Ecology, Spring 2004
THE BASICS OF SEARCHING FOR JOURNAL ARTICLES
The best way to search for journal articles is with the databases JSTOR or NCLIVE (both of which are also available
through the Shaw library website). These databases have full text
and can be accessed from anywhere on campus, and possibly off campus.
JSTOR:
- JSTOR is nice because it includes full text pdf files and all articles
are actual journal articles (as opposed to magazines, newspapers, journals
from other fields).
- With JSTOR, go to “Search”, then enter search terms and select “Ecology”
for the journal type.
- If your search turns up hundreds of articles, repeat the search making
it more specific or combining terms (using the AND, OR, and NEAR features).
- When you’ve found a reasonable number of articles (<100), scroll
through and find titles that sound interesting or appropriate. To
see the abstract, click “Citation / Abstract.” If the article is appropriate,
you can download the pdf, read it at the computer, or print it.
- If you don’t find enough articles that you like, try another search
with different keywords and/or try NCLIVE.
NCLIVE:
- NCLIVE allows you to limit your search to full text articles.
However, NCLIVE includes both scientific journal articles (which you’re
looking for) and many other types of articles (which cannot be used as sources).
This means you have to figure out whether an article is a scientific journal
article. Generally, scientific journal articles have titles that sound
dry and scientific and report results of research. If you are unsure
whether a particular source or article is acceptable, please email me.
- With NCLIVE, you can either enter your search terms into the EZ Search
box, or you can browse to the Expanded Academic ASAP database (both give
you access to the same articles).
- For EZ Search, enter your search terms in the box. Then
click on “Full Text” next to the InfoTrac OneFile database (the other databases
don’t have many science journals, and have a lot of sources you can’t use).
- If your search turns up hundreds of articles, repeat the search making
it more specific or combining terms (using the “all words,” “any words,”
or “exact phrase” buttons).
- For the Expanded
Academic ASAP database follow the link or, from the main NCLIVE
page, click on the “Browse Resources” tab. Then click on “Not EZ-Searchable.”
Scroll down and click on “Expanded Academic ASAP.”
- Enter your search terms; under “Limit the current search,” select
“to articles with text.”
- If your search turns up hundreds of articles, repeat the search making
it more specific or combining terms (using the words and, or, not (e.g.,
abiotic and biotic, population or community, ecosystem not freshwater).
- With either EZ Search or Expanded Academic ASAP, scroll
through and find titles that sound interesting or appropriate. Click
on the title to see the abstract and full text (which you can read, print,
or email to yourself). You can also mark articles that you want, and
then print or email the entire marked list. Some articles also have
a pdf icon which will take you to a pdf file of the article which can be
read, saved, or printed.
- If you don’t find enough articles that you like, try another search
with different keywords and/or try JSTOR.
Be diligent! When searching for articles,
it can take a long time to find good articles that are related to your topic.
If you’re not finding relevant articles, try adjusting your search terms.
It’s often a good idea to try several different searches.
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