Using Academic Search Complete Effectively
- Academic Search Complete This link opens in a new windowFull-text access to articles out of academic journals as well as general interest magazines with excellent coverage in a wide variety of disciplines. Watch the How To Use Academic Search Complete video.
1. Type in search term(s) in box(es) near top of search page.
2.Specifically need an academic journal article? Check the box next to Scholarly (Peer Reviewed) Journals under the Limit your results section under the search boxes. See the Why Use Academic Journals box to the left as to why journal articles can be such a useful resource for research.
3. If the results set for your search is large, there are additional options for refining your search on the left side of the results page, such as by Publication Date.
4. Another area of the results page that can be very useful is the Narrow Results by section on the lower left of the page. For instance, the Subject or Subject: Thesaurus Term areas may list other terms related to your topic that may provide more relevant results when searched. Check box(es) next to terms and the result list will update itself to show results with your selected terms. Click on the Show More link, select the box(es) next to the terms you want, then click the Update button to narrow your current results set.
5. One useful way to scan the results for articles more likely to be relevant for your research needs is that if you find a title of an article that sounds promising, move the mouse over the magnifying glass icon just to the right of the article title. A pop-up window will appear with more information about the article including an abstract, a short summary paragraph of what is covered in the article.
6. Icons and/or links for printing, downloading or emailing the full-text of an article as well as a citation tool are located to the right of the full-text page.