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Research Help for PLS-135 & 136

Find magazine & newspaper articles

EBSCOhost Databases - Popular Magazine & Scholarly Journal Articles

EBSCOhost databases - Scholarly and popular articles

Advanced Searching on the New EBSCO User Interfaces - Tutorial, created by EBSCO Tutorials (YouTube video)

JSTOR database- Scholarly Journal Articles

JSTOR isn't Google: Quick tips on searching JSTOR, created by JSTOR (YouTube video)

Access World News database - National & local newspaper articles

Argumentative Databases

The resources in these databases provide pro and con arguments on a wide variety of social issues.

CQ Researcher database

CQ Researcher Tutorial, created by Garnett Library, Missouri State University (YouTube video)

Issues & Controversies database

Issues & Controversies Overview Video, created by Infobase (YouTube video)

Opposing Viewpoints database

Gale In Context: Opposing Viewpoints - Topic Pages, created by Gale (YouTube video)

Research question example:

Why is it important to raise awareness and provide support to veterans who suffer from PTSD?

Primary keywords from research question:

veterans AND ptsd

Other keyword categories to think about:

Geographic region:

Examples: united states, virginia, richmond

Psychology related (psychological well-being, mental illness, treatment):

Examples: mental health, post-traumatic stress disorderservice dogs

Political Science related (government agencies & organizations that provide support)

Examples: department of veterans affairs, national center for ptsd, wounded warrior project, funding, bills, legislation

Using Boolean Operators

Building Search Strings, Part I: Boolean Operators, created by OSLIS Secondary Videos (YouTube video)

More Search Strategies

Boolean Operators/Connectors

AND

Type AND between your keywords to narrow your search. The database or search engine will only retrieve those articles or web pages that contain both words. Using AND will decrease the number or hits or articles or web pages in your result list.

Example: school AND crime

Note: Some databases and search engines (such as Google and Craigslist) allow you to type a plus sign (+) in front of a keyword when doing a basic search. This works the same as AND.

Example: +school +crime

 

Boolean operator venn diagram - school AND crime

OR

OR Type OR between your keywords to broaden your search. The database or search engine will retrieve those articles or web pages that contain at least one of these words. Using OR will increase the number of articles or web pages in your result list (especially if not used in combination with AND or NOT). Use OR between keywords that are synonyms or have similar meanings. Example: baby OR infant

 

Boolean operator venn diagram - baby OR infant

NOT

Type NOT before a keyword to exclude that keyword from your search. Using NOT will decrease the number of articles or web pages in your result list. The best use of NOT is when you are searching for a keyword that may have multiple meanings.

Example: bat NOT baseball

 

Boolean operator venn diagram bat NOT baseball

Combining Boolean Operators

Use parentheses ( ) to keep combination searches in order. In the example below, the database or search engine will retrieve articles or web pages that must contain the word law and at least one of the words in parentheses.

Example: (ecstasy OR mdma) AND law

 

Boolean operator venn diagram - law AND (ecstasy OR MDMA)

Truncation

Truncation, also known as stemming, uses a character such as asterisk (*) or question mark (?) at the end of a word, which allows you to search for a root form of a word and pick up any ending.

Example: typing teen* will find teen, teens, teenage, teenager, teenagers.

Notes:

  • Be careful not to end the stem or root of a word too early to retrieve too many results. Example: typing cat* will find cat, cats, catalog, catastrophe, catsup, etc.
  • Different databases use different symbols to truncate words. However, most of our popular databases, such as our library catalog (QuickSearch), Academic Search Complete and Access World News (NewsBank) use an asterisk (*) as their truncation symbol. If in doubt, check the "Help" screen for the truncation symbol.
  • Some search engines, such as Yahoo! and Google, automatically use truncation without you having to type a truncation symbol.

Wildcard Symbols

Wildcard symbols can be typed in place of a letter or letters within a keyword if you are not sure of the spelling or if there are different forms of the root word.

Example: wom?n will find both women and woman.

Note: Again, check the Help or Tips links available on most library databases and Internet search engines to verify the wildcard symbol that should be used - usually an asterisk (*) or question mark (?)

Exact Phrase Searching

To look for an exact phrase, use quotation marks (" ") around the keywords.

Example: "attention deficit disorder”

Note: this works in most search engines as well. If you type an exact phrase without quotations when doing a basic search, most search engines will look for each word separately. This means your result list will include web pages that not only contain the exact phrase (ex: attention deficit disorder) but also web pages that contain a word or words from the exact phrase appearing separately (ex: attention may appear in one paragraph or sentence and disorder will appear in another paragraph or sentence).

Screenshot of Virginia's Community Colleges login screen

If you click on any Reynolds Libraries database link (including direct links to specific articles, eBooks and videos) from off-campus, you will be prompted with a Virginia's Community Colleges login screen. Use your My Reynolds username & multifactor authentication (MFA) to access any of the library databases from off-campus. 

  1. From the Virginia's Community Colleges login screen, enter your username then click on the Go button.
  2. When prompted, enter your Authorizing PIN number on your mobile phone.

If you cannot login from off campus, email library@reynolds.edu or call 804.523.5211 - or - 523-5220.

ProQuest Central eBooks Note: If you are accessing a ProQuest Central eBook from ON or OFF campus, you will be prompted with a Virginia's Community Colleges login screen. If you are accessing a ProQuest Central eBook from the library catalog, you will also be prompted to select your institution, J. Sargeant Reynolds Community College.