Library Guides: English Language Academy: Databases

Databases

Academic Search Complete
Provides access to full-text journal articles on animal science, criminal justice, education, social sciences, science, and veterinary nursing topics.
eBooks Academic Collection
This multidisciplinary collection includes thousands of e-books covering a large selection of academic subjects and features e-books from leading publishers and university presses.
EBSCO Discovery Service
This tool enables users to search information across multiple research databases, including many resources available at Trout Library, using a single interface. It provides access to full-text journal articles and eBooks, along with links to catalog records for books and eBooks available in the library collection.
ERIC
Provides access to full-text journal articles on education research & related materials.
Full Text Finder
Provides a list of the Library’s print & full-text electronic journal holdings.
Kanopy
Kanopy offers over 30,000 independent and documentary films, including titles of unique social and cultural significance from renowned collections such as The Criterion Collection, The Great Courses, Media Education Foundation, and many independent filmmakers.
The New York Times
Access full-text articles and more from The New York Times.
SIRS Issues Researcher
Provides valuable perspectives on contemporary social issues, offering credible information and tools to help students think critically about global controversies.

Use Keywords

Keywords are descriptive words or important concepts. Search using just keywords rather than full sentences.
Omit words like "the", "a", "are", "it" from the search. Most databases do not search for these words and they can impact the search results.
Identify keywords from your background research.
Brainstorm synonyms for keywords and search all possible concepts.
Look up your keywords in the database Subject Headings or Thesaurus section to determine if you are using the correct phrase or spelling.

Improve Search Results by Connecting Keywords

Use AND to retrieve results with both concepts (mouse AND rat)
Use OR to retrieve either keyword (mouse OR rat)
Use NOT to omit a keyword (mouse NOT rat)
Put quotation marks around phrases to retrieve results with the exact phrase ("mouse and rat")
The asterisk (*) wildcard, also known as the truncation wildcard, is generally used to find word endings. (Metaboli* will find results with metabolism, metabolic, metabolite, metabolites, metabolizing, and metabolically)

Focus Results with Limiters

Full Text will limit results to articles with full text.
Peer Reviewed limits results to articles from peer-reviewed journals.
Scholarly Journals limits results to articles from academic publishers of both "peer-reviewed" and not "peer-reviewed" journals intended for an academic audience.
Date Published can be used to limit results to a specified date range.