific language. Language choices range from Afrikaans to Urdu.

7. Number of Pages: This limiter allows you to specify how many pages you'd like the articles in your search results to be. You can specify the exact number of pages (equal to), or you can specify that your article be longer (greater than) or shorter (less than) a certain number of pages. You might use this option if your instructor asks you to use articles longer than 5 pages (greater than 5), or if you want to avoid the articles in the database that are less than one page (greater than 1).

8. Cover Story: Click to limit results to articles that were featured as cover stories.

9. PDF Full Text: Click to limit results to articles that are available in PDF format.

 

Search Options

10. Search Modes: Search modes offer four different ways to conduct a search. You can combine a search mode with expanders, such as “Apply related words,” and filters such as “Full Text” or “Publication Type.”

Search modes:

  • Proximity – Searches for terms in proximity to one another. For example, the search web accessibility gets searched as web N5 accessibility, which means “web” and “accessibility” separated by five words or less, in any order. A record will be returned only if all the words searched are found within the same field, such as title, subject, or abstract. There is no proximity across fields or subfields. This mode also supports Boolean searching when explicit Boolean operators are included between terms.

  • Find all my search terms – Automatically searches with Boolean “AND” between all search terms, for example, the search web accessibility gets searched as web AND accessibility.

  • Find any of my search terms – Automatically searches with Boolean “OR” between all search terms, for example, the search web accessibility gets searched as web OR accessibility.

  • SmartText Searching - You can copy and paste large chunks of text into the search box, for example a paragraph or a page. SmartText Searching technology reduces the text entered to the most important search terms based on term frequency (TF) and inverse document frequency (IDF) calculations of the terms in the query and the databases searched and then creates a weighted Boolean query for search execution.

11. Search Expanders: Expanders let you broaden the scope of your search. They do this by widening your search to include words related to your keywords or including the actual text of the full text results in your search.

Common expanders that can appear below the Refine Search sub-tab include:

  • Apply related words - Select this option to expand results to include true synonyms and plurals of your terms.

    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.

  • Also search within the full text of the articles - Select this option to search for your keywords within the full text of articles, as well as abstract and citation information. This applies only to words not qualified by a field code.

  • Apply equivalent subjects - Select this option to utilize mapped vocabulary terms to add precision to unqualified keyword searches.

Publications Search

12. Publications Search: A publication search is one that gives you access to all available volumes and issues of a selected publication.

Guided Subject Search

How does EBSCO determine subject headings?

EBSCO maintains a Comprehensive Subject Index (CSI) of subject terms, which are applied to all articles indexed by EBSCO.

EBSCO's CSI is an expansion and adaptation of the Library of Congress Subject Headings database. As Library of Congress Subject Headings are created to cover the books received by that library, they describe broad subjects that have been considered at book level. To cover periodical content at an appropriate level of detail, and to cover subjects that may not yet have appeared in books, EBSCO creates additional subject headings that do not appear in the Library of Congress file. A professional team of taxonomists reviews the latest literature, subject-specific glossaries, current events, and other resources to ensure that subject headings are available to cover the wide span of content indexed by EBSCO.

EBSCO’s subject headings are also continuously reviewed to ensure that they follow current usage. Subject headings attempt to convey concepts in natural language wherever possible, with exceptions to prevent ambiguity.

Following Library of Congress practice, EBSCO indexers can expand on headings by applying subdivisions that refer to specific aspects of the topic. Subdivisions are taken from an approved list. For example, the CSI includes the root heading “Newspapers.” When appropriate, we expand on that heading by adding subdivisions to create new headings such as: “Newspapers – Awards,” “Newspapers – Reviews,” or “Newspapers – Taxation.” Thus, more specific headings can be systematically created to completely represent specific content.

Headings for personal names, organizations, and places are created by indexers as they are needed according to standard formats based on the practices of the Library of Congress and the Anglo-American cataloging rules. Headings created by A&I are reviewed weekly by members of the taxonomy team to ensure consistency and avoid duplication of headings.

This video explains some of the main differences between popular media such as newspapers or magazines, and scholarly journals.

For more help, check out this chart from the University of Michigan:

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

Before you search, look right under the search box and click where it says Peer-Reviewed to let the database know you only want to search Peer-Reviewed/Academic/Scholarly articles.

 

 

If you forget this step, you can limit to scholarly journals after you search. At the top of your search results, just under where it shows your search terms, click on Peer Reviewed:

 

asc peer review

 

Many of San Jac's subscription databases, including Academic Search Complete, are provided to us from a company called EBSCO. IN order to maximize your results and efficiency, you may want to search more than one EBSCO database at once.

Once in any of the EBSCO databases, click on the name of the database you are currently searching, right above the search bar:

A window will appear that lists all of the databases we get from EBSCO in alphabetical order. Depending on your topic, some of the other databases will also be appropriate.For example, if you are writing about "bullying in schools," you may want to select the ERIC database, since it contains many education journals. Or if you are writing about health care, you may want to select one of the Health Sciences databases (CINAHL Complete, MEDLINE, Health Sources, etc.).

Select the boxes next to the databases you wish to search and then click on the select button.

 

 

 

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